Bringing the Carpentry Color and Lifestyle to the Content area

As we have read Fisher and Frey's IMPROVING ADOLESCENT LITERACY, we realize so many of the strategies seem to find almost perfect fits with English/language arts and social studies. Our content area, carpentry/construction technology however, seems farther away from such effectiveness. But we also realize some of this appearance is merely my inexperience and limited view as to how to initiate and execute these strategies which are wholly new to us. Nonetheless we are compelled and inspired to some type of action.

Today we had an early dismissal, half-student day and a staff development this afternoon. Dan Gediman representing "This I Believe, Inc. and one of the editors for the THIS I BELIEVE book series of essays spoke to all the faculties and administrators for Dare County Schools. In our superintendent's introduction she emphasized the importance of teaching literacy especially in the area of non-fiction. She understands.

We experimented with two of our classes today by doing read alouds to our students with a THIS I BELIEVE essay. It was an essay by ground-breaking, professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. We feel it's supremely important to bond with our students over things they love and which we may have some personal experience. Hawk's essay, entitled "Do What You Love," seemed to get this done and more. Students asked meaningful questions and brought up their own anecdotes about skateboarding. Soon we were talking about making skateboards. Imagine that---carpentry students initiating dialog about making something useful.

Phase two will bring the color and culture of the carpentry/building world beginning with Tracy Kidder's book, HOUSE, published in the 1980's. In it, Kidder recounts his experience framing a house in New England with his framing crew. This is close-in stuff, and rarely written. Yes, it does contain technical language, the language of carpentry and structure. However it conveys the color of the carpenter's lifestyle, what they are concerned about technically while on the job, and what concerns and entertains them in their lifestyles.

We see this book as a means of teaching literacy, where some of the strategies recommended by Fisher and Frey may be easier for us to use as they will more closely resemble the forms in the book. Plus they will reinforce the vocabulary of carpentry and have students see how one crew views a collaborative effort.

We will begin inviting local carpenters---framers, trim carpenters, cabinetmakers, and remodelers---into the class as guest speakers as well to address specific building issues and to just tell stories of building homes on the Outer Banks. We believe coloring the grey textbook pages with human voices will only help the learning. We'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading. We would love to hear from you.