Chicago Reflection

Hay Market

In my undergrad years, one of my literature classes focused on American literature by region asking the question, “how do time and place matter in a story?” The trip to Springfield, Chicago, and Madison reminded of that question. How do time and place matter to a story, a person, a history? Over and over again I saw how landscape shaped the area and the people who lived in those places.
Springfield and New Castle are so proud of their claim on Lincoln. Even though much has changed since the days Lincoln walked the streets and paths of the region, there is a great interest in trying to build back “how it was.” The buildings and furnishings don’t have to be original to get the sense of country to city, from poverty to greatness. I loved the pride of the place. I loved the reverence in which Lincoln was spoken. Walking through the streets of Springfield brought to life Lincoln in a new way for me. It excited my childhood memories of my hero. I’m excited to bring the enthusiasm with me when we read letters from Lincoln and the Gettysburg address.
As we arrived in Chicago, I tried to imagine how Lincoln might have found that experience. Lights on top of lights. Noise. Buildings that block the sky. More than likely, it would have been impossible for a man of Lincoln’s time to imagine how the landscape of Chicago would change in a century. Even for me, I was transfixed by the size and the diversity of the city. Everything was amazing to me. The “L” clacking by through the night. The flat, still lake spread as far as the eye could see. The languages from all countries spoken in the restaurants and on the streets. However, there was one huge similarity between Chicago and Springfield—pride. The city built from ashes. It is no wonder that architecture is celebrated. Building is vital, the lifeblood of the bustling city, something that is still in evidence now.
It is impossible for me to say which aspect of the city that struck me most. The art museum was a dream come true. I’ve wanted to go through the Impressionist collection for as long as I can remember. Walking over the Chicago River was stunning. And I loved seeing the Frank Lloyd Wright House. The most memorable day was the Hull House. I will never forget the power of the young people carrying on Addams’ mission. They are the new revolutionaries changing the world. Going to South Chicago to see the stockyard gate and Pullman was an experience I will always value. I thought it was perfect to have that experience in the rain—a little memory of the miserable conditions in the Jungle. On my own, I took the train to Wrigley Field. All together, I feel like I was given a great feel for how Chicago plays out as “setting.” It is a city of triumph, a city of industry, a city of pride, a city of change, a city of great wealth and power and a city of great poverty and shame. There is a place for activists to make their mark. I’m excited to bring The Jungle into my classroom and teach my students about how Chicago impacted the Pure Food and Drug Act. I’m excited to bring in the poetry of Carl Sandburg and juxtapose city life with our quiet small town life. I’m excited to bring in the work of Jane Addams and show how written work can change the world.
I’m most grateful for the day in Wisconsin, even though, I didn’t fully understand the reason of that leg of the journey until we got there. The university proved to be a setting of learning. I was inspired by the great words and messages we received from the professors excited about their teaching and knowledge. It reminded me why I became a teacher in the first place—to share my passions.
Chicago was a once in life time opportunity for me. I learned so much and saw so many amazing things and met people who inspired me and enriched my life. I can’t even begin to catalogue all that I took away from the ten days. I can’t even pick out a favorite moment. I came away with inspiration and a renewed commitment to what I’m doing in my classroom. I’m excited to teach from primary documents and to teach my students that words and actions make up history. I’m excited to explore how setting impacts words and actions. I’m excited to show how words, stories, ideas written in another time and place still have value to us today.

The Jungle Day

The Stockyard Gate

All week long I’ve been waiting to connect the books we read in class with sites that we visit, so I’ve been very excited about going to Haymarket Square and Packingtown. I knew in theory that the stockyards are gone, but I still wanted to go there. I loved that it rained. I thought it was perfect to be have a little bit of misery. (I need to count the number of times I’ve reminded myself that Jurgis is a fictional character on this trip) but his spirit brought about the rain on this trip. He wanted us to remember the bitterness and cruelty of the weather. Sinclair’s vivid description of mud and muck and the smell was definitely at the stockyard gate.

