Reading, Living, and Writing Bilingual Poetry As Scholartistry in the Language Arts Classroom 342

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Reading, Living, and Writing Bilingual Poetry as ScholARTistry in the Language Arts Classroom 342

Bilingual Poetry Poetry can be a reﬂective place for bilingual students and their teachers to explore their linguistic and cultural Melisa Cahnmann experiences. I Am From

I am from Mexico I am from Guanajuato I am from my home I am from chicken I am from pizza I am from strawberry cake I am from white rice I am from “limpia tu cuarto” I am from “no vallas” I am from “métate” I am from “vé a la tienda” I am from Mom and Dad I am from Misha I am from Mrs. Lysa I am from my friends. Daniella, 3rd grade, Ms. Aaron

Language arts educators who teach Latino English language learners know that part of our job is to help students learn to distinguish between the vernacular varieties of Spanish (or Mandarin, or Portuguese, or Swahili), English they use at home, and the school varieties of language expected in the classroom and in other professional and institutional contexts. Bilingual or not, language But how many educators learn the ing model” of education, depositing arts teachers know how to teach art of the multiple languages rules for standard language use into students to correct spelling, punctu- spoken by their Latino students? our students’ “accounts.” Seldom do ation, and grammar according to According to Freire (2000), most we learn to listen to the music in prescribed, standard English norms. educators are trained in the “bank- bilingual diction or the creativity of

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Latino students’ sentence structure multiple varieties of English and interviews that have informed my or the content of their spoken and Spanish and the relationship own scholARTistry. Then I propose written words. between language, culture, and reading, writing, and living poetry Daniella’s work is one example of power. ScholARTistry is a hybrid as three scholARTistic approaches how poetry can become a place for practice that combines tools used useful to all English language arts bilingual students and their teachers by the literary, visual, and/or teachers. Bilingual or not, all teach- to explore a wide range of linguistic performing arts with tools used by ers can use poetry as a way to and cultural competencies. As a poet, educator, and scholar in the 343 ﬁeld of bilingual education, I often ScholARTistry is a hybrid practice that combines tools

visit schools to give workshops and used by the literary, visual, and/or performing arts Bilingual Poetry demonstrations on the development with tools used by educators and other social of Latino students’ biliteracy. Increasingly, I use poetry as a scientists to explore the human condition. resource with English language learners. When visiting Daniella’s third-grade class, I gave the “I Am From” writing prompt (Rosaen, educators and other social scientists meaningfully incorporate multicul- 2003) where students, together with to explore the human condition. tural and multilingual resources into their teachers, write four stanzas: Neilsen (2005) addresses three goals their classrooms and lives. of scholARTistry on her Web site: 1. I am from [familiar places] “to make academic writing an area DISCOVERING THE VALUE AND 2. I am from [familiar foods you eat where virtuosity and clarity are val- VALIDITY OF CODE-SWITCHING with your family] ued, to make educational research 3. I am from [familiar sayings or an area where the arts are I wrote “I Am That Good” in expressions you hear at home] legitimate inquiry, and to infuse response to a poetry lesson plan scholarship with the spirit of published on Bill Moyers’s “Fooling 4. I am from [people you love] creative connection.” As a scholar with Words” Web site (Murphy, Daniella is proficient for her age in the field of bilingualism and an 1999). The writing prompt, “Write a and grade level in Spanish and emerging poet, my scholARTistry poem about a cultural encounter English, but she is still learning combines data gathered from open- that led to confusion or blunder and both. She wrote bilingually, includ- ended interviews with bilingual retell it in a conversational voice,” ing her mother’s voice in the third youth with my own experiences as gave me an opportunity to explore stanza: “limpia tu cuarto” (clean a teacher, researcher, and creative the dichotomy between the your room), “no vallas” (don’t go), writer. I have rendered my findings institutionally sanctioned bilingual- “métate” (get inside), and “vé a la on bilingualism and bilingual edu- ism I experienced (developing Span- tienda” (go to the store). In order cation in poetic form, creating lyri- ish in foreign language classrooms for educators to use poetry in the cal portraits of what it means to in high school, college, and abroad) classroom to explore and embrace communicate in more than one cul- and the simultaneous, vernacular the diversity of language and ture and code. varieties of bilingualism developed dialect that Latino students like I begin by sharing a poem that in many bilingual communities in Daniella bring to the classroom, examines how I resolved tensions the U.S., especially among Puerto they need to move beyond their between my language arts training Ricans in Philadelphia, which is the own anxieties about writing poetry. in prestige varieties of Spanish and context for this poem: Poetry and the arts can be English and my gradual I Am That Good important tools for exploring differ- acceptance, appreciation, and use ent linguistic and cultural worlds. of bilingual, vernacular community I can hold my bag in the crook of my My goal as a “scholARTist” norms and identities. This poem elbow, raise brows and in perfect Spanish, tell (Neilsen, 2001) is to use poetry with and others I’ve written about bilin- the vendor to take a hike students and teachers to better gual and bicultural identity are in a way that says if he’ll sell me three understand the experiences of bilin- based on interviews with Latino for that price I’ll return. gual, Latino youth as they negotiate youth. I share excerpts from these LA_March2006.qxd 2/8/06 9:29 AM Page 344

