Issue: April 2010

Those "Blank Stares"

By Richard Clift | Published: April 26, 2010

by Mary Starrs Armstrong, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK This Month of Mondays has challenged my thinking about a number of topics. Here are just a few: Engaging Students Nuser1 brought up an idea that may lead to unintended self-censorship: choosing not to teach biography (e.g.) because s/he had a depth of knowledge and background [...]

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Learning about Life through others’ Lives, Part 3

By Richard Clift | Published: April 19, 2010

by Mary Starrs Armstrong, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK This is not the conventional great-teaching-deep-cultural-exploration and learning-Rosenblatt-inspired-response entry. This is a what’s-on-my-mind, I’m-exposing-my-dismal, disappointing-failure entry. Typically, teachers use non fictional texts to explore cultures within and beyond their students’ world, knowing the importance of gaining information as they their develop a global perspective of others [...]

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Learning about Life through others’ Lives, Part 2

By Richard Clift | Published: April 12, 2010

by Mary Starrs Armstrong, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK Reading biographies, studying the genre while having access to a variety of titles about the same person offers choice as well as opportunities for depth and exploration. Consider Elisabeta, a Mexican American fifth grader who did not see herself as a reader, who expresses surprise at [...]

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Learning about Life through others’ Lives

By Richard Clift | Published: April 5, 2010

by Mary Starrs Armstrong, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK This month I invite you to explore biographies, focusing on personal response and extensions to culture. In what ways can reading biographies, thinking and writing and talking about them inform us about ourselves as well as other cultures? Biographies and autobiography have the unique ability to [...]

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