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PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING ADVANCED PDF

313 Pages·2009·1.17 MB·English
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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL Suzanne Rachel Borenzweig Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Francine Hultgren Department of Education Policy Studies This study explores the lived experiences of Advanced Placement English teachers in public school high school. Max van Manen’s methodology for hermeneutic phenomenological research establishes the framework for the inquiry. The writings of Heidegger, Gadamer, and Greene provide philosophical grounding throughout the research process. The work of curricular theorists elucidates possibilities for understanding the experiences of Advanced Placement English teachers, as I address the question: "What is it like to teach Advanced Placement English while caught in the tension between teaching and testing?" Six Advanced Placement teachers engage with the researcher in conversations about being with students in the Advanced Placement English classroom. The teachers also reflect on their practice through a series of shared journal entries. The teachers, five women and one man, range in age from 25 to 45 years, and have between 2 and 10 years experience teaching Advanced Placement English. The phenomenological text constructed from conversations and written reflections brings forth aspects of the experience of dwelling aright in the Zone of Between in AP English teaching: between teaching and testing, high school and college, and childhood and adulthood. The teachers approach their work as master-craftspeople in the classroom-workshop, passing on to their student-apprentices the proper use of tools in the art and craft of reading, writing, thinking, and test-taking in the AP English classroom. As teachers prepare students for the College Board exam, they also embrace, question, and innovate around aspects of the test. The teachers use the exam as a foundation for courage and encouragement, confidence and passion building, and creative ways-of-being with students. The study suggests a need for Advanced Placement teachers to participate in the development of curriculum, to retain the autonomy to teach from the self, and to be trusted to provide students with meaningful experiences in the art and craft of literature study. The study also reveals the importance of widening the narrow definition of student achievement to include more than test scores. Finally, the study recommends an inquiry- based project approach to assessment to expand the notion of teaching with passion for possibility in the Advanced Placement English classroom. PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL By Suzanne Rachel Borenzweig Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2009 Advisory Committee: Professor Francine Hultgren, Advisor and Chair Professor Barbara Bass Professor Steven Selden Professor Wayne Slater Professor Linda Valli © Copyright by Suzanne Rachel Borenzweig 2009 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For opening-the-way to phenomenology and to the things themselves, with patience and com-passion, I thank Francine Hultgren. For being insightful and giving readers, I thank my dissertation committee: Barbara Bass, Steven Selden, Wayne Slater, and Linda Valli. For being passionate teachers and eloquent conversants, I thank Amanda, Amy, James, Katherine, Lisa, and Tina. For being intrepid and generous colleagues, I thank Vic Caroscio, Ginny Macnemar, Jennifer Lloyd, Diane Deming, David Mullaney, and Laura Cocozzella Griffiths. For being supportive and understanding principals, I thank Ed Shirley for the early encouragement, and Sylvia Morrison for seeing me through to the end. For preparing me for my life’s work and for a lifetime of state certification, I thank Ted Sizer, Joe McDonald, and Sharon Lloyd Clark. For leading-the-way, cheer-leading, and all-around good cheer, I thank Linda Massey and Linda DeLaYsla, my sisters-in-dissertation from the varsity squad. For hosting the first reunion of my teaching self and my writing self, I am forever indebted to Myra McLarey and the Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking. For making the green sparks fly, I thank Cynthia Livingston, Larry Hays, and the Bardistas. For being my midwestern homegirls on the eastern homefront, I thank Sandy Laurie and Ele Weiss Donnarumma. For raising-me-up to be a reader and a writer, I thank my parents. For keeping-me- grounded as a writer and a teacher, I thank Debby and Colin. Finally, for the passions, the possibilities, and the wide open spaces, I thank Alex and Nicholas. Same team. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following authors and publishers: “To Look at Any Thing,” from The Living Seed by John Moffitt, Copyright© 1961, 1989. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin; “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” from Collected Poems by James Wright, Copyright© 1971 by James Wright. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press; “The Red Wheelbarrow” from Collected Poems: 1909-1939, Volume I, by William Carlos Williams, Copyright©1938 by New Directions Publishing. Reprinted by permission of New Directions; “Introduction to Poetry” from Sailing Alone Around the Room, by Billy Collins, Copyright©2001 by Random House. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arkansas Press; “Ars Poetica” from Collected Poems 1917-1882, by Archibald iii MacLeish, ©1985. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin; “Sea of Faith” from Sea of Faith by John Brehm, Copyright© 2004 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Reprinted courtesy of The University of Wisconsin Press; “Little Gidding” and “Burnt Norton” from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot, Copyright©1942 and renewed 1970 by Esme Valerie Eliot. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company; “What Have I Learned” and “Axe Handles” from Axe Handles: Poems by Gary Snyder, Copyright© 2005. Reprinted by permission of Counterpoint; 2007 AP English Language and Composition Exam, Copyright© 2008, The College Board. Reproduced with permission. 1994 AP English Literature and Composition: Free-Response Scoring Guide with Multiple-Choice Section, Copyright© 1995/2008, The College Board. Reproduced with permission. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: STANZAS AND SCANTRONS—OPENING SPACES OF PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES.................................................................................... 1 Appreciating “This Stuff”............................................................................................ 1 Turning to the Test ............................................................................................... 3 Turning to the Tension ......................................................................................... 4 The Call of the Horizon ............................................................................................... 6 Finding the Far Horizon ....................................................................................... 6 Advancing Toward the Horizon ........................................................................... 8 Meeting the Horizon of the Other ........................................................................ 9 Defining the Horizon.......................................................................................... 10 Fusing the Horizons............................................................................................ 12 Taking the Big Step ................................................................................................... 