NCTE Response

So, I'm pretty much done with the NCTE book and I must say that I really enjoy reading it. I think the author has some great activities regarding bringing in multiple texts (like paintings) and revision. Her discussion of activities really made me take a step back and view Carver from more of a teacher lens. I'm looking forward to teaching some of his stuff to my future students and I hope to use some of the techniques in this book to do so. In this response, I am just going to highlight some stuff I like about the NCTE book. To me, Carver is a writer of human conversations, which is why I'm excited to be able to talk about him in a public place next week.

First, I would like to talk about the poetry section of the NCTE book. I am not a huge fan of catalog poems, but I like the exercises that the author had her students do in class. I like the class catalog poem (the Fear of...) because it encourages collaboration and could potentially be used as an introduction to a more vast unit on poetics (68-70). I hadn't read any Carver poetry until reading some excerpts in this book and I must say that I like his style. I think his poetry, in many ways, is very similar to his fiction; it isn't too abstract and it usually tells a story. While reading his short stories I definitely felt as if I could make a connection personally to them, which is why I'm glad his poetry is similar (it has the same impact).

Next, I would like to talk about the revision section of the NCTE book. I must admit that, in high school, I also hated the idea of editing my paper or "revising" it. Rubenstein's chapter on revision really made me rethink what revision means. I like how she juxtaposes a few versions of Carver's stories to show us how they have changed through revision. Honestly, after reading, I really wanted to go back to some of my poems and re-imagine some of them. To re-envision seems much more enticing than "editing." I think if we can get our students talking about Carver, then they will be more willing to partake in revision (especially after we show them how Carver revised some of his stories). I really like how her kids wanted to read the other version of his stories when they read only one version; the power of Carver is strong.

I like the way Rubenstein's students came to know Carver as "Ray." I've said this before... but there is really just something so different about Carver when you juxtapose him with other writers studied throughout curriculum. He puts it all out on the table and asks us to take a closer look at situations or conversations we might otherwise miss while in transit. There are tons of things we could use from this book for our paired teaching. I look forward to discussing the possibilities over some food... I think that's how Carver would want it done.