I can sing happy birthday in Spanish and How do you say “hash browns?” Spanish degree in hand, I initially not just “feliz perceived my students’ native lan- In her most perfect, Spanish-accented cumpleaños” but the whole mañanitas English, she said guage use as “broken,” either with a new, long tune “Papas fritas son Frensh fry,” as if she because some parents had limited I now know by heart. were explaining the rules of baseball Spanish literacy or because of wide- I can say no and mean sí and dance all to a Phillies fan. “If das whatchu wan, spread borrowing of English words night with the same chu say ‘hahsh brawn.’” into Spanish or code-switching married, panzón, who buys me drinks between Spanish and English. My 344 and keeps his dirty manitos This poem is based on an actual students mixed English words in off all the wrong places the whole night experience where a Latina waitress Spanish sentences, inventing what

Bilingual Poetry long. in Philadelphia helped me appeared to be a new hybrid understand what Anzaldúa (1987) language that wasn’t one or the I am so good that when I ordered described as a bilingual language other but both. Parquendo la troca breakfast at the Puerto Rican for a bilingual, Latino identity in was a perfectly acceptable way to diner in North Philly, huevos revueltos the U.S.: con papas fritas, I didn’t have to look say you were “parking your truck” at the eggs and hashbrowns translation in South Central, but it wouldn’t For a people who are neither Span- underneath, have held up in my Spanish courses ish nor live in a country in which but I did. in college and would have been Spanish is the ﬁrst language; for a laughed at or misunderstood by The way I laugh at the punchlines on people who live in a country in monolingual Spanish speakers in time and still look at the English which English is the reigning tongue Mexico City. Like many language on the screen’s bottom to see what all but who are not Anglo; for a people arts teachers, I felt an obligation the other monolingual English who cannot entirely identify with to uphold “standard” language pobrecitos are missing, and laugh again. either standard (formal, Castillian) Spanish nor standard English, what So imagine my surprise when my recourse is left to them but to create scrambled eggs arrived I initially perceived my their own language? A language with French fries. 9am and soggy on the which they can connect their identity side students’ native to, one capable of communicating the of my plate like a bad American joke. language use as realities and values true to I didn’t order this, I said in my most themselves—a language with terms “broken.” indignant, perfect that are neither español ni inglés, Spanish. And the waitress made herself but both. (p. 55) larger, her tray like a shield and said that I did. As a college graduate with a degree norms—in this case, those set forth in Spanish and Latin American by the Spanish academy and I pulled out my English weapon and Studies, I was unaware of these assessed in the Spanish version of pointed to the translation. standardized exams my students “I ordered hash browns” I said to this bilingual norms when I was took at the end of the year. What girl, realizing all the times recruited to teach fourth-grade I ordered huevos rancheros and tortilla bilingual education in South Central good was studying subjects in española for breakfast— Los Angeles. I taught English as a Spanish if they used English loan Second Language as well as Span- words like “hahsh brawn” or kept but never in Veracruz, Madrid, or Buenos ish language arts, mathematics, and writing the word for grandmother Aires had I ever said other core content subjects in text- according to their community this American word for breakfast book Spanish. I quickly learned the norms, aguela, instead of the stan- potato. Spanish I’d acquired as a foreign dard spelling, abuela? I shrank to the time when I made my language student at college and as During my years as a bilingual ﬁrst public mistakes an exchange student in Mexico teacher, my students repeatedly with gender, the imperfect. Ashamed, I City, while helpful during the hiring asked to sharpear their pencils took off my costume process, was of much less use when (instead of the “correct”—i.e., stan- of big earrings and pouty lips and asked teaching my fourth graders recently dard form—sacar punta to say in my most innocent, non-native like arrived from Mexico and Central sharpen), despite my corrections. I way: America. went from frustrated to complacent

