Welcome!
Thinking Routine:
ISOMA
Nourishing the Person and Writer Within
Lacey Dodd
SDAWP Fall Conference
TABLE OF CONTENTS
01
02
03
04
INTRODUCTION
Teaching context + intention + guiding questions + Orienting Practice
NERVOUS SYSTEM
Overview + Polyvagal Theory + classroom implications
ISOMA
Overview + Benefits/Uses + Student Work + experience of ISOMA with “Wild Geese”
DO NOW
Craft an original poem + symphony share
Hoover High School
English Language Arts &
Restorative Justice
Social Justice Academy
12th year in the classroom, 4th at Hoover
Guiding Questions
How can I facilitate critical thinking and analysis in order to build intellective capacity and confidence in my students?
How can I support my students in becoming self-directed learners led by creativity, curiosity, and deep thinking?
How can I create authentic, nourishing and enjoyable learning environments that promote a sense of safety and well-being?
What truly matters in contemporary education?
My Intention
To explore and experience an inquiry thinking routine for mentor texts that supports nervous system regulation and a sense of safety and ease. This creates learning conditions that facilitate critical thinking, self-awareness, and higher cortical functions such as analysis and perspective taking.
Through ISOMA, we nourish the whole person and writer within.
— Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or
it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.
Executive Functions:
- attention
- decision making
- ability to analyze, rationalize, differentiate
- set goals
Fight, Flight, Freeze activated when threat is detected, trauma responses, largely unconscious, not under our control
Modulator of the brain (aka the gatekeeper)
How do we create spaces to encourage executive functions in the brain and avoid stimulating FFF?
OR
How do we support students who come into our space in FFF?
Polyvagal Theory
Activating/Stimulating the ventral vagal is key for authentic learning!!
Orienting Practice
Coming into the present moment by connecting to the environment through your senses
THINKING ROUTINE - ISOMA
Image | |
Sensation | |
Orientation | � |
Meaning | |
Affect | |
Any image that stands out from the text or a mental image that arises from sitting with the words.
How the body responds through sensations, can be experienced in specific locations or in an overall, global felt sense
Generally start here as a way to gain one’s bearings on the text. What stands out? What words or phrases jump out at you?
What thoughts, questions, connections arise? This allows thoughts to guide the analysis and deepen understanding. Here is where students could analyze language, theme, study writer’s moves etc.
Affect describes the emotions or feelings that arise in response to a line or the poem as a whole. There might be multiple emotions experienced
Benefits of ISOMA
Uses of ISOMA
to a pdf format
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
ORIENTATION/IMAGE
What words, phrase, or image
shimmer and stand out to you?
audio of “Wild Geese”
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
SENSATION
What word or phrase
stands out and how do you notice it in your body?
What sensations arise as you listen to the poem?
Share sensations that
arise in the chat.
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
AFFECT
As you listen to the poem this time, what emotions or feelings emerge in you?
Share your response
in the chat.
“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile, the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
MEANING
As you listen to the poem this final time, what thoughts, connections, questions arise for you?
How does this poem connect to the specificity of your present life and lived experience?
Journal your response for the next 5 minutes.
✷ISOMA✷ Do Now /// Copy Change Poem
SDAWP strategy of imitating craft and structure of a mentor text.
+ Borrow syntax + Remix diction + Take creative risks
🔆 Write an original poem copy changing Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese”
Invitations:
🔆 You have 10 minutes to play with your poem.
🔆 We will return at 10:40 for a symphony share in the last few minutes.