William J. Adelman was an excellent guide, perhaps the best on the trip. I’ve never met anyone with such a wealth of knowledge of anything as he has of Chicago. I loved his definition of anarchy. I will definitely use his description of the changing definition of the term. Kids today associate anarchy with gangs and bands, but I think it would be interesting to hear what anarchy used to mean. I do believe the connection to peace would be surprising and interesting to kids. Pullman was exciting. I wouldn’t have missed the factory for anything. It really was an amazing piece of architecture with the natural light and warmth. I could picture the workers trodding across the road to the factory and Pullman arriving in his carriage.

The whole day I wondered about teaching “The Jungle” to middle school kids. In my district, sophomores read “Fast Food Nation”–well, Honors English reads Fast Food Nation. However, there is reference to Sinclair and the meat packing industry of Chicago. The book was written nearer to the time when the stockyards where more in the recent past as opposed to the distant past. It is a combination of many things that has brought me to this question–relevance, propaganda, imagery, and setting. Is that book too hard for 8th graders? Can sections be read and still maintain the message of the piece? I have not completely decided, but I think it might be interesting to bring a piece of literature like “The Jungle” into my classroom and tie it into how literature can be revolutionary. I think contemporary examples of literature impacting society aren’t the same as they use to be. Harry Potter is revolutionary, but he isnt exactly changing public laws, nor is Stephanie Meyers. But Sinclair, and Addams were using words to influence people and government. I know my students understand the power of words when they study “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Wouldn’t the Jungle be the same?

I’m uncertain though, but the trip has inspired me to try.

Madison

World War II Survivor

During the long bus ride to Madison one of my friends in Colorado texted me, “What’s in Madison?”
I replied, “Progressive collection.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t make me explain Progressivism in a text.”

Little did I know what a treat the city would be.
First off, it was quiet. No sirens. Nice buildings. Interesting layout of town. And the sun. I wondered if the trip was to prove that sun actually still existed.

The museum was great. True no holograms or Ford Angilias, but it was every bit as educational and interesting. I loved the odd Wisconsin and found something very useful to take back to my WWII unit in conjunction with Anne Frank. I also learned that there were several prisoner of war camps in Wisconsin. I found a book, “Gulag Wisconsin.” This is definitely an area of study I want to know more about. I always try to add what was going on in America during that time period. I know my students would be interested to here about prison camps in our own country.

Also I have mentioned my son’s connection to onions. I sent him the onion photo.

His reply, “What is that.”
Mine: A giant onion.
His: That’s why the caption says giant onion. Missed that. Lol.

The true delight came next. The lectures. There is something wrong with sending 18-22 year old people to college. They are not old enough to appreciate knowledge. Jonathon’s friend and his former professor were truly delightful. I was very interested in hearing about the immigration process. I never really considered that (of course) it has had to evolve over the course of the past few hundred years. And I’ve been thinking about relevance since I read the Jungle. Middle school students sometimes miss relevance. They are social creatures and very selfish. But in some ways that is my job, to make it relevant. I know every year when I start the Anne Frank unit, there are kids who moan and quibble over the fist segment of the diary, but at the end of the unit when we watch the movie, the classes are always completely silent watching the statistics of the Holocaust flash across the screen. There never is a question about why that is still relevant today. I was excited to have a few more pieces to add to that unit. But more than that it made me question how I can bring about more relevance in other areas that I’m teaching. I have to bring excitement, passion, and interest to captivate my students. That’s what the Wisconsin gentlemen reminded me of today.

I can’t be remiss in mentioning how much I envied those college students basking in the sun. Skating off the cement platforms. Reading books sprawled on the green lawns. Listening to music by a beauiful sailboat dotted lake. Do they know how lucky they are to have enthusiastic, amazing smart professors sharing knowledge with them? I wish I could do it over, now that I understand what learning is all about.

Text on the way home.
“How was it?”
“Madison is a very nice place.
Cheese.
Sun.
Water.
Beer.
History.
What’s better?”

Jane Addams inspiring a new generation of revolutionists.

