Angela+Mosley


 * // Genre Reflection - Week One // **

 ** The Other Side of the Glass **  The clicking of my shiny red heels against the cream icy floor resounds down the eternal hallway, halting at lockers that hold pre-teen secrets.  Anxiously counting down room numbers from six to five hundred, I reach the Holy Grail – Room 507.  Behind the locked door, through fingerprint-stained Plexiglas, I see a cardigan decorated with out-of-date embroidery, slacks that have the familiar sheen that comes only from an all-too-hot iron and bifocals that seem to be used more for intimidation than for vision.  Her glassy blue-green eyes, rising over the opal rims, burn a hole through the student who stands, hunched over like a dilapidated crane, casting shadows over her frosty blonde hair.  Unshaken by the boy’s stature, she slowly explains her disappointment, allowing every word to find a secure resting place in the student’s mind.  Behind the glass, I feel as though I am the student again, being scolded for something I wouldn’t remember at the end of the day, but would most certainly affect the rest of my life. <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Suddenly, the light switches. She opens the door. Her grave-like disposition softens, and she welcomes me to her classroom, warning me with a sarcastic smile that if I survive 8th grade, I will survive anything. <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">

<span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> ** // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Genre Reflection - Week Two // ** <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">

<span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">LAST RESORT ** <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Preface: A student brought a gun to school this week. This poem is from his perspective. <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Eleven years <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Two divorces <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Three men in my mother’s bedroom <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Four hours alone after school <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Five brownies and pizza for dinner <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Six “friends” on FaceBook <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> Who taunt, tag, terrorize <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Called by many names <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Followed in the hall <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> In the bathroom <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> In the cafeteria <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Hearing laughter <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> Cackling <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> Whispering <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Sneering <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Seeing threats on bathroom stalls <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">The inner thoughts: // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Mom won’t know  // // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">if I borrow her shiny black gun from her nightstand. // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">She won’t know // // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">if I take the bullets from the top shelf of her closet behind the shoebox with my kindergarten crafts. // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">She won’t know if I put the gun beneath crumpled debris in my book bag. // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">She won’t know if I return the hateful words with hate. // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">She won’t know if I return terror for terror. // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">She won’t know if I return their actions to them with this small black contraption. // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">

<span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> ** // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Genre Reflection – Weeks Three and Four // ** <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">

<span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> ** <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">It’s Not That Complex! **  <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">The statue spouts from the front of the room: “A complex sentence is made up of two clauses: one independent clause and one dependent clause. Can any of you give me an example of a complex sentence?” <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">A pushed up hot pink sleeve catapults above all of the dozing heads. “Miz. Mosley, I got it!” <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">“Okay Alysia, give me an example of a complex sentence.” <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">The wide-eyed twelve-year-old bounces to the luminous SmartBoard, picks up the stylus and excitedly writes, “If Ronjena don’t shut it, she goan gettit!” <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">In too thick of an // English Major Accent // I read, “If Ronjena don’t shut it, she goan gettit!” <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Inner Dialogue: // What am I supposed to do with this? These children have no idea how to speak or use the English language. What have I gotten myself into? //  <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> // <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Back to Planet Middle School: //<span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">“Alysia, that’s a great example of how we use complex sentences in our every day communication! Good work! Now, let’s focus our attention to this writing sample. How can we change these sentences from simple to complex?” <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Meiryo UI','sans-serif'; font-size: 14pt;">Lesson Learned: // Teach one lesson at a time using the tools the students bring to the table. //