12 Stepping Up ........................................................................................................ 13 Stepping in the Right Direction.......................................................................... 14 Teaching the Student Teacher ............................................................................ 15 Taking the AP Challenge.................................................................................... 17 Being Practical: The Writer-Scholar as Teacher ....................................................... 20 Choosing Plan B ................................................................................................. 20 Taking the Road Less Traveled.......................................................................... 21 Teaching with Love and Passion ............................................................................... 23 Testing With Care............................................................................................... 24 A Passion for Choice and Creativity .................................................................. 26 Pedagogical Passion .................................................................................... 27 Textual Passion ........................................................................................... 29 Storying the Phenomenon.......................................................................................... 31 Making Explicit/Seeking Meaning..................................................................... 32 Constructing the Phenomenological Text .......................................................... 33 CHAPTER TWO: DWELLING IN THE TEACHING OF ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH ......................................................................................................................... 36 Making Things Present in Advanced Placement Literature ...................................... 36 Naming World .................................................................................................... 38 Carrying The Things Themselves ...................................................................... 39 Story-Truth and Happening-Truth...................................................................... 40 A Story That Must Be Told ................................................................................ 42 Dwelling in Poetry..................................................................................................... 45 Building Poetic Foundations .............................................................................. 46 Letting-Dwell ..................................................................................................... 47 Not-Letting-Dwell .............................................................................................. 48 Opening Doors to Poetic Dwelling..................................................................... 50 Beside the White Chickens................................................................................. 53 Dwelling Poetically ............................................................................................ 55 Introduction to Ars Poetica................................................................................. 57 Dwelling Aright in the Zone of Between .................................................................. 59 v Dwelling in Art and Play.................................................................................... 60 Ars Poetica.......................................................................................................... 61 AP Literature Teachers as Poetry Guides........................................................... 63 Text and Con-text ............................................................................................... 65 Test and Con-test ................................................................................................ 67 Rangefinding ...................................................................................................... 68 Dwelling in the Art of Translating and Testing......................................................... 69 Questioning the Quest ........................................................................................ 70 Love the Material; Hate the Test ........................................................................ 71 Searching for the Lost Chord ............................................................................. 74 Solving the Riddle .............................................................................................. 77 Form-ing Meaning.............................................................................................. 80 Imping on Easter Wings ..................................................................................... 82 AP Lit Teachers as Translators........................................................................... 85 Pro-test and Revolution in the AP Lit Classroom .............................................. 87 CHAPTER THREE: EXPLORING PHENOMENOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS .............................................................................................................. 90 Going There and Knowing There .............................................................................. 90 Teacher-Researcher as Hermeneut ..................................................................... 91 Teacher-Researcher as Phenomenologist ........................................................... 92 Exploring the Four Corners of the Lifeworld ............................................................ 93 Lived Space ........................................................................................................ 95 The Dispars and The Compars ........................................................................... 96 A Place-Memory ................................................................................................ 98 Lived Body ....................................................................................................... 100 A Bodily Experience ........................................................................................ 102 Lived Time ....................................................................................................... 103 A Timely Experience........................................................................................ 105 Lived Community............................................................................................. 108 Community of Practice..................................................................................... 109 The Call of Central Office................................................................................ 111 Imagination and Empathy................................................................................. 113 Writing My Way Home ........................................................................................... 114 Finding the Original Shell ................................................................................ 115 Homecoming .................................................................................................... 116 Homesteading ................................................................................................... 117 Home Renovation .................................................................................................... 119 The Holy Ghost ................................................................................................ 119 The Duende ...................................................................................................... 121 A Phenomenological Schematic .............................................................................. 