Language Arts, Vol. 83 No. 4, March 2006 Bilingual Poetry 345 ), the vosotros ILINGUAL Hórale, por dónde B OICES ’ V ? You’re going to the movies? ? You’re TUDENTS ISTENING TO If you’re bilingual and all that or Chi- runs through you, runs cano, it like that’s how It’s like through my body. “ you talk, it’s like, vas L S In a study of Mexican-descent adolescents in Northern California (Cah- nmann, 1999), I interviewed an eighth-grader named Alvaro (pseu- donym) who was fluent in spoken Spanish and English but struggled with English literacy at school. Alvaro proudly described his language as something that “runs an important through my body,” part of his cultural and linguistic identity: doing exactly what I had done when what I had done doing exactly in Salamanca, I lived a summer of the the norms Spain—acquiring I lived in which speech community familiar plural, the (like wanting to be accepted, loved, and wanting to be accepted, Latino students understood by my ScholARTistry and their families? answers to helped me to find the Through many of these questions. interviews with bilingual youth and creative explorations of bilingualism through poetry and research, I acquired strategies for making expressive use of all students’ language resources as well as a greater understanding of many Latino students’ desire to identify with their bilingual vernacular as part of group membership with other bilingual speakers. ideal linguistic bilingual norms the (p. 338) by educators, policy makers, and researchers. policy makers, educators, by The widespread notion that monolingualism is is notion that monolingualism The widespread ideal linguistic condition helps to explain why new condition helps to explain ideal linguistic and mixed linguistic identities are seldom recognized identities are linguistic and mixed The bilingual whole might be more than the sum of two monolingual parts. There has been an overwhelm- ing tendency to treat languages in the bilingual repertoire as if they were separate entities, ignoring the ways in which they can combine to create new forms that are quite dis- tinct from monolingual use in either language. that operate among youth and adults in my school community, sanctioning the contextualized like use of borrowing English words with Spanish grammar (e.g., parquear for “to park”) or the functional alternation between prestige and vernacular varieties of English and Spanish to address different communication needs, abilities, and relationships. to Rampton (1995), the According widespread notion that monolingualism is condition helps to explain why new linguistic identities are and mixed seldom recognized by educators, and researchers: policy makers, easily or adequately translated into translated easily or adequately code. a singular working among Living and U.S., communities in the bilingual see that boundaries I came to often blurred. between codes are was reading poetry, it However, on the bilin- fiction, and research led me to gual experience that truly value the When I used these bilingual norms in the classroom, was I becoming content to speak and model “lazy,” “street Spanish” at school? Or was I ” those what monolin- termina lo (papers) (Latino papelitos, Mi’ijo, Termina lo que Termina ”) when barrio (finish what you’re papelitos that guided my foreign monolingual norms, ” for example, was a Mi’ijo, could be alternatively perceived as a gesture of solidarity or condescension, depending on con- textual variables, including who was speaking what to whom and with what purpose. I began to question my that valued language separation and a one language = one nation = one literacy paradigm. In other words, the bilingual repertoire includes communication resources (such as borrowing, code-switching, and bilingual lexical choices) that communicate meaning, function, and identity in ways that are not working class neighborhood) dic- neighborhood) working class with students tion to communicate “ and their families. reprimanding children as a means to get young people’s attention and show them one meant serious busi- as a partial insider ness. Finally, I and outsider to the community, also learned that using one word in Spanish in the context of an “ English sentence, like que estás haciendo common term of endearment among Spanish speaking households, particularly those of Mexican origin or descent. I learned that bilingual adults often used phrases in Spanish (e.g., “ to finally becoming somewhat pro- becoming somewhat to finally this bilingual variety, ficient in same using this are you doing?” I would say are you doing?” I grader who tenderly to a fourth was throwing out from his desk. “ out from his desk. estás haciendo to have to doing) or you’re going school!” stay with me after on the Rather than relying gual norms language study in high school and college, I was learning to use two codes along with the bilingual norms that operated in the communities where my students lived. “ LA_March2006.qxd 2/8/06 9:29 AM Page 345 Page AM 9:29 2/8/06 LA_March2006.qxd LA_March2006.qxd 2/8/06 9:29 AM Page 346

Invítame, no seas un dummy, you diplomatic, “Don’t get all high class the person and the phenomenal know!” [Hey, where are you going? on me!” instead of the more direct world outside, and of creating imag- You’re going to the movies? Invite translation, which was roughly, inative relationships with these me, don’t be a dummy, you know!] “Don’t act like a little *&#*!”) worlds” (Johnson, 1990, p. 26).

