We Take A Journey

We Take A Journey

My front door is on North 35th Street and West Hadley Street.

Every week, Mom and I visit the Family Food Market. Every night, we cook our favorite meals.

But tonight, we won’t stay at home. 

Mom takes me to Fryerz for my first Italian Beef Sandwich.

We walk off our big bellies, then refill them with Family Dollar candy. 

The store is loud. Mom sings me lullabies. 

Grandma is home. We stop by for a check up.

We go and play tag on school grounds. Our bellies are still rumbling.

We thank Jesus for each other at Tabernacle Baptist small group. 

The streets come alive. We rest at home.

Just in time for a scoop of Family Food Market’s best ice cream. 

Blogging About My Blog

It's time to recap a semester of blogging. I'll try not to cry.

Creativity: Living Multimodally 

This was a fun brain spasm. The prompt sent me into the long-term memory, where I met a nostalgic montage of past friendships (they moved away...tears) and one iconic music video. I give much credit to my camera roll for this...those photos are iconic. 

Professionalism: Chaotic Writing

Here, I approached the theoretical, academic concept called "writing process" with a fun little blogger voice. It meshed well, I think. Professionalism doesn't mean formal, rather the content's application to teaching and overall depth of thought...I did learn a lot from this reading, about myself and others. 

Civic Engagement: We Are Water Protectors

I'm not sure that you can view my video -- but if the link works, then this is my only post with a video directly attached! We love that. We also love that the video is homemade, culturally relevant, and designed for real-world use. Throw that thing on Reels, I bet it'll get millions of views. 

Multimodal Design: Tutor Mashup

The Jamboard introduction was awesome, and I'm glad I enjoyed the fullness of the software before it's departure (more tears). The hyperlink-per-word ratio stands above it's blog-peers...much of my (professional) digital footprint was available for students. Pictures were my favorite part, though. Look closely -- this blog includes my favorite study bible, the objective best asian cuisine in the midwest, and the worst high school homecoming photo ever taken.

The People's Choice: Jordan Calloway

I didn't look intently at every blog, but when Jordan shared his Canva project with the class I enjoyed the design style. I kept digging, finding another piece, "Reflections And Thoughts Of Our Growing Role." The writing wasn't for anyone, rather he used the assignment to authentically process his learning. He made this space his own; I appreciate that...it's worthwhile to read and consider. Shoutout to Jordan for his work this semester.

We Are Water Protectors

My blog was incredibly fun to make. I remember having this idea on Easter Sunday...I couldn’t articulate it yet, but I had the vision in my brain.

 The multimodal product itself didn’t change how I viewed the topic. However, this one required me to dig through my camera roll, searching for the most beautiful photos of water that I have. I look back now at how many photos of lakes, seas, and oceans that I took, and I think it’s fair to say that I love water. Whether or not I recognize that, I clearly cherish the aesthetic of nature and derive some sort of awe from it. After all, my favorite place in the world is by Lake Winnebago, which washes up so much sentimentality that I ignore its brown-green, unappetizing appearance.

The visuals of water also remind us of how present water is...who can say they don’t value what makes up 70% of the planet’s surface? Not only the quantity, but the form. Water is rain, rivers, plumbing, and vacations. It’s everywhere when we don’t expect it to be.

This multimodal presentation would be ideal for contemporary civic engagement. People love videos, especially reels, and especially ones under fifteen seconds. When participating in activism, virality is a sought-after gemstone. The Gamestop stock takeover was a trend. Asian hate was identified and fought against because it took over social media. Content delivered on the most used platforms is now essential for eective, persuasive civic engagement.

Devloping The Person

I wonder if writing is anything except expressing self. Today's readings highlight young climate activists whose passions have necessitated written communication. They are social media giants, vibrant public speakers, and rhetorical warriors, those who are worlds from classrooms, college tracts, and ACT prep courses. These are not the A+ plus students, rather the desperately committed individuals who've managed to embody intrinsic motivation, rigor, grit, and every other educational concept we pursue so desperately. 

These writers write because they must. They create for progress. 

