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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