124 Critical Sensibility ............................................................................................ 125 Pedagogic Sensibility ....................................................................................... 126 Personal Sensibility .......................................................................................... 128 Phenomenological Construction Plans .................................................................... 129 Thematic Renderings........................................................................................ 132 vi Conversational Relations.................................................................................. 133 CHAPTER FOUR: BETWEEN ART AND CRAFT—TEACHING ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH IN THE CLASSROOM-WORKSHOP ............................... 136 Coming to Craft in the Teaching of Advanced Placement English......................... 136 Madhatter’s Tea Party: Coming Up-on the Guest List..................................... 140 Yearbook Pages: Senior Section ...................................................................... 140 Teaching AP English as Craft .......................................................................... 149 Teaching AP English as Parenting ................................................................... 150 Good Work ....................................................................................................... 152 Home Workshop............................................................................................... 156 Wood Shop ....................................................................................................... 158 To Let-Learn..................................................................................................... 160 A Necessary Home ........................................................................................... 163 Currere in Slow Craft Time ............................................................................. 165 Patience in Slow Craft Time............................................................................. 168 Cool Tools ........................................................................................................ 170 The Proper Use for Several Tools .................................................................... 171 If I Had a Hammer............................................................................................ 174 Building Bildung .............................................................................................. 176 Our Axe Handles, Our-Selves .......................................................................... 181 My Axes ........................................................................................................... 182 How We Go On ................................................................................................ 187 Coming to (Course) Terms ...................................................................................... 189 Paradox in Paradise .......................................................................................... 192 A Really Good Test: Hyperbole or Oxymoron?............................................... 194 Paradox-redux................................................................................................... 198 Coming of Age in the AP English Workshop ......................................................... 203 Joining the Conversation .................................................................................. 205 Advancing Toward Historical Horizons........................................................... 207 Risky Business.................................................................................................. 209 What’s the Matter? ........................................................................................... 211 Innovate and De-liberate .................................................................................. 213 Innovate and Instigate....................................................................................... 214 Innovate and Cultivate...................................................................................... 218 Courage and En-courage-ment ......................................................................... 220 Passion Building............................................................................................... 223 Com-passion Building ...................................................................................... 225 Is This Enough?................................................................................................ 229 Rigor and Vigor................................................................................................ 230 May the Force Be With You ............................................................................ 233 AP English By Numbers .................................................................................. 234 Response-ability and Account-ability .............................................................. 235 Grasping and Letting Go .................................................................................. 239 vii CHAPTER FIVE: CORONATING MAGICAL MINDS IN PASSIONATE PLACES OF HOPE .............................................................................................................................. 243 Locating the Particular Locale................................................................................. 246 Tracing the Royal Bloodlines........................................................................... 248 Synecdoche in the Key of Hope ....................................................................... 249 Same Team ....................................................................................................... 250 Assembling Five Sonnets ................................................................................. 252 Taking Aim for Happiness ............................................................................... 254 Wide Open Spaces............................................................................................ 256 Thinking the World Together........................................................................... 258 Challenging the Challenge Index............................................................................. 261 Catching Up...................................................................................................... 264 Opting Out ........................................................................................................ 267 Healing the Damage Index ............................................................................... 270 Under the Falling Sky....................................................................................... 274 Heads Up!......................................................................................................... 276 Restoring Broken Wholeness .................................................................................. 279 Ulysses Come Home ........................................................................................ 282 Seeking a Newer World.................................................................................... 285 APPENDIX A: “A WHIPPOORWILL IN THE WOODS”........................................... 288 APPENDIX B: PHENOMENOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION ......................................... 291 APPENDIX C: INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE....................................................... 293 APPENDIX D: CONSENT FORM................................................................................ 294 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 297

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