Thursday, April 24, 2008

Brass Spittoons



Clean the spittoons, boy.
Detroit,
Chicago,
Atlantic City,
Palm Beach.
--------------
Clean the spittoons.
The steam in hotel kitchens,
And the smoke in hotel lobbies,
And the slime in hotel spittoons:
Part of my life.
----------------
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars a day.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars
----------------
Buy shoes for the baby.
House rent to pay.
Gin on Saturday,
Church on Sunday.
---------------
My God!
Babies and gin and church
And women and Sunday
All mixed with dimes and
Dollars and clean spittoons
And house rent to pay.

------------------
Hey, boy!
A bright bowl of brass is beautiful to the Lord.
Bright polished brass like the cymbals
Of King David’s dancers,
Like the wine cups of Solomon.
------------------
Hey, boy!
A clean spittoon on the altar of the Lord.
A clean bright spittoon all newly polished—
At least I can offer that.
Com’mere, boy!

Friday, April 18, 2008

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

This is the poem I was thinking about when watching the video that Ariel and Jen showed last class. When reading Langston's poem there is the idea of the history and pride of black culture, "I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young" and "My soul has grown deep like the rivers" there is a pride and a demand for acknowledgment but it is subtle.Nikki Giovanni"s poetry is not as subtle as Hughes' and in my opinion,loses impact in meaning. When watching the video I was thinking that she had read "The Negro...",obviously,"My oldest daughter is nefertiti" and that it did have an impact on her. When looking for the video on their blog, I read a post that Ariel had posted about the similarities between Hughes and Giovanni,It was great to see that someone was thinking the same thing,yet her interpretation is a bit different than mine.Ariel explains it better than I did. She does focus in on the time frame of both poets and that is something that I had not considered.If Langston was writing today would his writing be more "in your face"? Perhaps because it is not, it is more sophisticated/subtle/makes you think on your own instead of speaking it out for you?I think Nikki is trying to pick up where Langston left off. It is worthwhile to look at Ariel and Jen's blog.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

My Reflection

Working with a difficult text proved to be difficult. The text was dry and at times dragged on like a rusty tire behind a '72 Pinto. I would have put down this book, Not Without Laughter, after the third chapter had it not been for the group dependency on my interaction and the Blog created for the discussion of the book. I found that the discussion between myself, Annie, and Patty was very influencial in my understanding of certain aspects of the book. We each had difficulty, however we also each had a different perspective. It was the diversity of perspective that really furthered my engagement with the book. The exposure to that perspective was made possible through the blog. In literature circles or book group circles the convene to talk about a book after reading it, on the blog we were convening with each other through our immediate responses. Sometimes the blogging would be live, in that I would notice another group member posting at the same time as me. It was quite exciting. The use of hypertext, videos, connecting literature, and photos was highly influential in bringing the text to life.
The lesson plan really took shape after a long time of not knowing what to do. We liked the NCTE ideas on teaching Langston Hughes, however, we felt that the i-quilt idea was innovative and engaging in terms of the poetry. We also felt that using poetry rather than the difficult text would allow students not only to engage in the poetry but the text that requires some sort of introduction. Overall, I feel that our idea is highly developed and will prove to engage students in their learning.

Questions to think about while reading the poem Brass Spittoons

1) What is the main theme of the poem? Who's the speaker? What is the speaker saying?

2) What does the poet suggest by "the steam," " the smoke," and "the slime." Can you explain them?

3) What does Baby, Church or Women mean? What does the poet mean by saying that they 'mixed with money'?

4) Why is a bright, polished bowl like a cups of Solomon’s? What is Solomons? What does this line mean? King Solomon's cups. King Solomon was a great Jewish king, famous for his wisdom and for his wealth. So his cups were probably polished gold or silver, and the polished brass spittoons are being compared to them.

5) What does the last-but-one line mean? "Offer that," What is the 'that'? The speaker can offer the boy a bright bowl or what? Can you explain this line? He can offer his skill to God.

The i-quilt

You will be broken up into seven groups of three. As a group you must decide how to present your stanza on the i-quilt. Keep in mind diction, tempo, rhythm, and the visual; these should all help you to tell the message of your stanza. Feel free to use props and body language, be as creative as you are inspired to be! You will have five minutes to brainstorm and then we will film in order of the poem.


