Review by Christopher Godish

           In her book, Imagination and Literacy: A Teacher's Search for the Heart of Learning, Karen Gallas attempts to investigate the role imagination plays in the classroom, with the goal of harnessing the aspects that could comprise a valid curriculum of student assessment. The book offers a bold, fresh look at the concepts of  classroom management, critical thinking and instruction, and the ideas of student assessment and teacher self-evaluation, through its honest and, at times, overly-passionate, bearing-my-heart delivery.

            Imagination and Literacy tells the story of Gallas and her struggle to study the systematic nature of the imaginative core of all students, as a result of a year of self-described failure in being unable to address the lack of engagement of a student named Denzel. The book follows Gallas over the course of a three year journey into “the heart of learning,” as she somewhat obsesses over finding the spirit of imagination in her classroom. The book also offers an in-depth look into Gallas' techniques of setting traps to isolate and capture this spirit and presents Gallas' own constant checking and re-checking of her evaluative techniques, as it leads her closer to imagination.

            The main focus of Gallas' work, it seems, is to take readers – presumably teachers – on a journey through the inner-workings of the imagination and the concept of  its usefulness as a tool of assessment and engagement in the classroom. The book is arranged loosely, by chapters; Gallas confesses, however, that there is no “traditional format, either structurally or in terms of its narrative style” and, as such, readers will find the writing to be, at times, more like conversational rambling or inner-musing. This more-personal style aids the book in its effectiveness: unlike other books that address educational discourse, this book feels as if Gallas – who has been teaching for thirty-plus years – is really interested in teaching the art of her craft, and sharing the highlights of the interesting and elusive journey of discovery that came to be revealed to her:

The pursuit of imagination as an educational benchmark seems absurd. I hold the view, however, that the human organism is remarkable precisely because the myriad ways in which it grows and adapts can not  finally be quantified (Gallas, 5).

 ...Imagination can assist us in the process of developing new literacies ...(Gallas, 8).

 [The goal is to take students] beyond basic skills, to focus less on deciphering codes and more on understanding the deeper contexts within which language is used in every [aspect of life] (Gallas, 10).

             Gallas' book proposes two very important implications for teachers and their teaching. She challenges teachers not only to closely evaluate the quality of teaching and learning environments, but also, and perhaps unintentionally, that teachers remain in a constant state of introspection about themselves as teachers. The format of the book is an open call for teachers to remember the importance of self-assessment as it relates to goals, goal setting, and achievement in the classroom. Gallas also contends that not only the materials used in the classroom, but the classroom environment, itself,  should be effective in their nurturing of the creativity of students:

The physical design of [a] classroom... should be richly provisioned and provide many different kinds of spaces for learning and teaching (Gallas, 7).

Trusting in the ability of texts to expand our experience of the world – from the utilitarian to the transcendent – ...is an act of imagination, synthesizing memory, psyche, emotion, and logic into a new vision of the world (Gallas, 22).

            Barrel supports Gallas, in that the tools of learning are useful devices in the process of

teaching not only creativity, but also social perspective. He posits that:

When introducing a particular literary selection, it is enjoyable and profitable to stir      student's imaginations by presenting conflict situations relevant to ones found in the novel, play, or story to be studied... [instead of over-focusing on the achievement of specific results, teachers should create opportunities for students   to engage the texts in terms of images and prior experiences that are relevant to them] (Barrel, 82).

         He also adds that:

If literature is anything, it is an author's revelation of the human drama of conflicting values, ideas, and goals through actions of living characters. Students can be introduced to literature through activities that help them “react to the image” so they become like actors having a feeling for or a sense of who these persons are and why they act as they do (Barrel, 82).

            Givens insists that “creative behavior is one of the few activities through which man can truly find himself" (295) and that “educators can help the creative individual assume a role of leadership in their schools” (301). He suggests that there are specific characteristics that should be of “great concern” to educators - “who should be the major diagnostician of creative behavior” -  that are “typical of, but not unique in, creative persons” because they are “[the qualities that will] tend to set [the creative person] aside from the usual person” (297).  Some of the following characteristic are considered “critical,” by Givens, in order that educators recognize and understand the creative individual:

Educators should be aware that the creative individual is curious, intelligent, critical, and independent. They have theoretical and aesthetic values (they have a system of values that places high worth on the search for truth and the appreciation of beauty). They are original and spontaneous, and have the ability to synthesize. They show a persistence in the development of ideas and are challenged (rather than confused) by disorder. They show the courage to reveal themselves. They are likely to view themselves as processes rather than     products, as well as recognizing that there are many ways of interpreting the same situation.(Givens, 296-298)