Alvaro demonstrated proficiency When “strong forms” (Baker, 2001) What You Are and pride in his ability to alternate of bilingual education, where between two codes with bilingual students’ native languages are used Between Halloween and Martin Luther peers. While most U.S. Latino com- as a medium of instruction, are not King Day, 346 munity norms operate along a con- available to develop students’ full little Ramona forgot her language, tinua of Spanish-English biliteracy, Latino youth begin to started to leave it at home Bilingual Poetry (Hornberger, 1989), monolingual shift from Spanish to English domi- the day her classmates laughed, the day contexts expect bilinguals to have nance. Ultimately, many Latino stu- she picked up perfectly balanced language sheets dents like Wilma and her peer, Catí, a dirty piece of paper when the teacher really said, in their brains; anything less is describe themselves as limited in “RuhMOhnuh, you dropped your glove.” often mistakenly seen as proof that both their Spanish and English abil- bilingualism is an inferior cognitive ities, because they struggle to read, That’s how it starts, the señoras say. state of being. Research by bilingual write, and speak prestige varieties When a piece of you drops off, and you scholars such as Poplack (2000) and of both languages. While limited pick up something else instead. Zentella (1997) have revealed the confidence and ability in English But nobody gives you that other piece sophistication and skill required to affect school performance, limited back. draw on multiple codes for different abilities in Spanish affect relation- You have to fight for it. Like Ramona’s purposes, depending upon the peo- ships with family members. Catí, a cousin Gloria ple, place, and purpose of an Puerto Rican ninth grader who had who went back to the island when she exchange. Despite these research receptive but not productive was nineteen findings, negative societal attitudes abilities in Spanish, described feel- because she was all-English, and the toward bilingual ways of communi- ings of shame when communicating family said cating persist. Thus, it is not with her family (Cahnmann, 2001): she wasn’t Puerto Rican anymore, like surprising to find that when she always thought she was. bilingual youth are interviewed Yeah, I try [to learn Spanish]. My She was cool and what the f--- man. She about their language abilities, use, Mom will probably write in and even thought and attitudes, their reports are speak it, so I go home and I show you made sancocho from a can! mixed with one part pride and her what it says and then she’ll No way, Gloria says to Ramona. another part shame. make me read it so I’ll understand. Ain’t nobody gonna give you back your My Grandma does the same thing. I In an ethnographic study of Puerto culture don’t go to Puerto Rico until I know Rican ninth graders, another Latina once you leave it lying there like a how to speak Spanish. I can under- student, Wilma, described the con- wrinkled stand whatever they speak but I’m flict she felt between the bilingual piece of paper. You have to put your scared to speak it for the one fact norms she used at home and the name on it. that I [might] say something wrong. monolingual norms she was Purple with plantain stains on your expected to follow at a school fingers. Based on these interviews, I wrote (Cahnmann, 2003). When Wilma Puerto Rican. Puerto Riqueño. If they ask the poem “What You Are” was asked if she knew about code- you, (Cahnmann, 2000) from the switching, she responded: that’s what you are. combined voices of these youth to Oh yeah, Miss. I know a bunch of dramatize the mistrust that can The testimonies from bilingual words like roofo (roof) and parkea occur when Latino students are youth have illustrated to me that (park). One time I was home and my forced to choose between the one’s degree of language expertise mom used parkea and I said, “No, language of school and the is not fixed. Rather, bilingual abili- Mom, it’s estaciona el carro” (Stan- languages of home. Persona poems ties shift according to context, dard Spanish, “park the car”). She are opportunities to articulate interlocutor, and subject. These told me, “No te pongas como another point of view, “a means of youths’ testimonies combined with mierda!” (Wilma translated this as a exploring both the inner world of poetic explorations offer a form of

Language Arts, Vol. 83 No. 4, March 2006 Bilingual Poetry 347 A question Chicanitas sometimes ask A question blue wonder: Why is the sky while others so green? or the grass Why am I so Brown? mi’ja God made you brown, raza color bronce—color of your raices, connecting you to your your story/historia your future. as you begin moving towards mi’ja God made you brown, color bronce, beautiful/strong, reminding you of the goodness de tu mamá, de tus abuelas y tus antepasados. God made you brown, mi’ja to wear as a crown for you are royalty— la raza nueva, a princess, the people of the sun. It is the color of Chicana women— leaders/madres of Chicano warriors luchando por la paz y la dignidad de la justicia de la nación, Aztlán! God wants you to understand . . . brown is not a color . . . it is: a state of being a very human texture alive and full of song, celebrating— dancing to the new world which is for everyone . . . mi’ja Finally, God made you brown because it is one of HER favorite colors! Sanchez Trinidad Why Am I So Brown? Why Am I Poetry from the bilingual and Poetry bidialectal perspective often assumes connections where our culture assumes dichotomies and separation—between English and Spanish, literary and vernacular, public and private. Inviting bilingual language use in the context of reading and writing poetry recognizes the all-too-often hidden resources of with this students. When I worked multilingual group of fourth graders, their teachers were enthusiastic about the experience of writing the languages of home with their Tongue (Carlson, (Stavans, 2001) Cool Salsa Wáchale is one volume that fills this literature on the bilingual literature will certainly influence experience understanding of diverse teachers’ and cultural community linguistic important, teachers’ life. Just as on the bilin- exposure to literature also increase gual experience may Latino students, their use of it with and invest- thus expanding interest ment in biliteracy. and teacher edu- Where do teachers on the bilingual cators find poetry more multi- experience? While needed for genre resources are an edited anthol- teacher education, ogy by Santa Ana (2004), Tied, gap. The anthology includes poetry, prose, and scholarship about a wide range of bilingual and bidialectal experiences, offering the perspectives of scholars as well as bilinguals themselves on what it means to grow up speaking, listen- ing, reading, and writing in more collections by than one code. Poetry Martín Espada (2003), Chitra Divakaruni (2000), and Marilyn Chin (1994), among others, include many poems on the bilingual– bicultural experience, and antholo- gies such as 1994) and offer works by many bilingual writers that are vital for any language arts educator’s bookshelf. Bilingual writers such as Trinidad read- (1994) can draw Sánchez, Jr. ers into the condition of the “not me,” pulling us out of our own racial, linguistic, and cultural posi- I shared this poem tions. Recently, with a heterogeneous fourth-grade class of students whose native languages included English, Bengali, Korean, Chinese, and Portuguese, Japanese. Despite the lack of translation, the classroom teachers and students were all engaged by the fluent mix of Spanish and English and amused by the surprise Chicano perspective at the end. XPERIENCE E OEMS ON THE P ILINGUAL EADING B The act of reading poetry is an underused resource for developing teachers’ abilities to attend deeply to what students are saying and how they say it. Sloan’s (2003) action research projects with graduate students at Queen’s College provided naturalistic evidence that a difference in poetry can make the language and literacy development of both teachers and students. The challenge is for teachers to find opportunities through literature to more reflex- ively cross multiple cultural and linguistic worlds. Greater inclusion of poetry and fiction on the bilingual experience will combat findings from a survey by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) reporting that literary reading has declined dramatically among all age groups over the past 20 years, with only 12 percent of respondents reporting having read any poetry (Bradshaw & Nichols, 2004). The report suggests that declining reading rates may be particularly significant among Latino populations. Increased exposure to R scholARTistry that can help teach- that can help scholARTistry cul- personal and ers “interrogate come that have tural assumptions (Barone, for granted” to be taken than only p. 26). Rather 2001, bilin- encouraging and correcting a poetic gual students’ English, bilingual and sensibility can help foster multi- monolingual teachers literacy in their classrooms Haywood, & Lorenzen, (Schwarzer, and writing 2003). Reading, living, the many poetry are three of teachers make scholARTistic ways the continua of bilingual classrooms and experience in their personal and professional lives visible and valuable. LA_March2006.qxd 2/8/06 9:29 AM Page 347 Page AM 9:29 2/8/06 LA_March2006.qxd LA_March2006.qxd 2/8/06 9:29 AM Page 348

