Additional Information on Salient Titles
| Title |
Author |
Description |
Excerpt |
| What
We Want And Other Poems |
Adam R. Marcotte |
Description |
Excerpt |
| I-Searching: A How-to Guide for Qualitative I-Search Projects | Adam R. Marcotte | Description | Excerpt |
| Adam's Grammar Primer: A Review of Everyday English Essentials | Adam R. Marcotte | Description | Excerpt |
| Dragon Soul: Book One of the Triune Jewels | Jennifer Childress |
Description | Excerpt |
| Barefoot and Pregnant: The Socialization of the Educated Korean Woman | Scott Valentine | Description | Excerpt |
Return
to Adam’s
and Heidi’s Main Index Page
What We Want And Other
Poems
What
We Want And Other Poems explores the nuances of growing up,
learning, loving,
and living mindfully within the intricate context of families, friends,
and
communities. The poems in this 100-page collection find thematic homes
within
four sections: Learning to Dance; High Marks in the Schoolhouse;
Loving, JUST
and MERRIED; and Realizing What We Want. Throughout the work,
Adam R. Marcotte offers a compelling
perspective of a
balanced, deliberate way of life on a delicate and precious planet.
What We Want And Other
Poems
In My Sleep
In my sleep I finally
found
An orgy of words,
And I murmured with zeal
Because for so long
There had been no frustration
With which to drive my pen.
But this morning, I find myself
As empty of poesy as
The night before,
Forcing the question
As to the existence of the
Hallucinations in the first place.
So, in their stead,
I conceive a whining
Temper tantrum as
A child might, after
A slight spanking
Stamping my foot and
Wondering if,
In that edgy twilight, there wasn’t
Before my eyes
And on my lips
Some magic.
A Ketchum
FOR MILDRED
My mother’s mother,
A Ketchum,
Someone whose soul still touches mine—
As when I’m mopping the floor
At 3:30 a.m. since, if you’re awake,
You may as well do something—
Chose death too long ago.
It wasn’t the cancer, the diabetes,
Or the tumor lodged deep in her hip;
She just decided there wasn’t enough work left.
She asked us to drive her along the old dirt roads
Which she remembered as paths and hay-wagon trails.
She tapped her wrinkled fingers on the door
And laughed about her sons and daughter
Coming home on this road with iron trucks,
Running through those prickers in cutoff shorts.
From the back of the car, my mother,
Nervous and searching for the right questions,
Asked, “Would you do it again, Ma?”
But without hesitation or even a break for thought,
From the passenger side my grandmother erupted,
“Nooooooooooooooo!”
The daughter and the grandson sat, stunned.
Trees crept by us, and we listened
To the rubber slapping the recently paved road
Because the wind had stopped moving, like our breathing.
But not Mildred:
“I’m
eighty-years-old; I don’t have time for that!”
I-Searching offers a unique—and often transformational—learning experience for students of all ages. It allows students to serve as experts and explorers by engaging in genuine qualitative research. Although there are other factors involved in whether or not students can attain specific educational benchmarks, all students have a greater chance of success when they know what the final product should look like, feel like, sound like, and, in some cases, even taste like. Therefore, this book describes and provides examples of successful I-Search projects for students who have chosen to engage in limited qualitative research in a language arts context.
This publication is available in PDF format.
As most instructors and students know, one of the best ways to ensure success on any project is to offer an exemplary model of what that successful product should look like when it is finished. Even though there are many other factors in whether or not students can attain certain educational benchmarks—factors such as their previous experience, their current skills, the quality of the instruction, the learning environment, etc.—all students have a greater chance of success when they know what the final product looks like, feels like, sounds like, and, in some cases, even tastes like.
Therefore,
instructors have a
responsibility to provide the best model possible, and students have a
responsibility
to employ their personal resources to meet or exceed the expectations
of each
project. For instructors, good models are often hard to locate,
especially with it comes to qualitative research at the secondary and
undergraduate level. This book is specifically designed for
students and
instructors who have chosen to engage in limited qualitative research
in a
language arts context; however, it can also serve as a starting point
for other
disciplines. In addition, this book reviews “re-”search
documentation
methods in the Modern Language Associate (MLA) format since more
advanced
studies may include a literature review.
Generally,
I-Searching offers a unique—sometimes transformational—learning
experience for
students of all ages. I-Searching is not meant as a replacement
for
quality instruction or a fecund learning environment, but it can
complement a
strong program. Applications outside language arts might include
I-Searching to explore local history and to enrich a newer generation’s
understanding of the immediate community in a social studies
class.
I-Searching can be used to explore an original hypothesis and to
conduct
genuine research in a science class. Students in writing classes
could
use it to document how people interact with language and/or to examine
the
process authors use when creating different kinds of poetry and
prose.
