Synchronicity

For my memoir unit I've been consulting the experts; in addition to the Kirbys and Jack Gantos, I've been using Ralph Fletcher's How to Write About Your Life and Jerry Spinelli's Knots in My Yo-Yo String. What a funny coincidence that they all have something specific in common besides being good resources: it's the Map Activity.

For the past few years I've been doing my best to incorporate more visual-graphic elements into the writing I ask my students to do, so this activity seemed like a good fit. In addition, I felt like it was age-appropriate and clearly it appealed to different learning styles. The premise is that you draw a rough map of your neighborhood, yard, house, or room, and label it with significant places or events. Then you write about them.

I try to do all the assignments I give my students myself in advance if I can, but in this case, time didn't allow it, even though my lesson plan called for me to model a map, so I had to wing it. Using the white board as my scratch pad, I drew a square representing the house where I lived from the ages of 4 to 10.

What happened next was like magic... as I filled in features of my map, anecdote after anecdote spontaneously sprang to mind. I hit the highlights for the class as I sketched: the neighbor's strawberries my brother and I ate, the creek we weren't allowed to play in but did anyway (until we got caught), our clubhouse in the bushes by the house, the way our street curved downhill making it the perfect sledding slope when it snowed, Dr. Messey's house around the corner where I got my chin stitched up, the 10 puppies our dog had. I could have gone on and on, but the bell stopped me in each class.

It was an amazing exercise, and remarkably, the students found my stories pretty interesting. I just hope that they will be half as inspired as I was when they share their maps tomorrow.

Right Up Until the Alligator Ate his Dog

I've really been enjoying using Jack Gantos's writing in my class this week as a model of memoir, albeit in the fictionalized sense. His website has some great advice for kids and teachers on how to turn their personal experiences into good stories, and he has published some terrific examples, especially in his Jack Henry series. (Here he avoids pulling a James Frey by changing the last names.) I confess to laughing out loud several time while reading Heads and Tails. Gantos is a kind of a kid-friendly (but still edgy) version of David Sedaris or Augusten Burroughs. The kids loved the excerpts, too, and all three copies of the book were checked out of the library the same day we read his work.

Even so (and despite the fact that I knew it was coming), the part where the alligator drags Jack's dog into the canal broke my heart. To me, it was nothing short of tragic. I don't know why it is that some people find the plight of animals equally or more compelling than that of our fellow human beings. Surely it is bound up in our complex connection to nature, a relationship that has only been muddied by our advancements in technology and civilization. Or maybe it's just that pet death is really, really, sad.

Tuesday Night Special

My last cooking job was in the flight kitchen of United Airlines at Dulles Airport. That dates me a bit, because this was back in the day when not only did they actually serve food on planes, but the airlines prepared it themselves.

Twenty years ago, our crew was a very international bunch. In addition to the German chef and his three sous chefs (German, French, and Chinese-American), the lead cook was Thai, his second was Korean, there was an Iraqi, a Jamaican, an Austrian, a Frenchman, a Filipino, two Indonesians (one Balinese and the other Javanese), a guy from El Salvador, and me. I was lucky that the guys took me under their wings, and they taught me to cook not only the dishes on the airline menu, but some of their own recipes as well. Jimmy told me his method for making green Thai curry, start by frying the curry paste until the dog sneezes, and Roger showed me how to cook sauerkraut Alsatian-style, which I am making tonight. The trick is to rinse the sauerkraut well before braising it with onions, garlic, bacon, thyme, juniper berries, white wine, and chicken stock.

Dinner Tonight

There is a version of tomato sauce called Putanesca. It is named after the Italian word for prostitute and so called because the ingredients are what she might happen to have in her refrigerator and pantry... bacon, olives, capers, garlic, anchovies, and hot peppers are added to a can of tomatoes and tossed with pasta to create an instant supper. We should all eat so well after a hard day (or night) at work.

Pat Yourself on the Back

What to write about on a day spent on miscellaneous chores? Maybe just that feeling of accomplishment that goes with taking care of your business. I'll leave it at that, with a sigh.

Don't Stop Believin

We spent some time over our winter break catching up on episodes of Glee. My students love this show, and there are a couple of things that I really like about it, too. The first is that it takes place in a school-- I'm a sucker for any story that is set either in a restaurant or a school, since those have been my own workplaces. Until recently, I felt like both were under-represented on TV, and I'm enjoying their current higher profile.

The other thing I like about Glee is the character development. They started the show with a handful of cookie-cutter stereotypes, and the writers and actors have done an impressive job creating complex characters over the course of the season. Each one of them is deeply flawed, but they all have redeeming qualities, too, and the characters have been allowed to surprise and disappoint us in every episode.

Oh yeah, and they sing and dance. What more could you possibly want?

One Little Word

Over at Two Writing Teachers Ruth and Stacey have been choosing One Little Word for the last several years. The idea is to find a single word that expresses something you will work toward in the coming year.

I think it's a neat concept, and this is the second year that I've asked my students to do this, too. The assignment is for them to choose a word and then write a paragraph explaining why they want more of this in their lives.

Here is their list so far for this year:

A+
Appreciate
Believe
Caring
Change
Cookie
Create
Determination
Difference
Excited!
Focus
Free
Friendship
Fun!!!
Green!
Happiness
Join
Organize
Participation
Patience
Peace
Poetry
Practice
Service
Sing
Sleep
Success
Trust
Try
Violinist
Worldly

Oh, and my word for this year? It would definitely have to be Glee.