Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12

Touch Base Night at West Po High School is the equivalent of parent conferences speed-dating style. Parents stand in a line in front of their students' teachers and wait their turn for a five minute opportunity to discuss grades, behavior, and attendance. It's a testament to how ridiculous our society has become that many of the parents use the five minutes to haggle with the teachers over a few points here or a few points there. I have so few parents show up for Touch Base that I normally get to read or grade papers during the two hour conference marathon. I decided last night to use the 110 minutes to catch up on my professional development, so I finished reading Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12. This book is by Kelly Gallagher, an English Teacher celebrity! I saw him speak earlier this year, and it was truly humorous how much actual fawning took place around him.

That being said, the man does do everything. After reading his book, I know that he

• Teaches high school English full time
• Teaches at a primarily Latino school
• Runs a faculty book club
• coaches softball for this girls
• reads voraciously on a variety of topics
• writes books - at least three that i know of
• gives presentations and workshops around the country

He is also apparently still successfully married, and this is a feat in and of itself. I can see why people admire him so much. He does seem like a totally regular guy though, and while I thought most of his ideas were stellar, I also found myself disagreeing with him from time to time (and I think that's healthy).

His book has 10 chapters in it, and it is not really a sequel to Reading Reasons, but it is definitely about teaching "challenging texts" as opposed to teaching people how to read. This is an important distinction. Almost all high school teachers are trained to help students access texts well above their grade level, but almost NONE of them are trained to help students learn to read. The course that I teach now is supposed to increase reading level, and I've found that I have no idea how to do that...hence reading this book. I plan to read others as well. If I choose to stay in this line of work, I will also probably want to take a few classes as well.

The first chapter, "Why Reading Is Like Baseball," is Gallagher's metaphor for deeper reading. He explains how many people know the basic rules of baseball, but they do not read the game on a sophisticated level. Since I am not a sports fan, I understood this analogy perfectly. Every time I have ever tried to talk sports with anyone who knew the sport, I have come up woefully lacking in knowledge. The second chapter outlines his method for teaching deeper reading, which includes focusing the reader, helping with effective first-draft reading, deepening comprehension through second-draft reading, making time for collaboration with peers, using metaphor to deepen comprehension, and leading students to meaningful reflection. Each of the next six chapters takes one of those topics and goes into it more deeply. In the interest of space and time, I'm just going to share some of the ideas that were most enlightening to me.

The Indigo King

Incidentally, I also finally finished The Indigo King last night. I started reading this book last month, and put it down when I started The Sandman series. I really, really enjoyed being drawn into a fantasy plot again, and though the plot was often complicated, it was an engrossing read compared with the forced nonfiction I've been battling.

In this book, Jack (C.S. Lewis) and John (J.R.R. Tolkien) meet with their friend Hugo Dyson to investigate a mysterious book delivered to them as Caretakers of the Imaginarium Geographica. The book is dated from the 6th century, but it has modern English writing on it in Dyson's hand. Little of this novel actually takes place in the Archipelago, instead the majority of the action takes place in Albion, the catastrophic "would be" England had Mordred been king rather than Arthur. A poorly educated man named Chaz also replaces Charles as the third Caretaker for the bulk of the novel.

The central question the plot seeks to answer is what is Mordred's (who is also the Winter King - see Here, There Be Dragons) true name. Like Paolini's Inheritance Cycle and other fantasy novels of some note, names are extremely powerful and important. They have the power to bind one to the servitude of another. Aided by the absent Jules Verne, the three men (and two badgers) go through time via a special projector with slides into the past. In the first slide, their mission is complicated considerably by the knowledge that Mordred is one of a pair of twins. They also find out that his other twin is the Cartographer of Lost places. Misguided by this knowledge, their journeys through four more slides encompass their efforts to turn the mapmaker against his brother.

