blog, week 2:

Friday March 4, 2011

I do not know that this day went as well as the others. I was caught off guard by the three new students that were sitting in our class and waiting for us when we arrived in the morning. What seemed to be worse was that they were from the tents, and Travis and his group were not very receptive of them, the same way they seemed to keep separate from Bruce the week before. Joe, the older man in the group, was very well mannered and was smarter than I think he likes to give himself credit. Adam was extremely silent and didn't like answering questions. Luis had a hard time reading; I thought it might be a reading problem, but Gabby suggested it might be he needs better glasses. Unfortunately I don't know how to help him with either except to be patient with him.

Steve-o and Victor were rough with each other at one point; in a classroom setting, although funny, is disruptive. I did what I would do in any class - I raised my voice a little and went "Oy" or "now boys." I can't seem to remember. Gabby said something as well, and the two of them just looked at us and stopped. I'm glad they seem to be comfortable, but I was slightly upset that they were already at a point where they were not afraid to be unfocused just the second class in.

We started the class with "The exquisite corpse drinks the new wine" game, the same one we played at the writing workshop with Ken Lamberton. Although it was slightly difficult for them at points and they didn't understand exactly why we were doing it, they said at the end that they really enjoyed it. I felt it was a good segue into the sonnets we read with them. It was an opportunity for them to be a little creative, as well as see that poem writing can be fun at times, even when they don't make sense.

Of the different plays we summarized for the students, it came to an even split between Merchant of Venice and Macbeth that they all wanted to study for the rest of the term. I'm worried that neither will be able to make their way through the education department and into the prison yard. Macbeth's content in general is far too gory and dark-themed to be appropriate for reading. Merchant of Venice, although technically a "comedy," also has the primary issue of "a pound of flesh" in the play's content. Would this also be incapable of making its way past approval? I noticed during "the exquisite corpse" (which we changed it to "the exquisite snail"), I noticed the men picked words like 'stabbed,' ' prison,' 'exploded,' and other violent or malicious words. It wasn't necessarily all of the men that did this, but they were not afraid of using those words or talking about how much prison sucks. Granted, it is a part of their everyday lives, but it is sad how cynical some of them seem to be.

 

Joe Lockard said...

If Luis was the one sitting at the corner of the table, then I believe he has reading problems. He leans close in to the text (maybe there is a vision issue, as Gabby suggests) but the slowness and hesitation of his reading aloud strongly suggest a reading problem. I cannot offer a technical diagnosis, but much of this is related to dyslexia. Perhaps one of the ASU classes we should be offering in the future is remedial reading.

Amy Cheung said...

Yes, I was considering dyslexia, too. The more I listen to him the more he sounds like my brother when he was younger, who also suffers from dyslexia. I know some methods that my brother used when trying to read more fluently, and I might suggest some of these to Luis. I don't want to hurt his pride though or offend him. I'm not going to jump to conclusions. I will see if I can talk to him after class this week and see if there is anything he would like us to help him with.

Joe Lockard said...

Good approach. I am in touch with the graduate director at the Fulton School of Education -- a reading specialist -- about the possibility of using either their own 584 or English 584 to run a remedial reading class next year at Florence State Prison. We'll see what is possible.

 

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