Bio Bodies

Jean Siewicki
Fort Johnson Middle School

"WARNING, enter at your own risk." "BEWARE, BIO BODIES." "Invasion of the BIO BODIES." The determined visitor stopped outside my classroom, read the warnings plastered on the door, and peeked inside. "What's going on here?" he stammered. I looked up from my kneeling position beside a prone student, felt tip marker poised, and followed his confounded gaze across the room. The floor was littered with eighth graders lying on large sheets of colored paper. Others hovered over frozen figures carefully tracing the outlines with black marking pens. A threesome sat cross-legged in the corner cutting out magazine pictures; four others busily hacked away at the traced lines of their bodies. It resembled a quirky mass murder scene.

"We're creating a community," I enthused. I pulled out my copy of Living Between the Lines and quoted these lines, "Our students need what readers and writers the world over need . . . they need to feel at home. They need to feel safe and respected and free to be themselves" (Calkins and Harwayne 27). "Come back in a week and see the finished product. My students will be explaining the importance of their BIO BODIES then." After that quick explanation, our visitor left smiling and satisfied with an invitation to return for the finished BIO BODY presentation.

The BIO BODY project is an innovation I gleaned from several other sources and adapted throughout the years. This project transforms our classroom into a trusting community and provides students with rich sources of inspiration for their writing. It's simple and requires a minimum of materials.

• large (six feet long, three feet wide) sheets of paper
• felt tip markers
• magazines
• scissors
• glue
• paint, glitter, and buttons are optional

First, I gather sheets of colored paper, enough for every student in the class. Then I post big signs on the class door so that passersby know that something special is going on. My students walk in surprised and curious, already anticipating a unique activity. I explain that the BIO BODIES are their bodies, with their stories, their memories, and their history. The students decide what should be included and what they'd prefer to leave out in their biographical stories.

After deciding on a pose that is meaningful to them, students lie on the paper striking that pose. I usually trace their outlines, which allows me to get close to them, and invade their space in a non-threatening way. One boy who ran cross country track positioned himself in a runner's stance. A junior varsity cheerleader chose to twist her body into a hurkey (a bent knee jump). Another sports fan feigned shooting a basketball by stretching his arms over his head. The poses are as individual as the students themselves.

The students then cut out their body outlines and work on making them biographical. Students paint, color, and cut and paste their life in pictures onto the body. Since I require the entire surface of the body be utilized, pictures of student hobbies, activities, special memories, pets, family members, and major events are all included. The BIO BODY should then be immediately identifiable as a distinct representation of the student.

When the BIO BODIES are complete, I give everyone a large cartoon-like dialogue bubble with instructions to sum up their philosophy of life in a sentence or two and write it in the bubble. The finished BIO BODIES spouting life philosophies are hung all around the room, and the classroom comes alive with life-size paper personalities. Teachers and students delight in visiting the BIO BODY gallery and identifying the subjects. My students feel validated as important people, something adolescents frequently lack. Then we share our stories (Calkins 27) because "shared stories can build communities, change relationships, and get students caring about one another." (Harwayne 9).

I ask students to think about what has shaped them as individuals and who has influenced them. I want them to discover who they are and how they became that person. They probe deeply for their beliefs and values. Probst asserts that one of the six goals for literature and writing instruction is that "Students will learn about themselves." He writes that this goal should shape and lead curriculum and instruction (39). Students then explain the importance and meaning behind each picture glued to their BIO BODY in a five to ten minute presentation they address to the class. This is the time we learn to trust and accept each other. It is a time for self revelation and realization. We learn about divorced parents, friendships, hurts, loves and disappointments. We hear about the deaths of grandparents and pets. We listen with respect and learn we are all alike.

I am constantly amazed at what students reveal about themselves. One girl, known for discipline problems and frequent suspensions glued a large picture of baby pacifier over her BIO BODY's mouth. She explained that she tended to have a big mouth and it frequently got her in trouble. The pacifier, she hoped, would serve as a reminder to think before she spoke.

This type of honest, evaluative self-reflection would certainly not be possible without the sense of community fostered by sharing our stories and making connections as people. Collaborative efforts, conferencing, and honest writing are vital to middle school language arts classes, yet can be so difficult to achieve.

