Bicentennial Summer Reading Program 2009

Taylor Mali will be our 2009 Bicentennial Summer Reading Program Convocation speaker, August 21, at 9 am, in Millett Hall. As is our tradition, discussion groups will convene immediately following Convocation.

This is the 28th year of Miami University's Summer Reading Program.

One of the nation's oldest and, based on our past authors and speakers, arguably one of the premiere programs in the country, Summer Reading introduces our incoming first-year students to Miami's academic community. Students will receive a copy of the book at Orientation and are asked to come to the discussion groups following Convocation ready to share their views on the book and the speaker. For faculty, this is an opportunity to meet a small group of our class of 2013 as you discuss an exciting and interesting book with them. We ask you to welcome the students and help them feel at ease about sharing their thoughts at this important time in their transition from high school to University.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A poet and a teacher, Taylor Mali is considered to be the most successful poetry slam strategist of all time, having won the National Poetry Slam competition a record four times. Mali spent nine years in the classroom and has performed and lectured all over the world. He received a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant in 2001. A YouTube video of his performance of "What Teachers Make" has been viewed almost one million times.

"I want to reform education in America [...] I want to be the individual responsible for making an entire generation of college graduates consider teaching [...] I want to be the spokesman for teaching's nobility, the poet laureate of passion in the classroom." Taylor Mali

"Not since Taylor Mali, has there been a poet of the likes of Taylor Mali--which is to say he is a man of unique properties. He is tagged as a performance poet, but his performances, rather than being frontal assaults, are leavened by charm and wit [...]" Billy Collins

"Taylor Mali speaks of the world of the teacher with power and grace. His work is filled with the energy, joy, pathos and humor of everyday life in the classroom. Strong and compassionate, his voice is our voice. He's been there." Michele Forman, National Teacher of the Year 2001

To find out more about Taylor Mali, please visit

http://www.taylormali.com/index.html

WHY THIS BOOK?

As we use the Bicentennial year to mark the next chapter in Miami's august history, we are proud to make a bold choice for the summer reading book. Because these compelling poems reflect on education from both the student and teacher perspective, they provide a point of departure for discussion on what a student might expect from the next four years of their education. What might we discover as we ask students which poem they liked best and why? Where might the discussion go as we discuss our experiences in the classroom? Faculty, staff and students all share memories both wonderful and perhaps not quite so wonderful about school. Some of those moments were inspirational - some were full of frustration.

Taylor Mali helps us to think about those moments in his poetry. We have the opportunity to talk with students about education and find out who they are, what they expect from college and what we hope their experience will include. What a timely opportunity as Miami University begins its next 100 years. What do we want to be as a university? Who do we want to be as students, as faculty and staff? Please consider joining in this event. Your voice is important.

A Miami University Liberal Education Experience!

My Learning Leaves:
A Composition Contest for First-Year Students
The Office of Liberal Education and Howe Center for Writing Excellence invite you to enter a composition contest that we are co-sponsoring in conjunction with this year's summer reading.  We invite projects from first-year students on ways your school experiences and learning goals align with, differ from, augment, and/or challenge those represented in the 2009 Summer Reading, Taylor Mali's What Learning Leaves.  For more information about the contest, please visit the Howe Center for Writing Excellence website at http://www.units.muohio.edu/writingcenter/index.html .

• Choose one line from a poem that means a lot to you. See if any other poems contain a similar thought.
• Compare insights suggested by the poems on learning and on teaching, then compare and contrast these notions.
• As reflected in the poems, how does learning change as you grow and mature?
• What significant aspects of your own education are not included in any of the poems in What Learning Leaves?
• Is there a line, or a thought in any of the poems with which you strongly disagree? If so, why?
• What aspect of your own schooling might you, as a student new to college, decide to leave behind? What do you insist on keeping?
• How does poetry add to, or detract from, the scenes, people and topics represented within it?
• What other mediums might be used to explore aspects of school life, and what meanings might be gained or lost through such a change?
• If these poems were to focus on your own personal academic, or professional goals, what themes, values, situations, characters, and/or language might they include?
• What would you say teachers make? What do/should students make?

Read More About the Book

Taylor Mali Promo

Watch Mali Perform

Miracle Workers

For the Life of Me

Summer Reading Program Information

Copies of What Learning Leaves will be available during Summer Orientation at the Shriver Center Bookstore for all first year students.

Faculty and staff who wish to participate in the program should contact the Office of Liberal Education.

Taylor Mali will address University Convocation on Friday, August 21th at 9 AM, at Millett Hall.

Discussion sessions with a Miami faculty or staff member and upperclass students will follow Convocation.

Links

2009 Bicentennial Summer Reading Committee

Vicka Bell-Robinson - Living Learning Communities; Rosalyn Erat Benson, School of Fine Arts (Committee Chair); Jerome Conley - Bicentennial Coordinator; Steve Elliot - Economics - Business; Megan Fife - student; Gudrun Haider - First Year Advisor; Susan Hurst - University Libraries; John M. Jeep - Liberal Education/GREAL (Co-Chair), Jennifer Kinney - Gerontology and Sociology; John Tassoni - Coordinator, First Year English; Monica Schneider - Political Science; Doug Shumavon - Political Science; Hank Stevens - Botany; Jerry Stonewater, Liberal Education (ex-officio)

Please contact the Office of Liberal Education at (513) 529-7135 with any further questions regarding the Summer Reading Program.