How Happy Is The Little Stone
In a blog entry on June 15, 2012, I wrote about how I have used poetry in staff development for teachers. This entry includes another example.
First, in earlier faculty meetings, we included reviews of high-yield teaching strategies, elements of engaging lessons, features of “brain friendly” lessons, and aspects of culturally responsive teaching. The previous examinations emphasized how these four areas contribute to the establishment of a safe classroom environment that allows for risk taking, validation, affirmation, and affiliation (a sense that students’ work is valued and shared).
Following a recap of our earlier work, I then projected a quote from Lawrence Cremin:
Education is “the deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to transmit, evoke, or acquire knowledge, values, attitudes, skills, or sensibilities, as well as any learning that results from the effort, direct or indirect, intended or unintended.”
At that point, I conducted a “think-pair-share” and asked each teacher to identify and discuss in pairs the single most important word in the quote. Of course, there could be different possible answers to my question, but after some conversation I told them that in my mind, the key word in the quote is “deliberate.”
Yes, it is true that a person with a natural talent for teaching might be a "good teacher," but by being deliberate with planning, instruction, and assessment – and by being deliberate with high-yield instructional strategies, elements of engaging lessons, features of “brain friendly” lessons, and aspects of culturally responsive teaching – one will become an even better/more effective teacher.
Okay, so here is where the poetry came in:
With that thought in mind (i.e., the deliberate work of a highly effective teacher), I had the teachers work on an activity centered on the poem “How happy is the little stone” by Emily Dickinson:
How happy is the little Stone
That rambles in the Road alone,
And doesn't care about Careers
And Exigencies never fears—
Whose Coat of elemental Brown
A passing Universe put on,
And independent as the Sun
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute Decree
In casual simplicity—
Here are the instructions I gave the teachers:
1. Read the poem and discuss in pairs.
2. Create (in the pair) a "bumper sticker" of exactly 6 words to reflect a main point or theme of the poem.
3. Once your "bumper sticker" is ready, practice a bit of “word association” by posting it by one of four Albert Einstein quotes displayed throughout the room. Post it by the quote which closely relates to the bumper sticker and the theme/idea of the poem. Here are the four quotes:
A. Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
B. We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
C. Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
D. Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Once all the pairs were ready and the bumper stickers were posted around the room, we discussed the poem, the bumper stickers, and the quotes – all centered on "perception" (for at this point, I had also projected a slide of an optical illusion of a man on a horse who appeared to be approaching or leaving a park – it all depended upon how one looked at it). A main point on which we centered our discussion was that teachers could not be like "the little stone"-- i.e., "happy" with the way things are. Instead, they had to be "deliberate" with their approach, with their strategies, and with their positive relationships with their students if they wanted to maximize growth in student achievement.
After all, if a teacher is not deliberate, then he or she might as well just follow the advice of the Cheshire Cat:
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
First, in earlier faculty meetings, we included reviews of high-yield teaching strategies, elements of engaging lessons, features of “brain friendly” lessons, and aspects of culturally responsive teaching. The previous examinations emphasized how these four areas contribute to the establishment of a safe classroom environment that allows for risk taking, validation, affirmation, and affiliation (a sense that students’ work is valued and shared).
Following a recap of our earlier work, I then projected a quote from Lawrence Cremin:
Education is “the deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to transmit, evoke, or acquire knowledge, values, attitudes, skills, or sensibilities, as well as any learning that results from the effort, direct or indirect, intended or unintended.”
At that point, I conducted a “think-pair-share” and asked each teacher to identify and discuss in pairs the single most important word in the quote. Of course, there could be different possible answers to my question, but after some conversation I told them that in my mind, the key word in the quote is “deliberate.”
Yes, it is true that a person with a natural talent for teaching might be a "good teacher," but by being deliberate with planning, instruction, and assessment – and by being deliberate with high-yield instructional strategies, elements of engaging lessons, features of “brain friendly” lessons, and aspects of culturally responsive teaching – one will become an even better/more effective teacher.
Okay, so here is where the poetry came in:
With that thought in mind (i.e., the deliberate work of a highly effective teacher), I had the teachers work on an activity centered on the poem “How happy is the little stone” by Emily Dickinson:
How happy is the little Stone
That rambles in the Road alone,
And doesn't care about Careers
And Exigencies never fears—
Whose Coat of elemental Brown
A passing Universe put on,
And independent as the Sun
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute Decree
In casual simplicity—
Here are the instructions I gave the teachers:
1. Read the poem and discuss in pairs.
2. Create (in the pair) a "bumper sticker" of exactly 6 words to reflect a main point or theme of the poem.
3. Once your "bumper sticker" is ready, practice a bit of “word association” by posting it by one of four Albert Einstein quotes displayed throughout the room. Post it by the quote which closely relates to the bumper sticker and the theme/idea of the poem. Here are the four quotes:
A. Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
B. We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
C. Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.
D. Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Once all the pairs were ready and the bumper stickers were posted around the room, we discussed the poem, the bumper stickers, and the quotes – all centered on "perception" (for at this point, I had also projected a slide of an optical illusion of a man on a horse who appeared to be approaching or leaving a park – it all depended upon how one looked at it). A main point on which we centered our discussion was that teachers could not be like "the little stone"-- i.e., "happy" with the way things are. Instead, they had to be "deliberate" with their approach, with their strategies, and with their positive relationships with their students if they wanted to maximize growth in student achievement.
After all, if a teacher is not deliberate, then he or she might as well just follow the advice of the Cheshire Cat:
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
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