Poetry about Bilingual Experiences

Ada, Alma Flor, & Campoy, F. Isabel with English The culture and life of the Southwest are captured in these adaptations by Schertle, Alice. Pio Peep! Traditional Span- poems from the point of view of a Mexican-American girl. ish Nursery Rhymes. Illus. V. Escriva. (Harper, 2003). Spanish words are woven throughout the poems. This selection of rhymes from the rich tradition of Latino Nye, Naomi Shihab. The Tree Is Older than You Are: A Bilin- 348 oral folklore is in both English and Spanish. The English gual Gathering of Poems and Stories from Mexico. (Simon versions are poetic re-creations of the originals. Pulse, 1998). Bilingual Poetry Alarcon, Francisco X. Poems to Dream Together. Illus. This bilingual anthology of poems and stories is P. Barragan. (Lee & Low, 2005). distinguished by illustrations from Mexican artists. Alarcon’s poems deliver a strong message in Spanish and Orozco, Jose-Luis. Diez Deditos: Ten Little Fingers & Other English about his dreams for children. Play Rhymes and Action Songs from Latin America. Illus. Carlson, Lori (Ed.). Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing E. Kleven. (Puffin, 2002). Up Hispanic in the United States. (Holt, 1994). Poems, rhymes, and songs are presented in English and An energetic collection of poems in English and Spanish Spanish, along with musical arrangements for the songs that features voices of familiar and lesser-known poets. and diagrams of the fingerplays for the rhymes. See also Also see Carlson’s Red Hot Salsa (2005). their De Colores (1994) and Fiestas (2002). Delacre, Lulu. Arrorro, Mi Niño: Latino Lullabies and Gentle Soto, Gary. Neighborhood Odes. Illus. D. Diaz. (Harcourt, Games. (Lee & Low, 2004). 1992). These participatory finger play games, nursery rhymes, and Soto celebrates life in his Mexican-American community lullabies are in English and Spanish. with poetry in which he naturally code-switches into Span- ish. Also see Canto Familiar (1995). Medina, Jane. The Dream on Blanca’s Wall. Illus. R. Casilla. (Boyds Mills, 2004). Stavans, Illan (Ed.). Wachale!: Poetry and Prose about Growing Up Latino in America. (Cricket, 2001). Poems in English and Spanish describe the life and dreams of a sixth-grade girl whose family has recently emigrated This anthology includes classic and modern poems and from Mexico to the United States. writings in Spanish, English, and code-switching. Medina, Jane. My Name Is Jorge. Illus. F.V. Broeck. (Boyds Wong, Janet. A Suitcase of Seaweed and Other Poems. Mills, 1999). (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1996). The bilingual poems describe the struggles of a young Some of these poems focus on Wong’s Korean and Chinese Mexican boy to learn a new life and language in the U.S. heritage in contrast with American language and culture. Also, see Wong’s Good Luck Gold (1994). Mora, Pat. Confetti: Poems for Children. Illus. E. Sanchez. (Lee & Low, 1999). —Marilyn Carpenter

students. One teacher, Elizabeth quietest students (also those for whom had not speciﬁcally suggested this, but I Connell, described her experience: English is not their ﬁrst language) were really liked including those and they are excited to share such special words important words in our home. I loved the way you encouraged us to with their classmates. They are not include words that are often said in our often given such opportunities. I would Reading poetry on the bilingual homes. Silly phrases, commands, and not have thought to include two French experience brings us closer to the expressions in other languages made phrases that I use with my own cultural and linguistic experiences of the poems so much richer. Some of our children each night at bedtime if you others as well as ourselves.

