Alyssa Spotts
Dr. Mary Styslinger
EDSE 786.001
1 December 2015
Workshop
Narrative
Students
silently file in from the hallways right as the tardy bell is about
to ring. Most people are always late to this class because it is
literally the last classroom at the end of the longest hallway in the
school. As students emerge through the classroom door they find their
seat amongst the perfectly aligned rows. The teacher's desk is in the
upper right corner of the classroom and the board is straight ahead.
There is no need to turn around, turn to your right or turn to your
left because everything that is important is straight ahead. Today
marks the very first day of the Frankenstein unit. The
students all moan and groan because they know exactly how this first
day will pan out over the next 90 minutes.
The
teacher will show them a copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
and ask if students know anything about the author. Of course many of
them will not, which is a seamless transition into the 30-45 minute
presentation that she has prepared just on the author's biography.
The students will sit quietly and seep in all of the important facts
about Mary Shelley like where she was born, her hobbies and the
history of the time period in which this novel takes place. All the
students violently scribble away on their notebook paper because they
know tomorrow, there will be a quiz on all of this useful
information. And once they have taken the quiz and made mediocre
grades on them, they can give themselves the permission to forget all
of the useful information their teacher spent all class period
teaching them.
This is
exactly how my experience was when my English IV teacher began
teaching us Frankenstein. I know she had good intentions and
she was probably just following what was the rage in English
instruction at the time. Not that this was that long ago, like five
years ago. Nevertheless, she taught us Frankenstein in the way that
she did because she thought that it was impactful. I share this to
put teaching strategies in perspective. Most, if not all teachers, do
not mean to harm their students when they teach using particular
methods. On the contrary, they strategically choose how they will
teach a particular concept to their students. Teachers plan according
to their students' needs, curriculum guidelines and to meet the
standards. Teachers have good intentions.
So, over
the next few pages I am going to share my version of a Frankenstein
unit, keeping in mind that these strategies will soon be out-of-date
within the next several years. However, what I have in mind for my
students, classroom and unit is with the best intentions and with the
most caring of hearts. That doesn't change the fact that our society
is continuously changing day-to-day, month-to-month and year-to-year.
Education must mold and become fluid with it's society, so that what
we are teaching is impactful and is relevant.
I would
begin the unit with an anticipation guide. These questions will
pertain to the essential questions that are the backbone of the unit.
So, the questions will deal mostly with issues of scientific
advancement's effect on human development, cloning, and creation and
creator relationships. I would also like for the students to do some
research of Frankenstein and Mary Shelley themselves. I
believe that students retain information, that they seek out
themselves and that interest them, more than if a teacher stands at
the front of the room and barks out facts at them.
So,
students will spend time researching Frankenstein, the monster, Mary
Shelley and her background in small groups. Then, I will have them
display this information in a creative way and present it to the
class. A “jigsaw” would work out well with this activity too. I
would have the students form a group with students of other groups.
Once students have a better understanding of the author, background
knowledge of the time period, the characters and their roles within
the novel, I will have them focus on studying the format of the text.
One reason Frankenstein is very unique is due to the format
that Mary Shelley wrote the novel. I think it's important that
students have an understanding of the way the text flows. Students
should be exposed to other kinds of writing that mirror the same or
similar format. Once they have interacted with other texts like
Frankenstein, then they will feel more comfortable with
Frankenstein's layout.
So,
students have completed an anticipation guide, researched
Frankenstein in small groups, have shared that information with their
peers and have studied the author's craft. Once we have gotten to
this point, I would like to conduct a book pass of a selection of
several young adult (YA) novels that I have previously selected based
upon shared characteristics with Frankenstein. These novels
may have overlaps in themes, characters, perspectives or may be
re-tellings of the original story. The book pass would serve as a
means to narrow down the selection to about three or four books,
depending upon the size of the class. Once students have voted upon
their choices, students will be placed into three or four small
groups that correlate with the YA novel they have chosen.