Ryan's Garden

It has taken me a couple of days to process all that I learned at Hull House.  I keep flashing back to my American History class in high school.  My teacher’s name was Jane something or another and she was not what I recall as the most innovating or invigorating teacher in the world.  However, I do remember her speaking of Jane Addams with a kind of pride, like she had a commonality because they shared a first name or something.  Whatever it was, Jane Addams stuck in my memory more than most people I learned about during the teenage haze of information. 

 

One thing that I’ve found a little frustrating in exploring Chicago is the exposure to wealth.  There’s another side of Chicago that we catch glimpses of here and there, but the city has done a wonderful job of hiding the down trodden from the influx of people here to enjoy the rich, glamorous fruits of the city.  I love that Jane Addams recognized the disparity and spent her life trying to make a difference, not from a far, but in the center.

 

Hull House has been the most uplifting experience I’ve had.  First of all, it reinforces what I’ve been thinking about in terms of setting.  Time and place matter.  I appreciate the sense of history that has been preserved, but I appreciate even more that Hull House continues to exist and has inspired a new generation of reformers to take Hull House’s mission in new directions.

 

The young women and men that taught us are revolutionary.  Food justice.  Food deserts.  These are terms I didn’t know.  However, it is something I’ve been thinking about for some time now.  After Ryan showed us his garden in the dripping rain and spoke of medicinal plants, and marigolds and preparing the soil, I wanted to call my son.  Shayne works on an organic vegetable farm at home.  The vegetables are sold wholesale at Whole Foods.  Shayne has the final job in packing hundreds of vegetables—he washes them, trims excess leaves and puts bunches in crates.  Onions go all summer.  One thing I’ve learned about onions is that the smell permeates everything—so not only does my son smell like onions, so does everything he comes in which he contacts.  My son is not doing this job because he is concerned with food deserts.  He is doing it to earn money.  The farm is a family run organization and migrant workers used to harvest the crops, but with new immigration laws the farmer has a hard time keeping local help.  Not because the pay is low, most people don’t know how to stick with a job that is hard, monotonous, and long.  Listening to Ryan opened up something I’ve never thought of before.  Ryan is a young man who knows about farming and is bringing his skills to an urban area to teach others that skill.  Shayne has every bit of that knowledge from working the fields for the past few summers, but he doesn’t see value in at all.  I hope that I can tell him about Ryan and at least offer another viewpoint to the work that he does.  I was struck by how history doesn’t just teach us about the past but offers opportunity for us to take the information and apply the learning to how we live today.

 

Hull House was truly inspiring because the legacy of the past is honored, but channeled into new work.  Those kids carrying on the legacy of Jane Addams are the new revolutionaries.  With my experiences at Hull House, reading the Jane Addams autobiography and the photos I took, I hope to bring into my classroom the remarkable story of an ongoing revolution.

Wright and Innovation

The cold I’ve been fighting off since we left Colorado finally caught up with me.  It’s irritating to feel so lousy in a city I want to enjoy so much.  Going to see Frank Lloyd Wright today was a spectacular experience, rounding out my knowledge of the architect.  As an art history student in college, I learned much about Wright’s structure.  I lacked the personal information and had never been in a dwelling before.  It is totally different to examine architecture in person than it is to see photo images and slide show presentation.  I never really grasped the concept of music and Japanese printing as well as I did today.  The ebb and flow and distinctly Eastern feel to the geometric shapes and attention to landscape.  Because I teach literature and am somewhat more flexible in being able to bring different elements into my classroom than one tied to a timeline of historical events, I could easily imagine teaching students about Wright in my “influential American” biography unit.  He is a perfect complement to how setting effects not just stories, but architecture.  In my own town, there are Wright influenced houses near our school.  It would be great to take a walk and point those features out to students. 

 

The second portion of the day was equally fascinating.  Learning of the Columbian exposition was informative, but I enjoyed the German submarine boat even more.  The Diary of Anne Frank is a big part of my curriculum, which cannot be taught without historical context.  I was able to add a lot of information to that unit today.  I photographed the submarine, and news headlines for a future slide show.  I also found some printed propaganda sources to share with my students. 

 

The Museum of Science and Technology was a worthwhile trip.  It has a history of its own in terms of its significance in Chicago and the world, but it is also an innovative and creative approach to make learning exciting and hands-on.