Although this book does not provide an extensive list of alternative
applications, it does provide a list of resources for those interested
in designing
their own.
Adam's Grammar Primer: A Review of
Everyday English Essentials
This publication is available in PDF
format.
Adam's Grammar Primer:
A Review of Everyday English Essentials
Imagine trying to coach a football team without knowing the difference
between a touchdown and a field goal. Imagine trying to purchase
a car
without knowing what an engine does. Imagine trying to bake a
cake
without realizing the difference between baking soda and baking
powder.
In all these cases, the chance of succeeding at each task is greatly
reduced
because the participant is not versed in the vocabulary of the
activity.
As writers in the workplace, many of us recognize why this kind of
rudimentary knowledge and understanding is crucial in the
aforementioned
scenarios. Yet oftentimes when we sit down to write, we ignore
our own
lack of awareness of the basics of English grammar and at the same time
we
somehow expect positive results. To make matters worse, rather
than
become more proficient, we rely too heavily on technology, our friends,
and
forgiving audiences to subsidize our own lack of expertise.
Part of the difficulty is that writing in general and grammar in
particular are frequently seen as “mysterious” and complicated—only to
be
understood by the brooding poet who writes from divine inspiration, the
disheveled writer locked away in a shack on an anonymous and deserted
seaside,
or the quintessential and much-feared high school English
teacher.
Another difficulty may be that most written grammar resources are quite
thick
and difficult to use, which does not encourage writers who are pressed
for time
and space to utilize them.
In response to those challenges, this primer is designed to be a quick
review of the essentials of English grammar. It is not a
replacement for
comprehensive grammar resources but rather an easy reference guide to
the most
common questions relating to “the basics.”
If, after reviewing this text, you have any comments or suggestions,
please contact me at the address below so that I can improve this work
in the
future. Meanwhile, I wish you the best of luck as you grapple
with your
daily tasks, especially as they relate to the challenges of language
arts.
This
publication is available in PDF format.
Excerpt
…To this day, Rhianon still doesn’t understand what made her bend down and scoop up a handful of sand. All she knew was that she didn’t want to die, and Jordan was too exhausted to be of much help. The Seekers didn’t hinder her movements because she wasn’t trying to escape, and instead, simply watched.
Sifting the sand between her hands, Rhianon wished that the Seekers would just go away and leave them alone. She was aware of the feeling of that something was growing deep within her body. The sand grew hot in her palms and with an exclamation, she dropped it back onto the ground and watched in surprise as the sand solidified into that of a sword.
Description
This publication is available in a variety of formats by the author at http://scottvalentine.com.
Excerpt
When I first visited Korea in 1985 I drove around Seoul all day and never saw a woman driving a car. Women did not drive! No doubt there were a few out there, but in my first week in Korea I saw only one. As a westerner coming to Korea in the mid 1980s this level of, what at the time seemed an extremely oppressive society, was a major shock. I had never seen that kind of repression of the female gender. Over time and several more visits to Korea I began to see improvements in women’s social position, but nothing that promised to soon bring them up to the level of other industrialized nations I had visited. Their progress seemed to be stymied by a force of unknown origin and extreme strength. Years later, work which brought me into contact with hundreds of upper class Korean housewives a month, and the thousands of conversations that ensued as a result of that contact, gave me more insight into those powers and how they affected the different classes of women. All that contact also served to pique my interest in the plight of the Korean woman and inspired me to satisfy that interest by exploring the causes behind their oppression in this paper.
There have, to date, been many books written on the subject of the Korean woman which have explored everything from the historical roots of their present attitudes to the expanding job opportunities for women in Korean corporations. While the historical works do a fine job of exposing the traditional beliefs that have led to the present attitudes, they have not gone far towards explaining the great impact those lingering beliefs still have on the modern Korean woman. The more recent works on women’s increasing participation in the work force, while offering good statistical information on the wage gaps between men and women, and facts on the traditional male attitudes dominating Korean corporations, unfortunately offer little insight into the bleak futures awaiting educated women in search of careers. Many of them conclude that the Korean woman’s lot is improving and offer loads of innocuous pap about the “continued development of...” “great strides being made...” and other such approbations. Recent statistics reported in the media tout the increasing percentages of women entering major corporations[4] but seem to miss the point about the type of work being done and the length of time it is done for. The press offers few contrary views to this rosy picture. And though one of the earliest women’s movement groups in Korea, the “Yô’sông Dong’u Hoe (Chosôn Women’s Sisterhood Association)” was formed as far back as May of 1924,[5] there is at present, a conspicuous absence of women’s independence activities.
This publication is available in a variety of formats by the author at http://scottvalentine.com.