For the
next week or two weeks, the students will be spending the majority of
their time studying their YA novels. Day-to-day I will have
activities planned for them to engage in in their small groups. will
relate and connect with the core text, Frankenstein. The
students will meet with their groups a few times throughout the
course of the week or two set aside for the YA novel. As each group
is meeting, they will be working towards some sort of goal to reach
by the end of their YA novel. They will also be sharing with other
groups about the novel that their group is reading. As the students
are reading the YA novel, I will be supplementing their study with
other texts. These texts will include but will not be limited to the
various short stories, poetry, films, picture books, artwork and
informational texts that are included in my resource collection. The
students and I will engage in discussions, socratic seminars and
utilize various technologies in order to further comprehend the text
sets we are working with.
Once the
students have finished the YA novel, the class will begin studying
Frankenstein together. I want to inform students up front that
we will not be reading every word or every page of Mary Shelley's
novel. This text can be a little difficult for struggling readers
because it was originally published in 1818. Thus the language may be
too archaic for students to be able to break down into simpler terms.
Since I already have that working against me, I want to make this
text as accessible as possible. This is one of the reasons why I have
the students engage with a YA novel first because they will most
certainly latch on to that book quicker than Frankenstein. Not
that Frankenstein is not interesting, but if students become
interested in a very similar novel that deals with similar issues as
the core text, they will be more apt to give the classic a fair
chance.
Once we
have begun Frankenstein, I want to be making tangible connections
between the YA novel and Frankenstein, other texts and
Frankenstein, the world and Frankenstein, the society
and Frankenstein and their lives and Frankenstein. I
think the texts that I have compiled for my resource collection that
will help me make these connections the best are the YA novels, the
New York Times articles, the films and the picture books. Sometimes
students do not realize how much classic literature has permeated the
society in which they live. I am sure the majority of them are
clueless about the vast number of texts that have taken Mary
Shelley's tale and have made it their own. Each re-telling is also a
representation of the world at the time those re-tellings were
written, and a representation of the current society. I also want
students to critically think about how the stories have been
convoluted and altered in ways that actually take away from Mary
Shelley's original story. On the other hand, I want them to analyze
how the differences may also add something that the original story
does not.
The
further the analysis process of Frankenstein, I have chosen
text sets that allow me to teach different literary theory and
criticism. I think that it is important that students are exposed to
a variety of perspectives in order to begin to completely understand
their world. Individual lives can be so confining because we, as
individuals, only experience one life. So, it is near impossible to
peer into the lives of others. However, the beautiful thing about
literature is that it gives us that opportunity. I think in order for
my students to be well rounded citizens of the world, they must be
able to think and evolve with other perspectives in mind. In order to
be open-minded students, my students must engage with texts that come
from all walks of life and opinions.
Lastly, I
want the book clubs to come together once again to create a final
product for all of the new found knowledge they have gained over the
course of the Frankenstein unit I have created for them.
Students will be meeting in their book club groups periodically
throughout the unit, even after the book clubs have finished.
However, at the end of the unit I want them to create a final
assessment together. I think that the multi-genre project is a great
one to wrap up all of the ideas that have been formulated throughout
our study of Frankenstein. This is especially true because
throughout the unit, I have exposed my students to a variety of
different genres. Of course, I would spend some dedicated and
purposeful time to their projects. In order to prepare them even
further, I will have them do another book pass with texts that
include multiple genres within their pages. As they are sifting
through the pages, I will instruct students to write down what they
observe about those different texts. I want them to note how they
incorporate all of the different genres, how are they connected and a
list of all the different kinds of genres they note. After each
student has had a chance at looking at each text, we will come
together as a class and discuss what they noted. Then, I will
continue scaffolding them into the project by giving them time in
class to work on the project together. At the end of the unit, I
expect my students to come up with beautiful masterpieces that
display their knowledge of Frankenstein.
I don't
want to discredit my English IV teacher that had been the teacher in
the story I recounted earlier. I know that she truly had our best
interests in mind. She was one of the best English teachers I ever
had in grade school. I tell that story because I want to make clear
that Education is a fluid system. Fads come and go, and recycle even.
What was “in” five years ago, may not be “in” now, but it may
be “in” again come 2020. It is our job as educators to not
necessarily follow the bandwagon, but to follow the needs of our
students. If our students need old fashioned teaching methods, and
the basics, then teach them that way. If they need something more
relevant, do it. Education is a beautiful thing because of the
fluidity but also because of the freedom we are given with the way in
which we want to teach our classrooms. My interpretation of how
Frankenstein should be taught is not more correct or better
than the way that I was taught it. It is just a different way.