It's an interesting model, then, which teaches writing as merely a collection of words: essays, paragraphs, or poems. It's an even more interesting model that develops writers for graded assignments within the classroom. No one forced Greta Thunberg to use a convincing hook before introducing evidence...yet she does, because she must.

One summer I watched the entire Crash Course Psychology catalog on Youtube -- taking diligent notes -- because I wanted to be a psychologist. 

The other day, I learned that three men in my church were meeting at 5:00 a.m. to study Greek.

Apparently, a young Kobe Bryant woke up at 4:00 a.m. to practice his craft.

Fully-formed learning is devoted, joyful, rewarding and sprinkled with insanity. 

Developing a writer, then, might actually look like developing the person. Writers are assembly lines and word count codes...in the person we find ample analysis, detailed evidence, and passionate rhetoric, all generated from a passion that makes it necessary. After all, we want this more than we want three pages, double-spaced. 

When writing coaches give feedback, we stimulate their passions, question their motives, push on opinions, and search for the person writing the piece. A person can write anything -- and we'd be smart to give them the space to do it.

These persons do not need standard peer reviews...the angsty circles of vague feedback, misplaced praise, and shameful sharing. What if passionate persons declared their ideas and peers gave critical edits? Until peers are taught that respectful, gentle (emphasis on these two words) criticality is much better for their peers, we might benefit from sending them to Reddit, to mock debates, or to community boards. This is, after all, where revolutionaries find themselves becoming linguistic tacticians. They must as they pursue their cause.

Teachers and writing coaches are still responsible for teaching distinct changes. "I notice that you don't use quotation marks consistently, let's take a look at that." "I wonder if you could place this paragprah before the other...we need the background you provide first." There's going to be glaring errors in writing that peers cannot correct...and a teacher is responsible for dealing in specificity. However, all members of the class can share in 1. honest questioning and 2. adding ideas. Questions foster the critical thinking that persons need to refine and strengthen their own perspective, while ideas bring new information to a developing idea.

Living Multimodally

I guess I've dabbled in the realm of multimodal composition.

In my junior semester at UWM, I worked on the social media team at the University Recreation Department. We worked with CapCut, a video editing software meant for videos on scroll-friendly platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. The purpose was PSA-related marketing for campus events. 

Once, I did contribute to a music video...content that I am intentionally forgetting to hyperlink. A friend in the film program lured me and my former roommate to Lakeshore Park in Milwaukee. We jammed to "the zone" by Lil Yachty, hoping the repetition and vibes would produce some metaphysical revelations for the project. I'm not sure it did. But, we had a fun three hours on the water, trying to sync the nature, beat, props, and actors into a refined product. 

I'd argue that, however ridiculous my examples are, this is absolutely a form of literacy. Writing is much more effective when it leaves the classroom...rain isn't rain until it leaves a cloud and smacks you in the face. Chisholm and Trent remind us that learning requires an active audiences...and common core standards don't really qualify. Writing shines as a critical, engaging, authentic practice. Though writing a script for a marketing reel involves about forty words, those words are presented before a valued market...they better be concise, pointed, and persuasive!

Some have wondered: is this a crutch for the tech-savvy, endlessly tricky social media addicts in our high schools? No...probably not. Are we worried that working with social media -- the same content they already favor -- is a little too applicable? Shouldn't we see this as particularly relevant and practical? Could we benefit from a more asset-minded approach? Additionally, Chisholm and Trent tell us that weaving messages through the constraints, assets, environments, and audiences of a different modalities (music and video, for example) actually extends our comprehension and widens our perspective.  

Civic engagement is also a fruit of curriculum that seeks an authentic, applicable environment. To connect one last time to our course readings, we see Zines as a worthy demonstration of this. Video, images, social media, and artistry are the tools of freedom fighters...free tools for change! Zines are mini novels, made from home, sources of creativity and modern literacy; they are meant for going forth and sharing voices.

Chaotic Writing

I’ve bucked every stage model writing tract I’ve ever received in my life…luckily the Flowers and Hayes piece was a tremendous comfort.