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ENGAGING IN BILINGUAL flea markets that make this same I don’t know if there is water by her claim), is a place where many local house, COMMUNITY LIFE Latino and African American fami- a splashing image in a cheap frame from However many books and poems a lies in my community go to buy the flea market, teacher reads about the bilingual produce and other goods. My visit or the sound of a neighbor’s pipes experience, there is no replacement there was an important source of flushing through the wall. for engaging oneself in bilingual discovery in relation to my work She writes about rainbows and spells community life and language learn- with Latino as well as African rain rian and bow ing. Becoming a language learner American communities with whom as a separate word and door with two 349 for the short or long term is one I work in Georgia classrooms. r’s and one o

way for teachers to understand the Before my visit to the flea market, I and she sits next to a boy who writes Bilingual Poetry processes of second language acqui- didn’t understand an African Amer- that he is from Mixeco. sition first hand. Whether through ican third grader who wrote, “My Her skin is the color of pine bark; eyes language courses in the community house is like a pond. There’s a framed in small gold globes like two or immersion in a teacher develop- ponds filled ment program abroad, teachers with invisible life. I know how to live in need opportunities to feel the Teachers need this school trailer, headaches, misunderstandings, and opportunities to feel but I’m from a house like a jewel box. mistakes of communicating in a non-native language. the headaches, She asks me to say it again. Can you say it again? Not only can we as educators find misunderstandings, Did you say “jewel box”? Thas nice. value in immersion in second and mistakes of language learning contexts in class- When I saw framed, electric images rooms and abroad, we can also communicating in a of waterfalls and ponds at the flea engage more deeply in bilingual life non-native language. market, I had a better understanding surrounding our home and work of what this third grader meant by communities. Communities that “my house is like a pond.” live, work, pray, and play in more ScholARTistry involves stepping out than one language are thriving waterfall by the door.” After of our comfort zones and into the throughout the United States. Edu- puzzling over her meaning, I visited lives of our students. In this way, lit- cators at all levels need professional the flea market and wrote the erature on the bilingual experience development opportunities to cross following piece of scholARTistry in comes to make more sense to us as the cultural and linguistic response: members of the same, shared boundaries in their own backyards, community. regardless of their own language Teaching Poetry in Georgia Schools proficiency. Crossing cultural and WRITING LEADS My house is like a pond, she says. Is so pretty. linguistic worlds and spending time I ask her to say it again. TO TRANSFORMATIVE in local Latino community settings Can you say that again? is an important way for educators BILINGUAL PRACTICE Did you say “pond”? working with Latino youth to The act of writing helps one to doc- understand the speech community Round body of water behind a house in ument and interpret the pleasures, norms our students bring with them Vermont pains, and uncertainties of moving to school. By attending social where a white girl skinny dips and geese between different linguistic and cul- events—birthday parties, festivals, make merry with picnics: tural worlds from different social quinceñeras—and frequenting other How can a house be like a pond? and cultural positions. Reading community contexts, educators can She tells me Grandmom bakes custard pies. about bilingual experiences and par- slowly become familiar with bilin- She has a green carpet in the kitchen. ticipating in language learning and gual funds of knowledge (Moll, Her daddy likes candy. There’s a waterfall bilingual community life come alive Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992). by the door. through the practice of writing The J & J flea market, “the largest I ask her to say it again. poetry. However, results from the in Georgia” (although I must have Can you say that again? NEA survey indicate that almost no seen a half a dozen signs for other Did you say “waterfall” by the door? adults (1 percent) reported having LA_March2006.qxd 2/8/06 9:29 AM Page 350

experienced any creative writing because you are not, in fact, mixed, I think all kids love to see that their class or lesson during the survey but because I had really only thought teachers are human—that we, too, year (Bradshaw & Nichols, 2004). In of nuts and drinks and cut flowers have fears and difficulties and that my own experience, it is the act of that way. And shouldn’t I have we can work through those things. creating and sharing poetry in writ- considered your mixedness By sharing our own steps with writing environments that allows me to already? I looked at him, imagining ing and letting kids know it is okay examine old questions about work- him your age and at you, imagining you his. to make mistakes, we help them to take chances and try to model this— ing with bilingual youth in new You liked this boy and so did I. Mixed fit him to try the new things right beside 350 ways. When teachers create or join nicely, so I tried it on you and smiled. them . . . to be nervous and vulnera- their own writing groups, they cre- One day, when you are newly ble and excited all together!