Clean the spittoons, boy.
Detroit,
Chicago,
Atlantic City,
Palm Beach.
--------------
Clean the spittoons.
The steam in hotel kitchens,
And the smoke in hotel lobbies,
And the slime in hotel spittoons:
Part of my life.
----------------
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars a day.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars
----------------
Buy shoes for the baby.
House rent to pay.
Gin on Saturday,
Church on Sunday.
---------------
My God!
Babies and gin and church
And women and Sunday
All mixed with dimes and
Dollars and clean spittoons
And house rent to pay.

------------------
Hey, boy!
A bright bowl of brass is beautiful to the Lord.
Bright polished brass like the cymbals
Of King David’s dancers,
Like the wine cups of Solomon.
------------------
Hey, boy!
A clean spittoon on the altar of the Lord.
A clean bright spittoon all newly polished—
At least I can offer that.
Com’mere, boy!

Brass Spittoons

Brass Spittoons
by Langston Hughes

Clean the spittoons, boy.
Detroit,
Chicago,
Atlantic City,
Palm Beach.
Clean the spittoons.
The steam in hotel kitchens,
And the smoke in hotel lobbies,
And the slime in hotel spittoons:
Part of my life.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars a day.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars
Buy shoes for the baby.
House rent to pay.
Gin on Saturday,
Church on Sunday.
My God!
Babies and gin and church
And women and Sunday
All mixed with dimes and
Dollars and clean spittoons
And house rent to pay.
Hey, boy!
A bright bowl of brass is beautiful to the Lord.
Bright polished brass like the cymbals
Of King David’s dancers,
Like the wine cups of Solomon.
Hey, boy!
A clean spittoon on the altar of the Lord.
A clean bright spittoon all newly polished—
At least I can offer that.
Com’mere, boy!


Langston Hughes, “Brass Spittoons” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes.

See chapter 20 page 208-216
"In the lobby of the Drummer's Hotel there were six large brass spittoons--one in the center of the place, one in each corner, and one near the clerk's desk. It was Sandy's duty to clean these spittoons." (p. 208)

Laughters (From NCTE Book)

Laughters
by Langston Hughes

Dream-singers,
Story-tellers,
Dancers,
Loud laughters in the hands of Fate--
My people.
Dish-washers
Elevator-boys,
Ladies' maids,
Crap-shooters,
Cooks,
Waiters,
Jazzers,
Nurses of babies,
Loaders of ships,
Rounders,
Number writers,
Comedians in vaudeville
And band-men in circuses--
Dream-singers all, --
My People.
Story-tellers all,--
My people.
Dancers--
God! What dancers!
Singers--
God! What singers!
Singers and Dancers
Dancers and laughters
Laughters?
Yes, laughters...laughters...laughters--
Loud-mouthed laughters in the hands
Of fate.

"Hughes gives Sandy that same recognition:

A band of dancers...Black dancers-captured in a white world...Dancers of the spirit, too. Each black dreamer a captured dancer of the spirit...Aunt Hagar's dreams for Sandy dancing far beyond the limitations of their poverty, of their humble station in life, of their dark skins (290).

Hughes makes it clear in his work that music and art and laughter are the salvation of souls and the foundations of cultures." (NCTE Langston Hughes in the Classroom, p. 61-62)

Rythms of the blues

"Some of my earliest attempts at verse-making were creating words in my own mind to the rhythms of the blues." Chapter 1, p. 20
Try to keep this statement by Hughes in mind, while reading his works.