            Givens also goes on to suggest ways in which the educator may help to “enhance and develop” the creative environment:

The environment that will best foster the needs of the creative individual will be one where the student is recognized and respected as an individual of great worth. Educators will help their students to gain a sense of personal identity, and the classroom environment will be one that allows the student to be themselves. As such, students should be free to address their own changing system of values and encouraged to be concerned with the total human condition. The classroom environment should be one that aids the student in making choices, helps to develop efficient skills of communication, and urges the development of a regard for empathic understanding of others (299-300).

            Some of the strongest aspects of the book include Gallas' descriptions of her students, as they begin to become more literate over the course of the school year. She describes, for example, “light bulb moments” in her classroom, using the moniker “The Look.” She explains that, “The Look” [is] “the instant in which “they became very still, their eyes glazed over, their mouths dropped, and they took on ... a slightly zombie-ish state of  being mesmerized by the [fusion of] story and picture" (18). When teachers do encounter this “Look,” Gallas contends that it is important to address it, first, in terms of its imaginative possibilities. She claims that teachers should not only ask the questions “what does 'The Look' mask” or “what's happening in their heads,” but also to:

[Consider that] the children [are] allowing themselves to be transported to another time and place, that they [are] engaged in an imaginative exercise   [where]... the books [are] magical, and producing an altered state of being [sic] (18).

            Partly because of her writing style, and mostly because of the painstaking efforts Gallas used to plan her approach to teaching, readers will find the stories of her students, and their development into cognizant, imaginative thinkers all at once beautiful (in that the students are obviously learning and developing), poetic (in the quality of her near-compulsory self-assessment), and alarming (in the realization that they, or at least I,  have not become a teacher of this quality and magnitude, ...yet). She suggests that teachers should “[make concrete] decisions about how to participate in [student's] learning from an imaginative standpoint, participating as a co-learner engaged in a performance and as  a teacher engaged in scaffolding young children from one kind of expressive work to another; teachers should [work] hard to imagine [themselves] into [students] positions as social actors and students of literacy" (6).

            In Playgrounds of Our Minds, Barrel solidifies Gallas' idea by talking about the richness and intrinsic value in the human experience, and how that experience is a recurring theme that permeates human nature. Barrel points out that:

            Students can broaden their social, emotional, and intellectual horizons by   envisioning positive and alternative futures for themselves...Language Arts  enrich role experimentation and a sense of control by providing    the communication skills to tell one's own stories as well as to enter the lives of   other people, thereby increasing self-awareness ...Students read, write, speak, view, and hear about people who are enacting scenes             for the human drama (Barrel, 67).

         The book is slightly profound in that, on the surface at least, there doesn't seem to be anything profound about it. As the title suggests, this is “a teacher's search for the heart of learning” and, therefore, not beyond the capability of any person who truly wishes to teach. Gallas offers a number of enlightening thoughts on the process of teaching, such as, in terms of classroom management:      

            The unofficial agendas of children ought to be seen as a subtextual-dynamic that   permeates classroom activity and influences all aspects of teaching and learning, and that it is critical that teachers recognize those agendas and bring them into the official business of the classroom. The imagination of students is constantly operating (both individually and collectively) under the surface of daily life as a sub textual phenomenon; and as it works, it powerfully influences a student's and a classroom community's actions as learners (56).

            In discussing the use of media other than the text-at-hand, Gallas suggests that artists, through their artwork, begin conversations that students can be invited to join in, through their interpretations:

            Pairing ideas, images, and actions with words [furthers] the development and       elaboration of student thought processes. Even though artistic works are often conceived in silence, in most cases they are viewed by and audience, and that viewing provokes a response that takes the form of language; internalized, spoken, or written (49). 

            One of the most disappointing aspects of Gallas' book are its somewhat-scatterbrained descriptions of the actual techniques used to engage students on an imaginative level. In other words, Gallas does little to discuss how the techniques she used as imaginative stimulation for her students can be used by other teachers, who are interested in teaching in the same vein. In fact, there are really no instances where actual, concrete lesson plans are offered; there are many places, on the other hand, where it would have been extremely useful to see Gallas' lesson plans as supplemental data – perhaps, at the end of each chapter, where their initiation and effectiveness are discussed at length. Gallas does well, however, to arouse a much needed discourse on the logistical aspects of assessment through imagination, through comments like:

            Performance frequently depends on an aura of risk and surprise that students        create through their choice of topic and the way the can manipulate the nuances of language; children's artistic efforts gain depth when they originate with the child and are extended through their interactions with adults and each other (Gallas, 53).