Bilingual Poetry ate a place to practice the art of teenaged and passing an afternoon poetry and the risk-taking sideways More opportunities ought to be necessary to explore taboo subject reading the spines in the library, may you available for teachers to practice matter, awkward feelings, and be comfortable enough in the honey their own cultural introspection quirky language involved in cross- skin that holds you to speak to the mother through poetry and develop literacy of the baby in whose face you recognize cultural experiences. curriculum as writers themselves. yourself. The products of teachers’ Whether through formal scholARTistry need not be for pub- Jan Burkins professional development efforts lication so much as for the cultiva- such as The National Writing tion of personal growth through This poem is a moving example of Project, poetry writing during pro- exploration and critical reflection. the power of poetry to give fessional development days, or However, making these poems pub- language to the unsayable. Burkins informal writing groups in living lic through creative writing groups is not bilingual, but she uses her rooms or cafés, teachers should be and publications for teachers’ and own explorations of race as a way encouraged to seek their own students’ work can increase public to model literacy practices that opportunities to develop as dialogue about language learning, work in the multicultural classroom multicultural writers. loss, and revitalization. Writing by laying bare her own questions poetry can also engage teachers in POETRY’S PLACE IN CREATING multicultural introspection (Hidalgo, BILINGUAL COMMUNITY 1993), recalling processes of ScholARTistry involves linguistic, cultural, and racial shift stepping out of our Reading, living, and writing poetry that may have occurred in their are three scholARTistic ways to own family histories. The following comfort zones and cross cultural and linguistic worlds poem was written by an elementary into the lives of our with attention and dignity and give literacy coach with whom I share language to what has often been the love of reading and writing students. unsayable and thus unsaid. The poetry. The poem, “Mixed Fit Him practice of writing poetry is not Nicely,” explores the shift in an about recording what one already adult’s thinking as a result of her and experience. As a complement to knows, but, rather, about exploring own and another child’s description current testing environments in what one does not yet know. Poems of biracial identity. classrooms, she encourages teachers invite teachers and students to find to explore poetry as a balance to fresh language, new insight, and Mixed Fit Him Nicely other more test-driven instructional discovery about themselves and There I stood assuming tasks. Burkins has used whole pro- others. a mother’s posture, hip shifted to fessional days to work with teachers If poetry is such a rich resource for the side on which you rested. We on their own writing in the belief teachers and students, why are there were surrounded by the endless that teachers who themselves write such limited numbers of Americans smiles of the library shelves when will become better teachers of writ- who actively read or write poetry? the boy with skin warm and ing. Teacher and poetry writer Eliz- Poet Ira Sadoff (2004) argued it may brown asked if you were mixed. abeth Connell shared these be because in the United States, we I found myself surprised, not reflections on writing poetry along- are trained not to fail. I believe this because I thought him rude or side her students: is especially true for teachers and

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researchers of language. We are best we can do is listen to one Cahnmann, M. (2003). To correct or not to trained to be experts, consultants, another, and the privileged need to correct bilingual students’ errors is a knowers. However, crossing listen harder” (p. 95). I believe the question of continua-ing reimagination. cultural and linguistic worlds in increased exposure of Latino In N. Hornberger (Ed.), The continua of biliteracy (pp. 187–206). Clevedon, classrooms and ﬁeldwork requires students and their teachers to lyri- England: Multilingual Matters LTD. us to learn how to take risks and be cal portraits of what it means to Carlson, L. M. (1994). Cool salsa: Bilingual willing to embarrass ourselves and communicate in more than one poems on growing up Latino in the United to direct our attention to the culture and code offers exciting States. New York: Holt. conﬂicts at stake—what Sadoff possibilities to listen to diverse Chin, M. (1994). The phoenix gone, the terrace 351 (2004) refers to as “the worry” in experiences with attention and empty. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed.

