Read All About It!

I knew I should have fudged the dates on my internship contract, trading May 7 for May 14!

24-pencil salute.

Although, chances are, I still wouldn’t be ready to say goodbye.  Even though I’m only typing these words to you instead of speaking them, I still have a knot in my throat.  Open Books has been so, so good to me.  I think I knew that when, on my first day, I was handed a mug with my name on it and directed to my very own desk and iMac.

But it’s not just personalization and technology that create throat-knots.  It’s a fantastic community that works together, plays together, and eats, sleeps, and breathes literacy and literature.

So instead of writing a long, weepy, farewell blog, I’m going to use a worksheet that we give to our field trip students to help them start thinking and writing through poetry.  The bolded parts are portions of the worksheet. The rest comes from the heart [and hands and head].

Who am I…

I am Marissa De Haan, Ltd.

My name means “of the sea”, but my Mom says she named me after her grandmother.

If you stepped in my shoes you would feel pretty darn frugal; you would also feel like you should probably buy some new black flats already

Because these ones are starting to flap at the toe.

I want to change the date to January 31, 2010 so I could start this internship all over again!

I have a dream that someday, very soon, everyone in the world will have a library available to them.  Also in my dream, I rubbed elbows with Andrew Carnegie and I convinced him to go international with that library project of his.

I am quite tired a lot of the time and think exercising to get more energy is mostly a bunch of nonsense.

If you stepped in my shoes you would see communities in everything.

I want to share my thoughts on life and literature

With people that surround me, but I’m trying this new thing lately where I’m less opinionated; it’s…in the trial stages.

I believe that academia is incredibly valuable, but I’m ready to start learning outside of the classroom.

I am human because I can make art and declare it as such.

I wonder how long it takes for a dwelling to become a home.

I think of all the possibilities my future holds for strength.

My family loves, cherishes, and believes in me.

I am ever thankful for the things that I’ve been able to accomplish this semester at Open Books and the way in which I’ve grown as a person.

Yes I can continue on and affect the lives of others through reading, writing, and the UNLEASHED power of books–new and used.

Upon knowledge of our separation due to graduation, ending of internships, and relocations to different states, fellow intern Jacob wanted me to take away one thing; he wrote: “You lit-interned up my life.” I think that about sums up this entire experience.  Thank you, Open Books.  I’m taking the mug.

It’s not really a phenomenon anymore. It has actually become a strange internet culture. You’ve seen them. You know them.
1. The words that end in “z” instead of “s”.
2. The letters that get switched around but remain readable because our brains are amazing at reading anyway.
3. The words that have entire letters left out because someone decided they were too lazy to write the whole thing.
Corresponding examples: 1. Has → haz 2. The→teh 3. Oh, really? → O Rly?

This is a culture that has called itself “LOLspeak”. Another way it has destroyed our current way of speaking is by using the annoyingly incorrect version of verbs. Chances are, if there is a subject, it will not agree with the verb. In fact, the subject and verb may come to fisticuffs.

The most notable photo that probably started it all was a picture of a slightly pudgy cat with bulging eyes overlaid with the caption: “I can haz cheezburger?” Yes, it’s funny. And it’s also quite complex. There are “rules” that accompany the misspelling, misspeaking, and completely screwy syntax that is involved in “LOL speak.” (It frightens me to say that this term reminds me of 1984’s NewSpeak system…) You can find them here, should you choose to create your own caption for a picture of a cat, kitten, or other sort of animal.

Readers, what does this mean for the future of our language? What is being created, and in that process, destroyed? Many blogs have been written about this subject, whether fawning over or frustrated with the entire ordeal of what feels like the English language being completely overrun with misspellings and felines.

The modern culture that involves technology (yes, even blogging) has helped proliferate this trend through posts, comments, and discussions. The world of the virtual may slowly overlap with that of the actual—textspeak is another world of lingo that is also being influenced by cats and kittens. However, language is always evolving, and as blogger Tessa Gratton pointed out, we came from Old English to where we are now in about 1200 years—Old English is nearly unreadable unless you’re well-trained, have read Beowulf and Caedmon’s Hymn in its original text, and know what the letter “thorn” is (now replaced with the digraph of “th”). We no longer use this letter, nor several other constituents of Olde English. And Chaucer’s Middle English is rather difficult to get through as well. Modern English came around Shakespeare’s time, and we still have trouble with it. Are we about to venture into the world of “Post-Modern English” with misspelling anti-grammarian cats following at our heels?

Normally on a Monday, I’m alone. The four other literacy interns are at jobs, school, and other such healthy diversions. But this was a Tuesday. Additionally, this was a Tuesday morning at 10AM and I was scheduled to lead an Adventures in Creative Writing poetry field trip for 5th grade students from O.A. Thorp. I wasn’t nervous at all (kidding). I was nervous because it was my first time leading alone! I didn’t even have a so-called “wing-man!” I prepared the pencils and sharpened the thoughts in my brain.