As with the other stories, literary references abound. Mordred and his twin (Merlin) are the sons of Odysseus and Calypso, and their line intertwines with that of Jesus (and his mythical -- perhaps it's all mythical -- children). At one point, Chaz mispronounces the Argo as Aragorn, and anyone who is familiar with The Lord of the Rings will see what Owen is playing with there. A huge portion of the complicated plot is so because of the intricacies of time travel. Owen seems to prefer to blend science fiction with fantasy rather than delineate between the two.

I enjoyed this book, but I have discoverd that it is not a trilogy. Owen can continue to write these books indefinitely (although I imagine he is not a young man). I'm not sure that I will be looking for his next release, but if I find it accidentally in my future book buying ventures, I'll pick it up again.

Cracking the GRE Literature Subject Test

To be fair, I should mention (even though there's a picture) that this book is by The Princeton Review people. :)

I ordered this book yesterday after registering earlier in the week for the April 4th test. I read the entirety of the book, but I did not take the practice exam yet, as reading the book took most of the day (I have a lot of distractions at my place). It was very interesting. I've never used a book to help me study for a test before, and this one really confirmed my suspicions that these books put a lot of emphasis on test taking strategies rather than learning content. However, when one is faced with the whole of Western literature from Beowulf on...

The book is divided into five parts. I read the first three today. The fourth is the practice test, and the fifth is the answer key with explanations. I will take those tomorrow (when I'm fresh--haha), and I'll edit the blog if my opinions change drastically.

I learned in the first part "The Big Picture" that the GRE Literature in English Subject Test is actually designed for students just finishing their undergraduate degree in English. This should be a comforting fact for me, given the fact that I have just finished my Masters degree, but I can't help but feel that there were entire periods of English Literature that I avoided all together. And this is true, but I didn't realize which ones until the third part, so I'll save it. Over all, the test has three types of question (all multiple choice--good news for me as I am not a good writer on tests---maybe I'm never a good writer, but whatever). Only a very few questions are not attached to a passage and are merely identification. There is some grammar on the test, but it's minimal and easy. The three types of questions are standard form, variations on standard form, and super process of elimination questions. It's nice to think of the format that way, as it demystifies the process for people like me who tend to make things harder than they really are.

The second part "Cracking the System" explains how the test is scored. Only 78% of the questions need to be answered correctly to score in the 90th percentile, for example. It also explains their "two pass"system, which involves going through the test at least twice. This second section also emphasizes the limitations the test makers have for creating a test that should conceivably cover what most undergraduates should have learned. Obviously impossible. Anyone who has worked in an English department knows that politics and factions abound, and that they have their effects on reading lists.

The third part contained the actual reading lists. They have an A list, a B list, and a C list. Thankfully I was at least mostly familiar with all the works on all the lists; however, this is where I found my gaps immediately. I know almost nothing about Victorian Literature. Everything after Milton and prior to the Romantics is a big gap for me. It's a mess. I have a lot of surface level reading to do before I go to Winston for the test in six weeks.

I found the summaries of the books I had read to be entertaining. Fun refreshers is what I will call them. I also found the summaries of books I had not read to be very enlightening: I have been reading Pope wrong for YEARS. Haha. Anyway, I will definitely edit to explain how helpful the book was after I take the test and receive my scores. Scores that I hopefully will not need, but alas, that's a blog for another day....

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I took the practice test, and (not that I'm likely to forget this humiliating score) I thought I would post before I forget. I got 83 out of 230 questions wrong! My raw score was 126.25, and my scale score was a 530 (YIKES!). This puts me in the 45th percentile. So, I am dejected, obviously. I am going to try to study for the next six weeks, and this blog will probably turn into a GRE Subject Test review :(. However, if I am not doing considerably better by the end of it, I'll call in sick on test day and choose a new career :).

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Just an update: I did not do much other studying for this test, and I scored in the 81st percentile. :)

The Sandman: Endless Nights (11)

I also finished Endless Nights last night. Two graphic novels in one day! I probably need to get a life, or figure how to get paid to read. :)

Endless Nights is a collection of seven short stories with one short story for each of the Endless. I keep using the horror label for these books, but they've gotten less horrific progressively through the series. However, this book needs another label, and I'm not sure I know what it is. It's a very sexual book. I would normally say "graphic" but since they are graphic novels, that term doesn't seem to apply. Anyway, it's adult fiction.

