Students or Fact Machines??

I chose to read Chapter 4 of Teaching Shakespeare Today, "The Use of Quotations in Teaching Shakespeare" by Leila Christenbury. I am such a "quote lover," you could say, and always seem to place inspirational and beautifully written quotations that I find around my room. So this chapter spoke to me from the beginning, and I came to embrace Christenbury's approach almost immediately. She pulls specific quotes from scenes of plays to teach the Shakespeare unit to her class, rather than having them read the plays in entirety. Smaller chunks of text focus students and provide more structure. Christenbury states that her approach uses the "part" to teach the "whole," meaning that quotes can exhibit for students a main theme of a Shakespeare play just as well as the whole play could. This method would be way less intimidating to students, I think, because many are discouraged before they even begin a play by its length and language. Even I was intimidated last semester taking Shakespeare as a Junior English major in college. We need to be sensitive to our students' feelings about Shakespeare and other complex texts, and facilitate enjoyment of reading more so than just pulling out facts. Christenbury reminds us that the "big picture" of a novel or play is of utmost importance; students should not be treated as fact machines. I remember so many times in high school where I would read a novel and love it; and my teacher would completely ruin these good feelings by asking us to restate menial facts about the story. (i.e. What color is the hat John wears?) These things have no relevance to the meaning and themes of a text, whether it be by Shakespeare or any author. I think that I will follow Christenbury's approach when teaching Shakespeare, and even other texts, in my classroom. It opens the door to creative extensions and activities that can be done with students, which facilitate a much higher level of thinking than fact spewing.

Can 1984 still fit into a 2011 classroom??

Feed could be our 1984 of today, but then where does George Orwell's novel fit into society and our classrooms? It was written in 1948 (oddly enough) and published in 1949, and predicted what the world would be like 36 years ahead of its time. 1984 is now 27 years behind us, and all of the proposals Orwell sets out seemingly did not even come true...or did they? Teacher Vision, a teacher resource website, explains the relevance of 1984 still today:
    
     1984...was intended as a warning against totalitarian tendencies rather than as a prophetic work. Now that the year 1984 has passed, many may scoff at the warning, but those who do would be wise to look at the present a bit more closely. Currently, we have subliminal messages, two-way televisions, computer viruses threatening to endanger our much depended-upon information systems (with possible global impact), and countries all over the world committing atrocities against their own people. Recent political campaigns have shown us explicitly the extent to which propaganda has corrupted our own language. Politicians have perfected their own type of "Newspeak."
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/science-fiction/activity/3305.html


The above excerpt points out all of the flaws of today's society that occur in Orwell's novel published 28 years ago. I remember sitting in my senior English class and thinking, "Why the heck are we reading this, when 1984 is long gone?" It is before some of us were even born! I think it is important to open with a quote like the one above to show students the relevance of both Orwell's and other futuristic novels. They can do reflections and/or have a class discussion at stopping points throughout the book to discuss which of Orwell's predictions or variations of them have actually come true. 

I never EVER want a feed.

Feed. is. weird. I have so many questioning thoughts about this novel! First of all, the lesions that all the characters have are DISGUSTING! They almost serve as a symbol of trends in modern-day societies: no matter how ugly or awful something is, if peers have one or are participating, we just jump on the badwagon! I wonder also if the lesions are a result of something harmful in the atmosphere. Maybe they are an exaggerated extension of the results of all the pollutants in our atmosphere today, since the novel is futuristic. Going back to the idea of the badwagon and lesions...this is a direct representation of how the characters cannot think for themselves because of the feed. In today's world, teens and young adults are already so easily influenced by friends and surroundings. Imagine if we had computers to think FOR us! This aspect of M.T. Anderson's book particularly scares me. It seems as though this is the direction in which our world is headed, the world where just a few generations below us could live. And the sad part is, they won't even realize how controlling and terrible technology is until it is ruling their lives. The characters in this book seem to think that the feed is the only way to think and communicate. They cannot fathom a time, nor want to, where people use their own thoughts and emotions to drive decisions and interactions. I do not want my children or my children's children to live in a world like this.

Feed does however have many positive aspects for our future students. The language personally drove me crazy as an English major, and was a challenge to get through at first. I was confused in certain parts of the novel where the characters would constantly switch back and forth between their own simple language and modern-day English. However I do think the language is very relatable to students, who spend their days using short responses in texts and on social networks. Another positive aspect of the novel for students is its text and length. Not only is the language itself quick and easy to read, but the format of the novel is not at all intimidating. The chapters are short, and the amount of text on each page is minimal. Finally, the themes presented in Anderson's story are fun and interesting to discuss with a class of high school students. Many extensions and activities could be used in a Feed unit in the classroom. We could have students communicate one class period only through texting or instant messaging, and ask them if the activity is similar or different to their real lives. Students could create a future world in a 3-D version (diorama) or a drawn version on poster board. To accompany this, they could submit a short paper listing both the positive and negative aspects of their created world.

I began Feed on the plane ride to my Spring break destination and quite honestly was like, "What the heck?!" at first. But once I read farther and got past the language a bit, I did enjoy it. :)