DBQ’s and Old Town

Chip Brady has designed a product that integrates critical thinking and reading and writing completely.  As I was listening to him present, I was thinking of two things.  One is that writing teachers such as myself should be working more closely with history teachers.  We could be working to a common goal more effectively.  The second was the scaffolding piece.  Brady reminded me of the support that must be given to kids to write successfully.  I think it is overwhelming to have 100 students write a five paragraph essay, especially when spelling is poor, mechanics are ignored, and conventions are foreign comments.  And that isn’t even taking into account original thinking and argument and position.    However, I have experienced teaching students the writing process in ways that works.  Scaffolding is essential.  The simple way it was broken down would be effective for any writing assignment.  However, Brady reminded me that is a process and you have to go slow to go fast.  I plan this year to concentrate more on taking writing to a new level and using the approach of Brady’s might really enhance what students are able to produce.

 

After the presentation, I went on the “old town” walking tour.  The guide was intelligent and well versed on the neighborhood stories and traditions.  I enjoyed seeing how the setting effected the architecture.  The place (located next to a lakefront, in a time of abundant wooden building) really allowed for the tragedy of the great fire to occur.  However, it was remarkable to see how the area was immediately rebuilt.  I liked how the frame houses were lifted and placed upon brick stories.  I also enjoyed walking past the beautiful gardens.  The climate of moisture brings about vegetation that could never be duplicated in the desert where we live.  Again the wealth of the area is evident.  I wondered if the poorer built rebuilt so quickly?

Chicago History

So……I thought yesterday was really great.  I enjoyed the lessons.  Often times I have to attend professional development and get little or nothing out of the sessions.  Not so with the lessons at Chicago History musuems.  I’m looking forward to using those examples with my kids.  I found the historical fiction website to be a powerful tool.  I’d like to use it and can use it.  The beauty and the curse of being a language arts teacher is I can do anything as long as it pertains to reading a nd writing.  I’ve tried to develop my readings and asignments around relevant events in history, so my students connect with the world around them.  The stories on the website will work for this.  However, I did wonder if Colorado had such a site.  Pueblo would make a great subject for this kind of study.  I can imagine, mill stories, and fair stories for a start.  Someone should do this project. 

After the musuem visit, I walked back to our room.  I visited quieter, but still noisier than what I’m used to streets.  I saw many residential apartments and condos and people walking their dogs.  I crossed back onto busier streets with people shooping and taking photos as I’ve been doing.  I went into a store that no one who has ever been hit by financial crisis shops in.  I liked a belt.  It was 636.00.  Who has that kind of money?  These same people walk by the guy on the street corner without socks holding his cardboard sign.  I bought the street magazine.  The wealth and poverty juxtaposed in such extremes continues to bother me.  I don’t know how much of that is in my heart or impelled by Jurgis unable to leave my mind.

Geno’s and guilt.

Fruits of Search for ER lore

Chicago Art Institute

I felt sort of guilty biting into cheesy, spicy pizza when poor Jurgis was out roaming around in the mud and muck looking for a crumb to munch.  Actually, I thought of Jurgis all day.  It’s impossible not to think of him.  Especially when I saw a young man huddled on a bus bench, asleep, dirty, no socks.  Another man, older, lying in the grass at a trash strewn park with his few possessions gathered around him.  The backdrop of apparent wealth juxtaposed with abject poverty is a face that hasn’t changed since Sinclair penned the Jungle.  What must it be like to be surrounded by so much wealth and have so very little of it yourself?  I kept imagining Lincoln striding around New Castle and the streets of Springfield with his purposeful drive to rise in the world.  I wondered how he would have fared in Chicago.  Again, I am reminded of setting. How does time and place affect the characters?  The story?  The outcome of events?

            Setting is something I considered in the museum pieces today.  For some cultures art is utilitarian, it has every day purpose.  For some cultures, art is iconic or symbolic in nature.  Art can convey history, battle scenes, births , deaths, passing of the seasons.  American art mirrors its history.  First it holds true to European roots, but slowly, gradually develops a unique style until it explodes off the canvas, a force to be reckoned.

