Bach's Cello Suites' Prelude

On Tuesday I brought my cello in and played for a very negative class, but having driven in and lugged the thing up to my office and then down and up again to my class, I was damned if I wasn't going to play for the students, no matter how surly. Actually, I noticed as I played in our windowless, beige-walled, cruddily linoleumed-floored classroom, the students settled and slowed into a surprising silence that made the resonance of my notes sound fairly convincing. When I finished, feeling rushed because the class was meant to go to the career counseling during half of our time together, I was startled when my students, all of whom had just expressed frustration that bordered on anger over their grades, burst into applause. I asked if anyone would like to play my instrument and was surprised that two students took a stab at it, surprising themselves at how awkward it felt and how difficult it was to get a sound from the cello. It may not have been the most ideal circumstances, but I was happy that I'd done it and exposed the students to at the very least one classical music piece. They seemed to loosen up when I exposed myself in front of them and made some obvious mistakes, grimacing at what felt like bad intonation. They saw that I worked at it and wasn't perfect, and I think that may have been the best thing I could have shown them. And I didn't die when I made the mistakes!

Advice from a musician...

Tomorrow I shall bring my cello to my 101 class and then two more members of my quartet will come to my afternoon class to play some Beethoven. I will try to pump out Prelude to the Bach Suites for solo cello for my 101 students who couldn't be less interested; maybe if they can feel the sensation of the instrument in their own hands, against their own bodies might they understand the inordinately physical sensation of making sound from such a sensuously shaped and textured instrument.

Here's Mathieu on the difference between music and language:
"Music is entirely specific: what you hear is what you get. Language is rich and various and inexact. You have to keep saying what is, a thousand ways, until someone jumps" (33). And then he goes further by saying, "The challenge for both listener and reader is to willfully seek balance between sound and sense, to sedulously insist on mind in music and euphony in language" (35).

Squeezing the beauty...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

"We have to squeeze and press the beauty from the world"

I have assigned W. A. Mathieu's The Musical Life: Reflections on What it is and How to Live It to my 101-108 course, and as I was reading pieces of it on the train going into class this morning, I pondered this notion of squeezing and pressing beauty from the world. I took this photograph from my seat to see if within the frame of a photographic image there was beauty in the lines, the light or the aesthetic of the inside of my morning train. The compartmentalization of each set of seats, the lines of lights and the metal racks above our heads create a decidedly cold environment, and yet when it's cold and dark outside, it isn't the worst place to be in the early mornings. The woman's hair and patchy furred hood on her jacket make for the only spots of softness in the photo, and those spots are ratty and ragged instead of cozy and soft. Beauty? I think I shall hold my judgment until I can get my hands on beautiful fabrics and quilt tonight.

My students did little of the reading in Mathieu's book because they said it was difficult; as one student put it, "What does this book have to do with English and how are you presenting this to teach English?" I think my goal is to hand my students ownership so that they can settle with the materials in any course and tackle those materials with confidence and fearlessness.

One student wrote, "Can you be more explisive whenever your are giving assignment so that we can understand?" and another asks, "What is the def. of implication," a word I have gone over, as I always do, in probably every class so that they can ultimately write conclusions that move logically from their own texts and then ponder the implications...

Still one student worries about learning "how to remain calm when feeling frustrated," and I wonder if any teachers have ever challenged this student or expected anything of her or him. And yet, for all their grousing, 2 or 3 students got sturdy Cs on their last essay, which seems promising at this point in the term because I do get them to write complete essays with quoted evidence from the very start. They are doing it, and I will watch in awe as more and more of them find their way into writing contextually, clearly and accurately. It is a journey.

Meanwhile, my students in the lower level are engaging in passionate conversations about the text, slamming quoted evidence at each other and discusssing the role of race in The Soloist with the kind of authority and vehemence that close reading academics use! I got goosebumps when they go at it like this, and I have high hopes for them all. When I told them that my quartet was going to come play for them, one student was so enthusiastic that I thought she was being facetious! This is why I teach - to share with my students the love I feel for beauty in the world, in them.

Finishing a Book

For today my students finished reading Steve Lopez's The Soloist, but there were many absent and late due to trains. I gave them a quiz in which they had to give the complete context of ten quotations taken from the chapters read for today. One student answered none and them slept for the rest of the class; another student was given to sleep-like sluggishness, but as soon as I handed back an A on a short in-class identification of topic sentences from a given thesis, he perked right up!

Before they wrote the one minute essay, I read some of the questions from last time, one being, "Can you tell the difference between someone who is really trying and a slacker?" I merely quipped, "Yup." Several students said variations on the "I'd better buckle down and get to work" theme, for which I was pleased.

Today's responses ranged from "Finding hard to understand how the eassys is be structure or how it's supporse to be structure" to "did we get graded on the presentations?" to "the work load on us is too much." Some days I'm just not sure what to do next. I have urged students to make appointments to see me, but not one has done so; instead, their need to interrupt the class to make a fuss about their personal issues seems fully appropriate to them.

It will come, I know, but it is so frustrating until it does!

Writing About Another Person

On Tuesday I had my students write one paragraph about the person whom they are getting to know. They must have one meeting/encounter with the person each week, and he/she must be different from the student in some racial, cultural, socio-economic, academic way. They all wrote focused paragraphs but tended to use general terms rather than concrete details; for example, this person "always" does such and such or "would" do something instead of giving a specific event which helped to support the topic sentence.

I keep promising to bring in my cello to let them pick at it and play with it so they can understand some of the aesthetics of holding and playing an instrument as physical as the cello, an instrument that is held between the legs and is cradled in some way by the chest and upper body.

Most students were getting the grammar and thesis statements, but several were sick or late. These will inevitably be the students who won't be able to make it through a two course link that meets only twice a week for three hours.

Office Hours

One student happened to pass my office on his way to math class and said, "Oh, so THIS is where your office is!" as though it came as a complete surprise to him. Now he intentionally passes by and assures me that he's "not giving up" and "you'll see."

On the one minute essay last Thursday, one of the responses was, "I learned not to write a better essay," which is enigmatic but could have something to do with my telling them that is no perfect writing; there are merely deadlines. Then there were several that asked "Why does every seem like it's getting harder" or "Why is writing so stressful?" For the students who ask if there is "Xtra credit if your doing bad" and the one who said, "You are not giving us some break. Some of us work and take two other subjects," I will repeat that this is a double course and that perhaps they have taken on too much. The requests for breaks and extra credit amaze me, but my colleagues say that I am naive. I wonder.

Then there is the blessed student who keeps hoping to "be patient about learning." For all their angst and complaints, several of them aced the partnered vocabulary quiz and a brief review of parts of speech. I think they will all be surprised at some of their successes even though the essays were still in the 50- 78 range; they are getting things - slowly but surely.

It will come if they will stick with it; that is always my biggest challenge.

Riding that Bicycle...

One of the older students in class raised his hand in frustration on Tuesday and said that he felt as though he were riding on a rickety, old, slow bicycle in this class, and I was whizzing past him so fast that he couldn't keep up. I like the metaphor and sent the class an email to urge them ALL to get on whatever bike they have and begin to pedal. I am hoping that that this student's feeling of lagging behind will disappear once he really begins to work that bicycle and hands in all his work. Many students believe they can and must work full time and attend school full time, and I try to suggest to them that trying to live two lives makes it impossible to succeed at either.

I am hoping to get these students spinning so their legs will move more competently and they can pick up the pace on that old bike!