“Imaginary Landscapes”
This afternoon I was introduced to a new blog set up by a teacher for her students and colleagues and also to a new term “concept scrapbook”.
http://www.mycontextfile.blogspot.com/
In her blog, Mrs H. invites her pupils to explore the various images she has chosen to present on her site and to read the accompanying texts she has composed. She urges others to begin collecting “imaginary landscapes” which interest them. Mrs H’s opening paragraph is both explanatory and invitational:
“Here’s my ’scrapbook’ of images and materials related to the VCE English Context of “Imaginative Landscapes”, along with some thoughts about the materials I’ve chosen to include … I hope this inspires you to start pulling together your own Context Scrapbook, either in hardcopy or online – Mrs H from Waverley Christian College, Victoria”.
I imagine this invitation was also extended in classroom activities and discussion.
My first reaction to the blog was simply to enjoy the incredibly clever visual and multimodal texts featured on the page. I was especially fascinated by the sidewalk chalk creations as they were done by hand. I can’t believe anyone has the talent to compose such intricate 3D images on such a harsh “canvas” with the simplest of materials. Maybe this is one of the connections between landscape and imagination – the idea/dream/illusion far exceeds what can usually be created by man.
This blog is meant to be a showcase for work done by the teacher (as a model for her students) and as venue for generating discussion. I will be following the development of the blog to see whether this written conversation does eventuate, I hope it does!
Teachers writing for their students, with their students and in front of them has interested me since I wrote my diary/story about the 2nd Israel-Lebanon war as an assignment in Graham Parr’s course. At that time I read quite a few articles on whether teachers who write make better literacy / writing teachers – the answers to this question aren’t hard and fast.
For most of my teaching years I have felt very self conscious about my writing skills and until recently hadn’t dared to bring any of my texts to the classroom. I admire Mrs H and her initiative, what better way is there for a teacher to explain what a “context scrapbook” is and to set her pupils off exploring landscapes of their own?
In chapter 1 of ”Learning how to teach writing”, Atwell (1998) writes about the importance of presenting her own writing in the classroom, she also relates to the difficulty in doing this.
“I have almost overcome my anxiety about revealing to the world how hard and slow writing is for me, and how wildly off-base my first attempts can be. I learned that I only have to write a little bit better than my students for them to learn from my demonstrations…I can only become their mentor, someone whose advice carries weight and truth, because I know writing from the inside, and I’ve shown them I do” (p. 26).
Atwell encourages teachers to write composition tasks they give to their students. From my own experience I know that this is the best way of really knowing what I am demanding of my pupils, discovering where different pupils are likely to experience difficulty and determining what kind of instructions and explicit instruction are neccessary. I am sure that Mrs H will be well prepared to support her students in their journey if she maintains her personal blog along the way.
I’ll try my hand too:
An imaginary landscape which accompanies me in my teaching and in my personal life while facing challenges (like now starting my thesis), appears in Dr Seuss’s brilliant book Oh, the places you’ll go!
There are so many inspiring quotes in this little book which can be particularly motivating for students daunted by a big project or challenge. Each page presents a different colourful imaginary landscape as the reader joins the main character who is simply (and cleverly) called “you” on the way to realizing personal aspirations. On You-Tube some of the landscapes have been animated.
Atwell, N. (1998). In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading and learning.Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.