Students need trusting classroom relationships so they can serve as an audience for one another, and so they will want to write for each other. Teachers of students from sixth grade up often observe that kids hesitate to share work in class and want only the teacher to read what they have written. thereby cutting themselves off from the larger community, a vital source of ideas, support, and feedback. (Zemelman and Daniels 53)

Because I display the BIO BODIES on our walls for several months, they also serve as an ongoing source of inspiration for writing. Whenever students seem stuck and devoid of ideas for a new topic, all I have to do is point their attention to their BIO BODIES. Their life stories and memories represented in drawings and magazine photographs are tangible reminders that they have many stories to tell. Calkins believes that "writing matters the most when it is personal and when it is interpersonal" (14). Because they have pictured their stories, they can write about them. These are the seeds from which their writings sprout (74). They feel compelled to capture their thoughts on paper and translate those pictures into words. Soon, students are writing anecdotes and memoirs. "In writing memoir, we select moments that reveal our won experiences of our lives. My emphasis is on two words, select and reveal" (Calkins 407). The trust we fostered with the sharing of our BIO BODIES serves as a security blanket for students to reveal themselves and their subjects in their writing.

Here is where they explore their past and find meaning in the present. As adolescents struggling to discover who they are, they find themselves in their writing (Newkirk and Atwell 167). Calkins reminds us "that it is by looking back that we create our lives, our selves (400). Memoir and anecdotal writings soon advance to autobiographies. The need to express the significance of their lives pushes them to make decisions about content, tone, and organization. In her autobiography, Becky Ford chose to unify her writing with the image of candy. She begins:

I sat on the steps of my door and watched my dog, Buddy, peacefully sleeping on the green and brown grass in the bright, warm sunshine. A plastic bowl of valentine candy sat on the other side of the brick step. As I ate some of the candy, I thought of how my growing up seemed so much like the bowl of assorted candy that sat next to me.

I picked up a miniature Hershey bar, unwrapped it and took a bite. The sweet chocolate reminded me of my childhood, especially the birthday parties. I can still smell the burning wax of the four baby blue candles on the Dukes of Hazard cake and hear the voices of the small children laughing and singing "Happy Birthday". The taste of vanilla ice cream and chocolate cake still linger on my tongue.

Finally, after the BIO BODIES, memoirs, anecdotes and autobiographies have all been completed, I ask the students to evaluate the project. I encourage them to think about and respond to several criteria:

• The process involved
• Their self discovery
• Their strengths as writers
• Their overall evaluations of the project

Another student, Kristin Asleson writes:

I think I know myself pretty well, and conveyed that to the reader. I know where I have been and what I want to do. I have learned a lot about myself. I had to look back at all the memories and pick only the ones most special to me. I really like my autobiography because in years to come I can look back on this and remember all the times I have written about. When I get older my view of life will probably change, and it will be interesting to see what I thought was a mortifying experience at nine years of age might be hysterically funny at nineteen. Overall, this is my all-time favorite writing from your class.

Ryan Cooper's evaluation outlines the strengths in his autobiography and mentions an underlying fear of every writer- that of being misunderstood. His misgivings and self-doubt seem to dissolve with the last few lines as he comes to a better understanding of himself as a person.

I think that I did a very good job sustaining my metaphor throughout the piece. I also think that I did a good job with the anecdotes. The major problem that I encountered with this piece of writing was that I couldn't think of how to put my life into words. I was afraid that someone might misinterpret my life. I wanted to show people what a wonderful life I have had. I wanted to show them that I have had a great time living. I also learned about myself. Sometimes we forget the past. By remembering the good and bad times, I learned that I really have changed since I was two and watching Sesame Street.

Lucy Calkins issues a dire warning: "We cannot write well if we are afraid to put ourselves on the page. We cannot write well if we are afraid to let our individual voice stand out from other voices" (143). If we, as teachers, take time to foster a caring, trusting atmosphere in our classrooms, if we encourage and promote tentative writers, we will reap the benefits of student success.

Works Cited

Calkins, Lucy McCormick. The Art of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1994.

Calkins, Lucy McCormick and Shelley Harwayne. Living Between the Lines. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1991.

Harwayne, Shelley. Lasting Impressions. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1992.

Newkirk, Thomas and Nancie Atwell. Understanding Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1988.

Probst, Robert E. "Reader-Response Theory and the English Curriculum." English Journal March 1994: 37-44.

Zemelman, Steven and Harvey Daniels. A Community of Writers . Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1988.