Journal Article - From Secrets to Speaking

This is a journal article I wrote from my ENGL 4790 class. It is an outline for a lesson plan using Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives*, My Secret: A PostSecret Book*, The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book*, and A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book* by Frank Warren.

From Secrets to Speaking

While attending the MCTE Conference in Lansing Michigan on October 5, 2007, keynote speaker Kathleen Blake Yancey brought up the topic of literacy and literacy in the 21^st century. Literacy in the 21^st century includes internet, television, and radio. There are so many different aspects with technology that literacy has grown into a large interconnected web.

My focus in this article is to explain how to combine an aspect of literacy in the 21^st century, mainly using technology and the internet, with the more traditional aspects of literacy, reading, writing, and comprehension.

Everyone has a secret. As Frank Warren, author of the PostSecret web blog and four PostSecret books to date puts it, “Every single person has at least one secret that would break your heart. If we could just remember this, I think there would be a lot more compassion and tolerance in the world.” This quote acts as the spring board for my classroom project. Using the texts Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives*, My Secret: A PostSecret Book*, The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book*, and A Lifetime of Secrets: A PostSecret Book* by Frank Warren, as well as the PostSecret blog students will examine the theme of secrets.

Speak addresses the story of a girl and the summer before her freshman year of high school. She is raped at a party, but doesn’t report it; instead she calls the police and breaks the party up. Because of this event her relationships with friends become strained, she has problems in school, and battles with depression and self-blame. “All of her teachers dislike her, except Melinda's art teacher, Mr. Freeman, who asks his students to focus on one randomly chosen topic and make it "say something" by the end of the year” (wikipedia). This is where our project comes into place. Frank Warren has said, “There are two kinds of secrets: those we keep from others and those we hide from ourselves.” Keeping this in mind and taking a cue from Mr. Freeman, students will think about themselves in a more critical way, and examine their secrets. They will choose one and make it “say something.”

In chapter seven of her book, “Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools, Margot Soven discusses Responding to Literature: Three Dimensions. She explains that reflections to literature fall into three dimensions. Cognitive – “understanding the explicit and implicit meaning in the text” (158), Affective – “the emotional impact of work on the reader” (158), and Aesthetic – “describes the pleasure we feel in the art and artifice of the work; it involves the total artistic impact of the work, the unique blend of words, images, characters, and events” (158). With this lesson we encourage students to embrace all three dimensions and explore them further.

As a teacher of literature and writing it is important to encourage students to explore the variety of ways literature presents itself. Literature is no longer limited to words written on a page, it can be a blog, website, pamphlet, postcard, digital networking site, etc. This 21^st century view on literacy opens up new doors to us as educators; we just have to be willing to walk through them.

The overall goal of this project is to get students to think more critically, to ask questions, and to keep writing a constant factor throughout the teaching of literature. Below is a chart on writing before, during, and after reading. Notice that the major focus is on the after.

Writing Before Reading	Writing During Reading	Writing After Reading
What are your goals? To get students to think about secrets; everyone has them. Gain interest. Establish prior knowledge	What are your goals? To help students understand the text. Identify themes. Relate to the text.	What are your goals? Finish Comprehension Understand the text as a whole. Think more critically. Consider the context.
What will students do? Pre-writing/brainstorm on why they keep secrets.	What will students do? Students can draw images representing a scene from Speak, or keep a journal entry on the text.	What will students do? Students will create their secrets on a 3x5 card using any material they wish. They will post their finished secret on the wall of secrets, totally anonymously. They will then have the option to send them into the PostSecret web blog. Other project ideas can include: Creating a class book of secrets instead of a wall. Posting secrets around the school. Inviting other grades to participate. Create a class secret blog, much like PostSecret.
How will they be graded or receive credit? Students will receive credit for their pre-writing/brainstorm.	How will they be graded or receive credit? Students will receive credit for the materials they hand in, whether it be a journal entry or image.	How will they be graded or receive credit? They will receive credit on a completed secret card. This may prove difficult since the goal is totally anonymity, instead you can have a drop box on your desk where students may drop their postcards, and you check off their name.

PostSecret has gained popularity over the past few years winning many web awards. Its anonymity and honesty make the secrets profound and allow the reader to feel a connection to the anonymous author. With its popularity PostSecret has found its way into schools. “In several schools, such as Martingrove Collegiate Institute [in Toronto], students started up their own post-secret walls, putting up secrets on pieces of papers anonymously” (wikipedia). I have also attached a letter from a teacher in Maryland and how she uses PostSecret within her classroom.

I encourage teachers to bring their interests into the classroom. When students see your enthusiasm on a topic, they can’t help but become interested in the topic as well. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover that you have more in common with your students than you thought.

(*note on PostSecret books, they may need to be edited for content. It may be best to look through the books yourself and pick and choose grade level appropriate images and text.)

Halse Anderson, Laurie. Speak. United States: Penguin Group, 1999.

Soven, Margot Iris. Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools. Theory, Research, and Practice. Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon, 1999.

Warren, Frank. PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2005.

Warren, Frank. "Sunday Secrets.” Weblog Entry. PostSecret. October 14, 2007. October 15, 2007 (http://postsecret.blogspot.com/).

Blake Yancey, Kathleen. Keynote Address. “Literacy, Technologies, and the 21^st Century: Where We Have Been, Are Now, and Are Going”. MCTE Fall Conference, Shearaton of Lansing, Lansing, MI. 5 October 2007.

"Speak (novel)." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 10 October 2007. 15 October 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speak_(novel)>.

"PostSecret." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 11 October 2007. 15 October 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postsecret>.

PostSecret. October 15, 2007. News Alloy. October 15, 2007 [http://www.newsalloy.com/feed/19920/].