            Goldberg reinforces this concept in Writing Down the Bones, when she discusses the necessity for students (and teachers) to continually practice and re-practice the craft of writing. She insists that “to do writing practice means to deal ultimately with your whole life” (Goldberg, 3). In her six-steps for timed writing practice, for example, the fourth, fifth, and sixth steps are the most relevant, and potentially useful for teachers of English. Along with the obvious suggestions to “keep your hands moving,” and being mindful not to “edit as you write,” or not to “worry about spelling, punctuation, and grammar,” she insists that students of writing should remember to “lose control,” not “think or get too logical,” and (in my opinion, most importantly) to “go for the jugular” (Goldberg, 8):

            If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it; it   probably has lots of energy (Goldberg, 8).           

            Goldberg's concept seems to validate Gallas in her view that:

            True literacy is achieved when an individual begins to live in the body of a             subject, identifying with it in a visceral, organic way and translating that identification into action in the world. It requires both master of the subject itself  and a public presentation of self as expert: One must both believe and know, and one must also convince others (Gallas, 64).

            Barrel also surmises that:

            The art of language is, at least partially, that of projecting and sharing personal     and group meanings through symbols and patterns of symbols ..., that is, words in sentences. Play in language arts involves restructuring the elements of our communication system. It also involves attempts to vivify characters, themes, and conflicts in literature by immersing oneself in different roles and  perceiving the world from different perspectives (Barrel, 68).

            Conversely, Cropley seems to contend that there must still be boundaries that confine the teaching and application of imagination as a tool for instruction. He worries about the over use of imagination, and its effect on the quality of process, product, and learning. He states that:

            If an individual's understanding of events departs too extensively from that of      others the person in question will have difficulty not only in communication but also in fitting in to social structures, and may even be adjudged 'strange,' 'weird'  or 'crazy.' Thus, creativity does not only involve abandoning conventional understandings of the world. What it does require is going beyond them and building structures that contain novelty while at the same time retaining the capacity to function in the social environment (Cropley, 30).

            Gallas seems to have considered the effect of imagination on the individual's ability to function in the “natural” (normal?) world, and insists that:

            Imagination is both mundane and transcendent. It reflects our experiences back    to us in recognizable forms and images that do not surprise or alarm us, but also creates unique representations of that same experience whose form and image suggest that our experience has dimensions beyond those we have perceived (Gallas, 38).

            Literature and stories are social processes, framed, orchestrated, and scaffolded by the parents and family in ways that reflect not one pervasive cultural  understanding of story but specific cultural orientations that may or may not resonate with that of the school (Gallas, 21).

            By far, the most unique aspect of  Imagination and Literacy; A Teacher's Search for the Heart of Learning, is the quality of Gallas' introspective rhetoric, as a tool for current and future teachers. Her book reminds its readers that, no matter how great a teacher you may be (or might think you are), there are always opportunities for improvement. Gallas openly shows her readers her heart, and it is evident in the first pages of her story that not only teaching, but the pursuit of the human imagination – a beautiful, wonderful, and useful tool that we all posses – as a tool of valid assessment is a worthy, and necessary avenue for further exploration. Consider this final thought, where Gallas claims that:

            For teachers, as well as students, “none of the functions –  planning, predicting, teaching, anticipating, observing, learning, applying, and remembering – can occur effectively without the work of the imagination (Gallas, 36).

Works Cited

Barell, John. (1980). Playgrounds of Our Minds. New York: Teachers College Press.

Cropley, Arthur J. (2001). Creativity in Education and Learning; A Guide for Teachers and Educators. Virginia: Stylus Publishing.

Gallas, Karen. (2003). Imagination and Literacy; A Teacher's Search for the Heart of Learning. New York: Teachers College Press.

Givens, Paul R. (1962). Identifying and Encouraging Creative Processes: The Characteristics of the Creative Individual and the Environment That Fosters Them. The Journal of Higher Education (Ohio State University Press), Volume 33, Number 6 (June, 1962), pp. 295-301. Retrieved October 01, 2006, from JSTOR database (http://www.jstor.org).

Goldberg, Natalie.(1986). Writing Down the Bones; Freeing the Writer Within. Boston: Shambhala Publications.

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