Death is the focus of the first story, "Death and Venice." It's about a young American who meets Death on an island outside of Venice as a child. When he returns to Venice, he meets her again and travels with her to destroy an enclave of celebrating Venetians who have locked out time for over two hundred years. The man ponders the idea that he has been in love with Death since he first saw her as a child, which seems to be a common theme with Death. She's the cutie that every guy falls in love with. Perhaps if that happened more to Desire, she wouldn't be so bitter. I really liked this story. It was mostly cute, and it seemed like a reasonably favorable depiction of the soldier, despite the fact that he is shown sneaking up on and killing an unarmed man at the end. Life is complicated, and I don't think Gaiman shies away from that fact at all.

The second story, "What I've tasted of Desire," is about a young woman who tames the village playboy. However unrealistic it seems, she manages to fall in love with him after a brief encounter, refuse him for long enough that he wants her, and then marry him. It's pretty impressive. Unfortunately, she does not keep him for long. He leaves on tribe business, and the enemies bring back his head and place it on her table. She is really an impressive figure: she ignores the head and manages to serve the enemies for long enough to wait for her village's men to get back and kill them. I will say that I really think Desire's story is a lot cooler than she is. She is really quite mean, and while I know that the Buddha said that desire was the enemy of nirvana, I just don't think she would be that off putting. Just a theory.

"The Heart of a Star" is the third story, and the story of Dream's first love. In it we see Desire's first attempt to hurt her brother for fun, in which she succeeds amazingly well. Dream is naive and adorable, but he doesn't even come close to Delight. Delight is really cute in this piece. The woman, Killalla of the Glow, is really quite charming until you see how fickle she is. She falls in love with her own sun just moments after she finds out that Dream is in love with her. I felt really, really bad for Dream. I think that can only happen so many times before you swear off for good. It seems Dream's immortality would have been spent much more pleasantly if he had come to my conclusion rather than to keep trying.

"Fifteen Portraits of Despair" was not a story. I have a very obnoxiously structuralist definition of story, and it includes a beginning, a middle, and an end. It may have been poetry. Maybe. I really liked portrait #13 though. It was a test. I think I will take it someday and post it here. It would be interesting to see how I respond to despair.

The fifth story featured Delirium and was as unlike the adorable Delirium that we met as Desire's story was unlike her nasty personality. I'm not sure I said that well, but I know what I mean. In this story, a group of "crazy" people are recruited to help Barnabas and Dream reclaim Delirium who has gone inside herself. Matthew helps too. At least one of the "crazy" girls finds sanity in her efforts. I liked the happy ending, and I liked that the new Dream (Daniel) was helping out with his siblings willingly. Barnabas is a cool dog. I'd like a dog like that, but you have to train it and everything. I just don't know about that.

"On the Peninsula" was a story about an archeolgoical dig of the future. Apparently, Delirium did something that made time do something weird. Destruction was told to look after her. I'm not sure if this story took place after Morpheus's death or before, but I guess it's too much to hope that Destruction returns to his family again, even if he did like the new Dream. I will say that there were some weird wordless panels on page 131 that I wouldn't mind having explained to me.

"Endless Nights" is also NOT a story about Destiny. It's perhaps an illustrated expository essay. I did not feel that it was in any way a satisfactory conclusion. I would have prefered Destiny's "story" came first.

I really enjoyed Endless Nights more than I enjoyed the last three books, I think. It has a simplicity of structure that was found in the earlier books but got slightly lost as the plot thickened. Also, this book could be read at any time. It's not necessary to read Dream's saga first.

