Teaching Through the Storm : A Journal of Hope

by Hankins, Karen Hale

• ISBN13: 9780807743287
• ISBN10: 0807743283
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr

Summary

In this beautifully written narrative, a first-grade teacher takes us into her classroom during an emotionally stormy year. Read this book and ride the storm with Karen Hankins as she struggles to address the pressing emotional needs of her disparate students while also meeting their need for literacy development. Based on the author's reflective teaching journal, this work represents a threefold focus on narrative as theory, data, and method. In the process of writing and rewriting the narratives, Hankins discovered that they became powerful methods for understanding students and for shaping curriculum. Woven into the portraits of students are the readings this teacher found most helpful as she attempted to understand and cope with her ongoing inquiry, both about the special needs of these children and the role of narrative to guide her understanding. Teaching Through the Stormdescribes the wrenching dilemmas of classroom life in an attempt to provide a counterpoint to those who have spun education and politics together as if platforms were solutions. Above all, this work presents an unforgettable insider perspective on the buoyant hopes of teachers and the sometimes stark realities they face.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
JoBeth Allen
The Year of El Nino	1	(32)
A Stormy Beginning	2	(5)
Narrative, Hermeneutics, and Ideology	7	(4)
Narrative as Theory, Data, and Method	11	(5)
Time and Narrative	16	(3)
Narrative and Memoir	19	(5)
School and Student Profile	24	(7)
The Invitation	31	(2)
The Preacher	33	(14)
Three Layers of Time	37	(3)
Home and Church to School	40	(2)
Examining Choices	42	(1)
Teacher-Student-Curriculum Relationships	43	(2)
Interpretations, Connections, and Lessons	45	(2)
A King and Would-Be Professor	47	(26)
An Angry Start	47	(5)
A Stubborn Self-Description	52	(12)
My Narrative Shift Defended	64	(2)
Pain and Promise	66	(6)
Concluding Thoughts	72	(1)
The Firth of Forth: The Power of Memoirs in Narrative Inquiry	73	(34)
Time and Memory	75	(1)
Words and Labels	75	(9)
Helpful Literature	84	(1)
EricandTommyandTommyandEric	85	(5)
A Memoir Teaches Across Time	90	(5)
Memoir-Literature-Reflection-Connection	95	(5)
Matching Family Expectations	100	(1)
High Goals Rewarded	101	(3)
Interpretations and Memoir	104	(3)
Singing Songs of Silence from Below Time: A Triple Narrative	107	(46)
Time, Pain, and Silence	107	(4)
A Map of this Chapter	111	(1)
Narrating the Beginning	112	(5)
Narrating the Common Thread	117	(11)
Narrating the Girls as Students	128	(9)
Narrating the Storms	137	(11)
Hopeful Interpretations	148	(5)
At the End of the Storm	153	(30)
Writing through the Storm	154	(4)
On the Other Side of the Storm	158	(15)
Notes from the Children	173	(2)
Sustaining Hope	175	(3)
Raising the Teacher's Voice	178	(5)
Epilogue	183	(2)
References	185	(6)
Index	191	(6)
About the Author	197