life and in poetry. dignity, developing our students’ Divakaruni, C. B. (2000). Black candle: Poems Bilingual Poetry In light of the anti-bilingual edu- full (bi)literacy potential. Reading, about women from India, Pakistan, and cation sentiment across the coun- writing, and living poetry can Bangladesh. Corvallis, OR: CALYX. try as well as national legislation have implications for how we Espada, M. (2003). Alabanza: New and selected poems, 1982–2002. New York: Norton. The practice of writing poetry is not about recording Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. what one already knows, but, rather, about exploring New York: Continuum. Hidalgo, N. (1993). Multicultural teacher what one does not yet know. introspection. In T. Perry & J. W. Fraser (Eds.), Freedom’s plow: Teaching in the multicultural classroom (pp. 99–105). New York: Routledge. promoting standardized tests in teach our students, and how we Hornberger, N. H. (1989). Continua of biliter- English for immigrant children sustain our creative lives as teacher–learners. acy. Review of Educational Research, 59, within the ﬁrst three years of their 271–296. arrival, there is much to worry Johnson, D. M. (1990). Word weaving: A cre- about bilingual youth and their References ative approach to teaching and writing chances of becoming fully biliter- poetry. Urbana, IL: NCTE. Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands: The new ate lifelong readers and writers. mestiza = La frontera. San Francisco: Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. Reading, living, and writing bilin- Spinsters/Aunt Lute. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: gual poetry can elucidate the goal Using a qualitative approach to connect Baker, C. (2001). Foundations of bilingual homes and classrooms. Theory into Prac- of bilingual education—to provide education and bilingualism. Clevedon, tice, 31, 132–141. an educational environment where England: Multilingual Matters LTD. Murphy, P. E. (1999). Drop a poem into your students’ home languages and cul- Barone, T. (2001). Science, art, and the pre- class. Retrieved February 17, 2005, from tures are visible and valued as dispositions of educational researchers. http://www.wnet.org/foolingwithwords resources in the classroom. Educational Researcher, 30 (7), 24–28. /lesson3.html Through reading, living, and writ- Bradshaw, T., & Nichols, B. (2004). Reading Neilsen, L. (2001). Scribbler: Notes on writing ing bilingual poetry, “any teacher at risk: A survey of literary reading in and learning inquiry. In L. Neilsen, can foster multiliteracy in the America (No. 46). Washington, D.C.: A. Cole, & G. J. Knowles (Eds.), The art of National Endowment for the Arts. classroom without being a speaker writing inquiry (pp. 253–272). Toronto: of those languages” (Schwarzer, Cahnmann, M. (1999). “Like three doors— Backalong. Spanish, English, and both. I’m going Haywood, & Lorenzen, 2003, Neilsen, L. (2005). Homepage. Retrieved to both”: Language attitudes of early p. 453). March 6, 2005, from http://www.iirc adolescent Mexican Americans. .mcgill.ca/collaborators/collabln.html If there is anything we have Texas Linguistic Forum: SALSA VI, learned from literacy and 42, 13–24. Ostriker, A. (2000). Dancing at the devil’s party: Essays on poetry, politics, and the bilingualism in the twentieth cen- Cahnmann, M. (2000). What you are. River erotic. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan tury, it’s that poetry remains a City, 20 (2), 106. Press. vital form of witness to Cahnmann, M. (2001) Shifting metaphors: Of Poplack, S. (2000). Sometimes I’ll start a sen- negotiations of language, culture, war and reimagination in the bilingual tence in Spanish y termino en espanol: and power. As Ostriker (2000) has classroom. Unpublished doctoral disser- Toward a typology of code-switching. In tation, University of Pennsylvania, said of enduring forms of oppres- L. Wei (Ed.), The bilingualism reader (pp. Philadelphia. sion, “No solution is in sight, the 221–256). New York: Routledge. LA_March2006.qxd 2/8/06 9:29 AM Page 352

Rampton, B. (1995). Crossing: Language and Schwarzer, D., Haywood, A., & Lorenzen, C. ethnicity among adolescents. New York: (2003). Fostering multiliteracy in a Author Biography Longman. linguistically diverse classroom. Language Arts, 80, 453–460. Sadoff, I. (2004). On sentiment and Melisa (Misha) Cahnmann is assistant sentimentality: Poetry and the body. Sloan, G. D. (2003). Give them poetry!: A professor of language and literacy educa- Paper presented at the MFA Program, guide for sharing poetry with children tion in the College of Education at the Uni- Henniker, NH. K–8. New York: Teachers College Press. versity of Georgia. She can be reached at Sánchez, T., Jr. (1994). Why am I so brown? Stavans, I. (2001). Wáchale!: Poetry and [email protected]. In L. M. Carlson (Ed.), Cool salsa: Bilingual prose about growing up Latino in Amer- 352 poems on growing up Latino in the United ica. Chicago: Cricket. States. New York: Holt. Zentella, A. C. (1997). Growing up bilingual: Bilingual Poetry Santa Ana, O. (2004). Tongue-tied: The lives Puerto Rican children in New York. of multilingual children in public educa- Malden, MA: Blackwell. tion. Lanham: Rowman & Littleﬁeld.

CALL FOR 2006 DONALD H. GRAVES WRITING AWARD NOMINATIONS

Established in 2001 by Donald H. Graves, this award annu- Submission material information can be found on the ally recognizes teachers in grades 1–6 who demonstrate an NCTE Web site at http://www.ncte.org/elem/awards/graves understanding of student improvement in the teaching of and must be postmarked no later than June 1, 2006. writing. The award is administered by the NCTE Elementary Results will be announced in September, and the award Section Steering Committee, which selects an award recip- will be presented at the 2006 Annual Convention in ient from the portfolios and essays submitted during the Nashville, Tennessee during the Elementary Get-Together. year.

JAMES MOFFETT AWARD

NCTE’s Conference on English Education, in conjunction the strength of the connection to James Moffett’s scholar- with the National Writing Project, offers this grant to sup- ship and the perceived value and feasibility of the port teacher research projects inspired by the scholarship research. The deadline for nominations for the 2006 of James Moffett. All K–12 classroom educators who teach Moffett Award is May 1, 2006. Winners will be notiﬁed at least three hours or three classes per day are eligible to in July 2006 and announced at the 2006 NCTE Annual apply for the grant. Moffett Award winners receive a cer- Convention in Nashville. Submit nominations to James tiﬁcate, a monetary award (up to $1000) to be used Moffett Award, Kristen McGowan, NCTE, 1111 W. Kenyon toward implementation of the proposed project, and a Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096. For more information, go to copy of James Moffett’s last book, The Universal http://www.ncte.org/groups/cee/awards/moffett/108836 Schoolhouse. Proposals will be judged on such criteria as .htm.

Language Arts, Vol. 83 No. 4, March 2006