Adrie Kusserow’s “Wild Geese” for Corona Times You do not have to become totally zen, You do not have to use this isolation to make your marriage better, your body slimmer, your children more creative. You do not have to “maximize its benefits” By using this time to work even more, write the bestselling Corona Diaries, Or preach the gospel of ZOOM. You only have to let the soft animal of your body unlearn everything capitalism has taught you, (That you are nothing if not productive, That consumption equals happiness, That the most important unit is the single self. That you are at your best when you resemble an efficient machine). . Tell me about your fictions, the ones you’ve been sold, the ones you sheepishly sell others, and I will tell you mine. . Meanwhile the world as we know it is crumbling. Meanwhile the virus is moving over the hills, suburbs, cities, farms and trailer parks. . Meanwhile The News barks at you, harsh and addicting, Until the push of the remote leaves a dead quiet behind, a loneliness that hums as the heart anchors. | Meanwhile a new paradigm is composing itself in our minds, Could birth at any moment if we clear some space From the same tired hegemonies. . Remember, you are allowed to be still as the white birch, Stunned by what you see, Uselessly shedding your coils of paper skins Because it gives you something to do. . Meanwhile, on top of everything else you are facing, Do not let capitalism co-opt this moment, laying its whistles and train tracks across your weary heart. . Even if your life looks nothing like the Sabbath, Your stress boa-constricting your chest. Know that your antsy kids, your terror, your shifting moods, Your need for a drink have every right to be here, And are no less sacred than a yoga class. . Whoever you are, no matter how broken, the world still has a place for you, calls to you over and over announcing your place as legit, as forgiven, even if you fail and fail and fail again. remind yourself over and over, all the swells and storms that run through your long tired body all have their place here, now in this world. . It is your birthright to be held deeply, warmly in the family of things, not one cell left in the cold. |
Eagle Poem
By Joy Harjo
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.
Student Samples from using ISOMA with Joy Harjo’s “Eagle Poem”
How should I start
in a world known for its beauty from the sky
Running the streets, blowing the light
We see ourselves in divine light, a light we cannot see, we only feel
Emotions collapse when there's nothing to feel
We try, we make, we see and try to find
But when there is nothing else, we still keep trying
To a light we can hold
Our questions spread on what to find, what to make, what to do
But people still want to look, to find something real, to feel something unlimited
How do we feel something unlimited we ask ourselves
A question with no answer to the melancholy
A question filled with questions, A question with no answer
A blank space
- Reggie, 17
Student Samples from using ISOMA with Joy Harjo’s “Eagle Poem”
Cycles
Drop it like a pebble in every single river.
Its ripples will spread and bounce
That you can’t see
Can’t hear
Can’t know except in moments.
Even when you can’t see it,
Keep the cycle going,
True circle of motion.
And just maybe
Kindness will find its way
To someone who is stranded
Cold, in the sea
- Kimberly, 16
ISOMA
Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.
- Margaret Mead
THANK YOU
Questions / comments?
I’d love to connect!
Laceydodd@gmail.com
Presentation created by Slidesgo
Resources (the shoulders I gratefully stand on)
- Organic Intelligence (not only for therapists but also for other helping professionals or anyone seeking nervous system regulation/trauma resolution for themselves or others)
- Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond
- Penny Kittle (books, talks, website etc.)
- Any book by Dr. Dan Siegel
Practice: Come into the present moment by connecting to your environment through your senses. Engage what is around you with neutrality. You are simply being present to what is without judging it or evaluating whether you enjoy it or don’t, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant. (When in a Zoom classroom, option to provide a nature landscape as a shared screen as an alternative for students to orient to if students find their environments stressful.)
“Ask yourself”
Purpose: When our physiology gets stuck in reviewing what has happened, planning for the future, or scanning our environment for what’s wrong, we often become activated. We feel a sense of unease and it is difficult to be present right here, right now. When we are present we are more able to respond to the circumstance with what is needed rather than reactively. This practice helps our physiology register the safety or calm of the present moment and has a deactivating quality to it, bringing a momentary sense of ease which has a regulating effect on our nervous system.
Orienting Practice
Image Credits
Slide 1: Unsplash
Slide 3: mine
Slide 6: Emergence Magazine, Tree Issue
Slide 7: InsideTrack
Slide 8: source unknown
Slide 11: Emergence Magazine
Slide 14: mine (adapted from Organic Intelligence)
Slide 15: Gottman Institute
Slide 22: Stock Images
Slide 26: mine