Quilt Project Jump Off

Basic idea behind our lesson plan which was inspired by a class taught by Joel Malley whom I observed at McKinley and from a project done with Keith Hughes. Our lesson is an adaptation of this interview quilt designed to engage students in the wonderful world of poetry. I like the idea of using live blogs to teach during class because the students can see the work that they've done in class and they can continue to interact with the class and the lesson from home, afterschool program or library. Some students can even blog from their phones.
The Interview QuiltDirections: In order to model and use the interview mode as practice, we are going to as a class, build a digital quilt. A Quilt is basically a project in which you devise a framework for a video, perhaps by posing a question, and then the kids films pieces to be woven "into" the video. A great example of a quilt can be seen in one of Joel Malley's class projects, "In Our World Today" Today, I am posing the question, "Should the Government do more to censor music which contains violent or overtly offensive language?" We will divide ourselves into 7 groups, 3 arguing in favor and 3 arguing against . One group will be responsible for creating the opening "host" shot and the "Wrap-up" shot.Guidelines
The "look" of your interview segment, is "Person on the Street", considering these are not "real" interviews, develop your character for your response, make your video stand out.
Frame. Be sure to set up your shot before hand, it is best to try and make your camera dormant, if that is not possible be sure to hold it steady and balanced.
Rule of Thirds. Pay attention to not only setting up your speaker in the right location but what goes on in the other parts of the frame. Try to have a prop, a painting, movement, anything other than white space to fill in the other 60% of your frame.
Sound. Unless you are equipped with a microphone, be sure to have your camera no more than 6 feet away from your speaker. Do a test run and listen to the playback through headphones.
Be sure to create a name for your character and title (Ex-Member of 2 Live Crew)
After you film, you will import your film into your own IMovie. You will edit your clip as to create one ten second clip. Put a subtitle with their name and title, be sure to use the same one we agree to use.
Once your clip is done, you will be moving it to a flash drive and then onto Steve's Computer. To find your clip, you need to control click your Imovie Project File and choose "Show Package Contents". You should find your clip in the MEDIA folder

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Hey Guys....

My email is Pattymongan@hotmail.com we need to discuss!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

I like that Idea Ms Behr (paint)



Pacific Railroad Brass Spitton (above) and a crazy assortment of old western stuff with brass spitton (below).



It really starts out with a vague idea causing the class to prethink on a topic they may not know much about (what's a brass spitton and does it hurt?) and allows them to gain access to any prior knowlegde that may exist in the class. Some adventurous students who are on their computadoras during class may google it but either way, they will use their knowledge as a community to come up with a picture using verbage. Then we can have them fully engaged when we present the rest of our lesson giving Langston Hughes a proppa introduction if you know what I mean (not through Not Without Laughter) .



lesson plan idea?

Ok what if we do this:

We can start the class off by showing them a wierd picture of a spittoon (that doesn't really look like a spittoon) and ask them to describe it using only adjectives. From there we can tell them it's a spittoon, and see what sort of things pop into thier mind (such as ugly, dirty, discusting habbit etc) and most will be bad things, few will see where the pride can be.
Then we can read the poem:
Brass Spittoonsby Langston Hughes
Clean the spittoons, boy.
Detroit,
Chicago,
Atlantic City,
Palm Beach.
Clean the spittoons.
The steam in hotel kitchens,
And the smoke in hotel lobbies,
And the slime in hotel spittoons:Part of my life.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars a day.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars
Buy shoes for the baby.
House rent to pay.
Gin on Saturday,
Church on Sunday.
My God!
Babies and gin and church
And women and Sunday
All mixed with dimes and
Dollars and clean spittoons
And house rent to pay.
Hey, boy!
A bright bowl of brass is beautiful to the Lord.
Bright polished brass like the cymbals
Of King David’s dancers,
Like the wine cups of Solomon.
Hey, boy!
A clean spittoon on the altar of the Lord.
A clean bright spittoon all newly polished—
At least I can offer that.
Com’mere, boy!

And ask everyone how this picture paints the spittoon. It's very different than our usual assumptions about spittoons, becuase this is a lively hood, and the author finds the beauity in that.

Then we can read the part in the book where Sandy is polishing the spittoons and has the same feelings towards spittoons, he takes pride in his work, even if it's "just" polishing spittoons. And we can ask them then what sort of character must he be?


HOW does this sound?

I'm just getting nervous because we have a LOT to do and this should be the least of our worries :)

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

lets get plannin'

Aight, I think we really need to get started on this lesson plan, because I'm so busy I need to be two weeks ahead of my work, so here are my ideas:

i like the idea for sharing what "folk" means to people, because everyone loves to talk about themselves. but we need to figure out how to make it relate back to the book, so we could try and come up with two to three generic groups that all "folk" can fit in and then have each student be in that group. from there read a SHORT passage where all the different folk types meet and discuss how much their station in life affects the passage.... this might be too hard.

~ or ~

share one of Hughes other poems, such as the poem that Rob shared on the blog, and then read the corresponding part of the book from Not Without Laughter. We could talk about how Hughes struggle with the prose of this book, but his poetry is SUPER FAB!

i dunno, what do you guys think?

US

When do we teach?