            I keep asking myself how I’m I going to bring this information into my classroom?  I think I must use the question of setting.  What does setting mean?  How do time and place contribute to the events in a story?  I’d use the paintings I saw today to allow students to study setting in another genre, not just in the written vein.  I think my lesson idea will encompass  the theme of setting; however, I feel like I’m only beginning to imagine the possibilities.

Setting –A time and place for Lincoln

Even though these blogs aren’t supposed to sound like fifteen year old school girls gushing about their adventures, I have to say that spending the day immersed in Lincoln-ness was a dream come true.  I remember checking out a book about Lincoln over and over again in elementary.  It was about the days in the White House told from Tad’s perspective.  I wanted to know everything there was to know about Abraham Lincoln, so being in all those places today was a great experience for me.

 

One thing I really learned today was that we don’t really know what will be important later.  Events unfold, buildings change, cities, grow, people move, and much later, someone says, “Hey, Abraham Lincoln lived here.  Let’s reconstruct it so people can experience it as he did.”  Another important lesson I learned was setting.  I can see how setting inspired Lincoln in his quest as a self-made man.  New Haven offered him opportunities to try his hand at different tasks.  He probably learned valuable lessons about people from interacting with them on different levels—shop owner, postman, river guide, mill worker.  I can see how adaptable and industrious Lincoln must have been to make the transition from New Haven life to Springfield life.  Setting is so important because it serves as the backdrop for events in a lifetime. 

 

I think an important point in teaching kids is to teach the importance of setting and to convey how time and place contribute to events, stories, and history.    For Lincoln, his setting demanded that he be a hardworker, industrious, and willing to adapt and try new things.  Because he was able to utilize the resources in his settings, he was able to learn and grow into the man that he became.  I think that is why there is such an emphasis on recreating Lincoln’s setting as it appeared to be.  Creating the time and place will help others better understand Lincoln. 

 

In teaching, I’d like to draw on the times and places Lincoln experienced and have students explore how setting effected his actions.  Exploring setting in such an  in depth manner, will hopefully transcend to students understanding of setting in general and the role it plays on our actions and beliefs and choices.

An Ordinary Man Becomes Extraordinary

An Ordinary Man Becomes Extraordinary Visiting the Lincoln Presidential Library was one of the most educational experiences I’ve had. The instructor was well versed and engaging and the activities we did were both fun and beneficial. My favorite exercise was looking at the primary documents and coming up with impressions, questions, and statements. Even though it was by chance, I really can’t get the poem out of my head about the abolitionist platform. I never really saw poetry as a way to teach history before. Or never saw poetry as a means to write persuasively. However, the abolitionist peace was so impassioned and eloquent, that it made me ask myself, “Why not teach poetry like this to kids?” Teach it as a means of learning about events. Teach it as an expression of the times. Teach it as a form of persuasion. Another exercise, I will use is the one we did on the Gettysburg Address. I found the cadence of the class reading aloud very powerful. It was almost reverent hearing the last lines spoken by the class. I go over the Gettysburg Address anyway, as it is presented in the text I teach out of, as a piece of poetry. I feel like I have some enriching background knowledge now to make that piece of writing come alive for kids. The museum was an amazing experience, unlike any other museum I’ve visited. I really enjoyed the political cartoon exhibit. My son did a history project on Dr. Seuss recently and he brought home a book, called “Dr. Seuss Goes to War.” It was filled with political cartoons pertaining to World War II. The Lincoln cartoons reminded me of those—unexpected, but vivid and such a clear picture of the time period and trials and tribulations Lincoln endured through his presidency. I would love to have those images—in a book, or a CD. It would be so great to share those images in my classroom. One of my passions as a teacher is to study writing in real life media. Cartoons are a great way to teach kids about history and satire and irony. Speaking of irony, I found myself seeing the irony of Lincoln. We think of him as a man of the people, and admire his modesty. Yet today I couldn’t help be awed by the shear amount of material left behind pertaining to the sixteenth president. It is clear that while Lincoln may of thought of himself as ordinary, he was clearly nothing but extraordinary.