The Big Fresh from Choice Literacy
March 7, 2009
Sarcasm in Classrooms
One of my most vivid memories from my first year in college is of
walking down the hallway in the dorm, Pink Floyd's album The Wall
blaring from every other open door. Everyone's favorite anthem on
it was "Another Brick in the Wall." These lyrics always jumped out
at me:
No dark sarcasm in the classroom,
teachers leave them kids alone...
I wondered, isn't "dark sarcasm" redundant, since sarcasm by its
nature is dark? Was the lousy grammar ("leave them") a dig at
teachers too? No wonder some students despise teachers - here I
was, eighteen years old, already silently asking about grammatical
errors in rock lyrics!
But I digress...back to today's question. Is sarcasm ever
appropriate in classrooms? This time of year is the mean season
for even the most cheerful educators, with testing stress, budget
worries, and the constant threat of projectile vomiting from this
year's flu model taking its toll. It's no wonder tongues
sometimes get sharp, all in the name of humor and supposed
camaraderie. When I find myself giving a nasty retort to anyone,
it's almost always about something other than the situation at
hand. The same is true with sarcasm in classrooms - it's often a
sign of insecurities about management skills, relationships with
students, or teaching quality.
This week, we've got a few features to get you thinking about
sarcasm in classrooms, plus more as always. Enjoy!
Brenda Power
Editor, Choice Literacy
Free for All
How does sarcasm hurt students? Heather Rader counts the ways in
Sarcasm is a Useful Teaching Tool - NOT. This short article would be a provocative read for a study group or mentor meeting:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/848.cfm
A high school teacher presents an alternative view in Sarcasm and
Teaching: Room for Two? Even if you completely disagree with the
author's opinion, there's priceless humor in the tale of an
overpriced consultant subjecting the whole staff to her warbling of
"Wind Beneath My Wings":
http://tinyurl.com/d6gx6p
If you are looking for a jolt of literacy inspiration and
enthusiasm this time of year, you'll want to check out the Share a
Story/Shape a Future Project. This event is a one-week
collaboration among scores of the most popular literacy bloggers on
the web, and it begins Monday, March 9th. Each day has a different
theme, from reading aloud to selecting texts. Clicking through the
links is a wonderful way to discover some terrific new literature
resources on the web:
http://tinyurl.com/cp76mk
If you could show change and flexibility in a short video, what
would it look like? Kim Cofino, a teacher in Thailand, wanted a short
video on change to share at an elementary staff meeting. She put
out a call for educators across the world to recommend their
favorite videos available online. What followed was a remarkable
response. She's compiled responses here at her blog - most videos
are 2-4 minutes long, the perfect length for kick-starting a
conversation with kids or colleagues about how change is embraced,
mocked, or missed altogether:
http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2009/03/01/worth-watching/
We've posted our full slate of Choice Literacy Workshop summer and
fall events, including new offerings on middle school reading
instruction,word work, nonfiction in the intermediate grades, and
dealing with assessment data. These new topics are in addition to
our popular offerings from last year on CAFE assessment, struggling
readers, literacy coaching, and the literacy principal in action:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/department22.cfm
For Members Only
Before we get to this week's slate of premium content, we've got a
special announcement. We've launched a new tool for members on the
site we're sure you're going to love.
As the site has grown to over 800 print and video features, keeping
track of materials has become an issue for many members. "My
Favorites Files" is a widget designed by our software engineers.
This tool allows each member to save articles to read later, write
notes on features, or create individual files of materials around
topics and themes of your choice. We've designed the widget so
that it takes less than a minute to learn how to use it. The brief
tutorial on "My Favorite Files" is available at this link:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/846.cfm
If you're a coach or mentor and you've identified sarcasm as a
problem with a teacher, what's the best way to address the issue?
Heather Rader takes us through a recent coaching cycle where she
gently helped a colleague become more self-reflective about her
language patterns with students:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/847.cfm
In this week's video, Franki Sibberson works with a group of boys
who enjoy sports writing. The small group helps everyone make
connections between the sports writers they enjoy reading and their
own writing drafts in progress:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/772.cfm
Finally, we've posted a new Choice Literacy Cluster on Better
Conferring, with contributions from Ruth Shagoury, "The Sisters"
(Gail Boushey & Joan Moser), Erin Ocon, Katie DiCesare, and Andrea
Smith:
http://www.choiceliteracy.com/members/849.cfm
That's all for this week!
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Jennifer Allen