On this two-hour journey of reading, writing, and the fantastic power of used books (or brand-new journals for the students to fill with markings from their freshly sharpened pencils) I was joined by several volunteer writing coaches, so I wasn’t going the road [completely] alone.

I clarify ideas about poetry during the writing session--in my element!

We read “I Can’t Read” by Lamont Carey, “Being HUMAN” by Naima Penniman, and a few five senses poems written by previous Open Books Adventures in Creative Writings Field Trip students. When it came time to write a poem together as a class, we decided to join forces and write about the emotion “Excitement”—this feeling won by a landslide when all the votes were cast.

I encouraged the Thorp students to think metaphorically and symbolically. Many of them took inspiration from Penniman’s “Being HUMAN” which deals a lot with wondering and what truly makes us human—curiosity about the world and nature.

Many poems began with “I wonder…” and it impacted me incredibly that the students had taken the lesson to heart! Moreover, when the field trip concluded and the kids were leaving to get on the bus, they all took out their brand new notebooks and asked me to autograph them! I signed them “Keep reading! -Marissa” Side note:Readers, if you’re looking for autographs, I would be more than willing to sign your own notebooks, basketballs, baseballs, etc. Keep me in mind!

Anyway, because Thorp’s field trip went off nearly without a hitch, I am beginning to reconsider attending school for teaching certification in English, grammar, literature, and other wonderful things of that sort. I directed the class by helping them figure out what to write about during their field trip and channel their creativity to get the words flowing, and, in their own way, they have directed me as well.

One of the most important questions you will be asked this year is “How many people were living or staying

It's in all of our hands now.

in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?” This comes directly from the most recent U.S. Census—the one you didn’t want to take time to fill out, but did anyway because it only took about ten minutes and there was a form of governmental threat on the outside of the envelope.

Imagine with me, for a moment, that you’re functionally illiterate and that it took you more than ten minutes and you decided to not fill it out because you didn’t understand what the census questions were asking. Now think about this: “Nearly half of America’s adults are poor readers, or ‘functionally illiterate.’ They can’t carry out simply tasks like balancing check books, reading drug labels or writing essays for a job” (literacy statistics from www.readfaster.com). I would venture a guess that if one cannot balance a check book, read drug labels, or write an essay for a job, it would be quite a task to fill out the U.S. Census Form, answering questions that may seem straightforward to those who have the ability to read and write with ease.

The education stats offered by www.readfaster.com also predict that “To participate fully in society and the workplace in 2020, citizens will need powerful literacy abilities that until now have been achieved by only a small percentage of the population.”

While I’m fairly certain you have already heard the reasons behind the importance of the U.S. Census, here’s a catchy little tagline (and sometimes a jingle) that states, “We can’t move forward until you mail it back.” Moving forward includes services from the government such as hospitals, job-training centers, schools, senior centers, bridges, tunnels, and emergency services. One of these sticks out to me: schools. A quick game of word association also brings terms such as “education” “literacy” and “books” to mind.

Essentially, without accurate counts on U.S. Census form, the funding for schools, hospitals, and other essentials of a community could be pooled elsewhere. If the painful cycle of illiteracy ended, however, those forms would be filled out and sent back, and necessary funding could be placed appropriately and accurately  in communities that desperately need resources.  That’s a vision we look forward to supporting here at Open Books.

Readers, what would you do if you received the 2010 U.S. Census and couldn’t fill it out without confusion?

At Open Books Buddies, that is!

Taking a break from Books Buddies last week for CPS spring break really made me take a long hard look at what Buddies means to me. All jokes and cheesiness aside, it’s true that going to Buddies is a wonderful little nugget of goodness in my internship not one, two, but three times a week!

No bag can contain our indefatigable love of books!

This past Tuesday I led our McCutcheon Buddies in a rousing round of “Hokey Pokey.” Instead of simply clapping twice, dutifully, at the end of each verse, the students screamed out, “HOKEY POKEYYYYYY!” It was surprising the first time it happened-  after we had “put our right hand in, our right hand out, our right hand in, and [shook] it all about”, but every verse thereafter, it was an expected addition to our energy-boosting/distraction-inducing game. My favorite part of the entire song? “Put[ting] your whole self in.” And a lot of our Buddies have done just that, Big and Little, as they read together every week.

Another favorite moment at Buddies occurred at Jahn Elementary in Roscoe Village. This Thursday was an Epic Book Giveaway. We greeted the children with a stack of books that they normally read, and with just five minutes remaining in our after-school reading session, we pulled out another surprise stack: books to choose from—for keeps! Unfortunately, the tote bag couldn’t handle the weight of the books we took back to the office and consequently broke on my walk to the bus. See the photo for evidence.

But it was worth it! The most memorable quote of the day came from our newest Little Buddy at Jahn, who said incredulously of the book giveaway, “They’re for us?! To keep?! Wow!” This Little Buddy’s eyes lit up and grew as wide as can be. One of the best parts of Open Books (in my humble opinion) is the kids — our little buddies’ genuine excitement and gratefulness can’t be matched!