Usually, my thoughts are channeled into some idea, visual, or perspective. Sometimes, I preface an essay by adopting the role of the character that would speak these words. Other times, I visualize myself in a lecture hall, mouthing the words that my fingers type out. Even my college essays begin with brain-vomit, which I scoop and mop into a somewhat-competent, academic-ish paper. My best moments, though, are when my entire paper is imagined as a guiding, inspirational scene (this essay will look something like a villain snowmobiling through the Arctic listening to John Mayer). Any notion of distinct prewriting, writing, and rewriting stages fail at the base of my chaotic mental mountaintop. 

I figured this was foreign to “good” writing practice. But, even if it is to the stage model, it is not to the brain. Flowers and Hayes write, “In the act of writing, people recreate…their own goals in the light of what they learn.” This was incredibly relatable. I don’t enjoy goal-setting. It takes time and forethought, yes, but it also assumes that I have any goals at all. My brain, again, is a landfill. I love the idea of reframing goal-setting as an ongoing process of discovery. As I write, I learn about my own thoughts and perspective. When pen strikes paper, my brain factory flips on. I discover my own knowledge and perspective, then frame it with my prompt, and only after these things are discovered and affirmed can I begin to set working goals.

Flowers and Hayes weren’t only kind to me, though. They exposed my favorite unconscious shortcut: redefining prompts. Directions are clear, but they are filtered through our mind…like sandpaper, we take the main parts, but discard what’s rough. So, when my awesome professor tells me to describe my writing process, show how it differs from novice writers, and explain what it looks like in different mediums, I really hear her asking me to define my own writing process and explain how that shapes me as a teacher. Maybe this is because I read the Flowers and Hayes piece through a teacher’s lens or because I’ve determined that she thinks self-reflection is more important than the multi-modal application. This could be true…or it could be wrong. In my reception of the directions, I’ve made the task fit my understanding, but don’t respond in the most accurate way. I could even miss out on valuable discovery, unavailable to me since I never flipped on a certain switch in the brain factory.

So, how does that differ from novice writers? Well, novice writers might not be unconsciously fluent. It could still take time to type certain words. Maybe, supporting a claim with evidence is still a struggle. When the foundations of the practice are missing, the writing process is a toil toward basic communication standards. A more experienced writer does these things unconsciously. Style, tone, word choice, sentence length, paragraphs, citing sources, and spelling require no thought, freeing their brain up to take on goal-setting, evaluating, and critical thinking. 

This also has implications for education. The mode of communication should not be a barrier for a student's expression. We do not scrap writing, doing a disservice to them and everyone around them. But, we can offer alternative projects! All children are communicators, but not everyone is a writer. Showing their comprehension may be easier in doing a short film, speech, drawing, online graphic, blog, poem, sculpture, social media post, tiktok, interview, or debate. Novice writers can still present detailed, articulate, profound ideas in other mediums. Instead of taking a writer and drilling them until they have mastered the essay, we could allow them to learn writing (and many other things) through interaction with alternative projects.

Tutor Mashup!

 

Hey everyone, 

My name is Collin, and I'm super excited to work with you all! I made a little graphic here, which is graced by photos of my favorite albums, books, memes, meals, and people. What you won't see there is that I'm a third-year English Education student at UWM, I grew up in Neenah, I love playing basketball on campus, music is the coolest thing ever, I'll occasionally play chess with people (I used to be obsessed...), and oatmeal is one of the greatest foods of all time (it's true).

I also have a passion for writing. There's something about sharp, concise, engaging, and persuasive writing that appeals to me. I really started loving writing as a freshman in high school, so I started a sports blog with my friend. Quickly, it became my passion. I joined established websites (Burnt Orange Nation, Prep Hoops, Brew Hoop) and started to actually make money. It was awesome. I was already becoming a sports journalist...which is exactly what I wanted to do as an adult. 

Although my love of sports faded (not completely...but a little) I still wanted to participate in the literacy community. I decided to transition to teaching, and I'm so glad I did! Interacting with students is amazing, so discussing literature and writing with you all should be a blast.