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Come See the Toe Tag Monologues at #NCTE17!

11/15/2017

 
What does a dramatic performance by a 13-year-old have to do with English Language Arts or with Young Adult literature, for that matter?

Too often, classroom English instruction is removed from the concerns and activities of the adolescents we are trying to teach. We know that many of our students are carrying baggage right below the surface.  Byron Stringer, the director of the Toe Tag Monologues would symbolically call this baggage a toe tag. Some toe tags can be removed, but others are the real markers that police, EMTs, and coroners place on the toes of those adolescents who die from shooting, bully, drunk drive, abuse, and suicide.

The classic texts are rife with the very issues that modern students face: racism, broken homes, betrayal, substance abuse, and greed. Name a vice in a piece of classic literature, and it exists today.  Many of use believe that culturally responsive pedagogy is important in the classroom. Equally important are activities that are empathetic, that break down the emotional barriers that might keep us from really connecting with students who needs us to support them through the actual life threatening challenges of their lives.

R. Byron Stringer theatrical troupe address through Toe Tag Monologues. Through assemblies at schools these young performers bring awareness to the issues that effect the lives of students. In most cases, after a school performance students approach the actors and share with them that one of the stories they just heard is their stories. Byron hears reports for teachers, school counselors, and administrators indicate an increased number of students who open up to them and their friends.

Our goal is to promote the idea that students in classroom settings can write and perform their own monologues. In addition, we promote the ideas that the topics of these monologues exist in young adult literature as well as in the classics. If the issue of body image is to close to a student, then perhaps reading a YA novel that centers on the issue might help them write a monologue in the voice of the character. 

This is, of course, not new; however it seems that in the age of constant testing we have neglected drama as way to let students practice speaking and listening through performance. Come watch and listen to these performers as we explore strategies to include more writing that moves to performance in the classroom.
Using YA to find and define an Identity.
Nuts and Bolts for helping the Novice Teacher
Remixing and Going Digital!

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    Dr. Steve Bickmore
    ​Creator and Curator

    Dr. Bickmore is a Professor of English Education at UNLV. He is a scholar of Young Adult Literature and past editor of The ALAN Review and a past president of ALAN. He is a available for speaking engagements at schools, conferences, book festivals, and parent organizations. More information can be found on the Contact page and the About page.
    Dr. Gretchen Rumohr
    Co-Curator
    Gretchen Rumohr is a professor of English and writing program administrator at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

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    Meet
    Evangile Dufitumukiza!
    Evangile is a native of Kigali, Rwanda. He is a college student that Steve meet while working in Rwanda as a missionary. In fact, Evangile was one of the first people who translated his English into Kinyarwanda. 

    Steve recruited him to help promote Dr. Bickmore's YA Wednesday on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media while Steve is doing his mission work. 

    He helps Dr. Bickmore promote his academic books and sometimes send out emails in his behalf. 

    You will notice that while he speaks fluent English, it often does look like an "American" version of English. That is because it isn't. His English is heavily influence by British English and different versions of Eastern and Central African English that is prominent in his home country of Rwanda.

    Welcome Evangile into the YA Wednesday community as he learns about Young Adult Literature and all of the wild slang of American English vs the slang and language of the English he has mastered in his beautiful country of Rwanda.  

    While in Rwanda, Steve has learned that it is a poor English speaker who can only master one dialect and/or set of idioms in this complicated language.

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