The Sandman: The Wake (10)

I finished The Wake just now. Just this second. I have spoken to no one about its contents. This is an instant reaction, a far cry from the last few posts. I wonder what I thought it would be. No, I don't. I know that I thought I would be introduced to the new Dream, but I was not. He is a minor character in these stories. In many ways it seems these are the stories that didn't fit anywhere else. Gaiman writes on the page after the last of the story that he is good at goodbyes. I am not. I am a little confused. I think there is some sort of memory thing I am supposed to be cherishing with the last tale, but all I can think is: he's dead, let him be.
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The story begins with the actual wake for the Dream who has just died: Morpheus. I truly enjoyed Matthew's journey from denial into acceptance. I really identify with Matthew. The new Dream (Daniel) who we meet briefly is actually quite charming. He is very sympathetic, and his sense of duty seems mingled with doing what is right by others. This is a change from the last Dream who did what was his duty, but did not always seem to consider the well-being of the others around him. Only five of the Endless show up for the wake and funeral. Destruction visits Daniel, but he does not visit his siblings. I like him less for that. Mostly I am disappointed that we don't hear what Death says, only that "her words make sense of everything. She gives you peace. She gives you meaning." I want peace and meaning! I feel a little cheated by that. This story/episode/whatever breaks the fourth wall and makes use of the second person. It's rarely done in modern lit, and it's always disconcerting to me. We were all there, supposedly, but I have no memory of it. It's a strange blending of realities.

After the wake and funeral have concluded, we catch up with our friend Hob Gadling. He has found new love and still does not desire death, even though he knows Morhpeus is dead. He is an interesting character. I like him. I like the fact that when he falls asleep he dreams that Dream and Destruction walk with him on a beach. When his girlfriend asks him how the story ends, he says, "Well, there's only one way to end a story, really." I love the contrasting worldviews here. Amidst this great tragedy, someone random tells us the only way to end a story is happily. It's my kind of worldview for sure.

Gadling's story is followed by a weird Chinese one that seems to have happened in the past, but I think Daniel is the Dream rather than Morpheus. You can't really tell from the artwork, but at one point it says, "Flames flicker in the whiteness of his robe," and that sounds like Daniel to me rather than Morpheus. Besides, Daniel gives the man an open invitation, which does not seem like something Morpheus would do. Once rejected, Morpheus seems to be incapable of renewing the offer. Daniel is much more human, as one of the introductions pointed out (not this one because I haven't read it). I think though, that the ability to retain one's humanity once you become a god might diminish with age. Death is very cool, but not everyone can have her upbeat personality. Definitely most people would be jaded by immortality. I think even my boyfriend, but who knows.

The final story returns to Shakespeare, and it is about the writing of The Tempest rather than A Midsummer Night's Dream. We meet Judith and Anne. Anne is horrible, but at one point Judith points out that she was really heartbroken when her husband left for London. She at least allows him to sleep in his house and see his daughter. It is, perhaps, more than I could have done. I can't harbor ill will towards her. Shakespeare is a little whiny in this piece, and I wonder what critics have made of that. He is very concerned with his afterlife in a way that upsets me a little. I guess one of the coolest things about Shakespeare is that we know so damned little about him. We can make him whatever we like. There is also some amazing hubris in the idea that Gaiman's Morpheus inspires Shakespeare. Shakespeare admits to borrowing tales and speeches. Isn't that enough?

I am keenly aware now of the fact that I have finished the series. I felt like I had finished it with Worlds' End. By the time, I got to The Kindly Ones, I had already accepted Dream's death. Now, I feel like I have mourned him and am ready for a new distraction/fascination. As far as book exchanges go though, this one was way more my thing than Stephen King's Dark Tower series, although I enjoyed that too in my own way. I find more and more that reading is a way for me to get through hard times. I know I am probably escaping rather than dealing, but I don't see a need to fight every battle. Lonliness and disappointment need not be thought about so much; there isn't really much one can do about them anyway. Lesson planning is necessary, however, and I must think on that now. :) Blessed with work and blessed with children. That I am.

I forgot to mention that in this book we figure out who Dream has been brooding over! It's Thessaly/Larissa the witch!!! I hate to sound gossipy (kind of), but I just can't believe she's his type. How could he ever be fooled into thinking she had a heart? Okay, I'm done now.