Inquiry Project / Final Reflections

Inquiry Project

For the Inquiry Project, I chose the topic of teaching Shakespeare to high school students.  For this project, I read the following three articles:  

Dulaney, M. “Using  a Prop Box to Create Emotional Memory and Creative Play for Teaching Shakespeare’s Othello.”  English Journal.  102.2 (2012).  27-43.  Print 

Paquette, M.  “Sex and Violence:  Words at Play in the Shakespeare Classroom.”  Writer’s Journal, 96:3 (2007).  40-45.  NCTE internet archive.

 

Desmet, C.  “Teaching Shakespeare with YouTube.”  Writer’s Journal, 99.1 (2009).  65-70.  NCTE Internet archive.  

Focus: why did I select this particular focus? 

When I was in high school, Shakespeare was something to be both dreaded and anticipated.  We dreaded it because of its rumored difficulty, but for those of us who enjoyed English, it was kind of a rite-of-passage of sorts.   Being able to “do” Shakespeare and do him well is the hallmark of an English major, after all.  In fact, I don’t remember what play we read in high school, or if I enjoyed it or not.  I do remember looking very forward to my university class on the subject, and being very disappointed by the teacher and the way he taught the subject.       

As a future English teacher, I want Shakespeare to be something that students don’t have to fear.  But how can Shakespeare be taught in ways that intrigue students and not throw them off the Elizabethan era forever?  That is what I sought when I picked this topic for my inquiry project.  

Before the articles (reflection) 

Before I read these articles, I was under the impression that teaching Shakespeare would be a difficulty akin to cleaning the Augean stables.  I would stand in front of unwilling, yawning students and pontificate, and they would dutifully scribble their notes: it would be a dusty, dry affair that smelt of desperation, boredom, and chalk dust.  The whole affair would be a chore, a major bother.  I would be required to teach it, and they would be required to both learn it and regurgitate a few relevant points on a test.  And then we could both get on with more relevant things in an English that is modern and understandable. 

After the articles (reflection) 

Apparently, I was wrong.  Shakespeare does not have to be boring after all.   

Ms. Dulaney suggests using props (skulls, candles, plastic daggers) to create wordless skits to introduce the themes of the play before the students read the text.  This creates emotion resonances and connections with the play before even a single word is read.  Ms. Paquette talks about using a physical activity such as tossing beach-balls to one another to understand the themes of the play, and also has several interesting ideas for introducing the text itself to the students.  Shakespeare, according to Ms. Paquette, should be a form of play.  As for Ms. Desmet, she suggests using the varied Shakespeare “productions” that one can find on YouTube to stimulate learning and discussion.  Shakespeare = fun?  Those are words I seldom hear, but ones I would like to.  I’d love to have a student tell me “I can’t wait until we do Othello!”  and I’d like to look forward to teaching it.  

Implications of these articles: 

I am still somewhat dubious of making Shakespeare relevant to high schools students.  It seems to me to be a very subjective event not just for students, but also for principals in these “teach to the test” days.  With the right students, yes, such ideas would work.  But generally?  I’m not sure, and I have to say I’m rather doubtful of a happy ending.  And what does that say about me?  Have my days of being a substitute teacher made me jaded when it comes to high-school students?  

   

What next?

In a perfect world, students would be attentive and eager to learn.  But it is not a perfect world, and we have to work with what we have.  I believe that any subject can be made interesting if you have the right teacher who knows the right method to teach it.  The key is finding those methods for making the subject relevant and interesting to the students, and for that research such as what I just finished is required.  While I admit that I was somewhat annoyed at having to buy a subscription to Writer's Journal for this class, I can see how such a large archive of research-based materials will be helpful to an inexperienced teacher.  Finding good ideas, trying them out, reflecting upon the results, and discarding or changing what doesn't work, that's how I plan to proceed in the future.  

 Shakespeare has lasted all these hundreds of years not just because he is always assigned to high schools students generation upon generation, but because his ideas still hold relevance today.  How to make the students see him for what he is, i.e. one the greatest writers in all of history?  That will be my job as an English teacher.  

Embedded Reflection 

 

Final Reflection: English 408

Teacher AS Writer

Engineers need to build things, artists need to create, and English teachers need to write.  They not only need to write, but they should be driven to write, to feel the need for it in their bones, to crave the feeling of a pencil in their hand or a keyboard beneath their fingers.  Writers should feel a desperate joy in what they do: it should be a life-long addiction, albeit an affirming one.  I have a confession: I have no sympathy or understanding for those who do not write.  Not everybody is a writer, of course, but everybody has forces that drive them, that push them from behind.  If you’re an English teacher, then writing should be something you are doing pretty much all the time.  Many of us write poetry when we are young, and we often seem to lose those inner drives of youth as we age.    Screw old age, being burnt out, and writer’s block!  Writers write, even if it’s only text-messages, Facebook posts, twits, haiku, pornography, or a blog be it ever so humble!  I say it again: writers write!  That is, quite simply, what we do.     

Teacher OF Writing

“Practice what you preach!”  It’s an old saying, yet there’s a reason why old sayings become well-worn and not just linguistic fads that fad quickly away: there are hard practical truths embedded within them.  

It is my intention to be a teacher of English at a secondary level.  I intend to tell my students that a) they can be good writers, b) that being able to write well is an important life skill for employment and further education, and c) that writing is valuable for one’s self as well.  They not believe me: they might be dubious or doubting or suspicious, and I don’t blame them: good writing is hard to do, and takes practice and time.  To do this, to make them believe that they can be good writers, I need to not only “talk the talk” but “walk the walk” as well, to use yet another old saying.  In other words, I need to not only talk about writing in a blah blah blah kind of way, a way that make a student’s eyes roll up in her head and set her hands to doodling, but to demonstrate writing skills not only in front of class, but in my own life as well.  I am reminded of the video we saw in class (I forget the name, and apparently, I did not write it down as well), where the teacher read her rather personal poem in front of the class.  She was not just standing in front of the class “well, first you have to do this, and then you have to do that”.  She showed them not only that it could be done, but that it was life-affirming and practical, that it takes courage to stand in front of others and read your text in the face of possible ridicule or criticism, and most importantly, that she can do herself what it is she is asking them to do. 

Learning, relearning, and practicing your skills, especially of writing, is something that never ends: thus, English teachers need to be teachers of writing not only to their students, but to themselves as well.       

Students AS Writers

Students are often reluctant writers (as are adults, for that matter!).  As an English teacher, it will be my job to motive them, to put ideas in their heads and pencils on their papers.  This will not always be easy: I think of Lincoln High School’s student Carl, whose unenthusiastic and lazy “sure” loudly bespoke his general lassitude towards academic subjects.

Many students enjoy writing and dive right in, as I did myself back in the day, and turn in very good prose.  Others, like Carl, require more finesses and demonstration.  I think here of Prof. Nick’s grammar lesson, which I thought was one of the most practical things taught this last semester.  I could see myself doing just such a lesson: for instance going over the list of the biggest grammar mistakes that students make, which, if taught well and learned correctly, would make a huge improvement in the writing my students turned in. 

Something else that was emphasized in this class was digital literacy: the usage of current technology for writing purposes, for instance the use of Google to share documents with one’s peers.  The practice of writing is going through a huge change right now, as big a change, I believe, as the invention of the printing press.  Digital literacy will be a huge thing in the future, even bigger than it is now.  Those students who cannot learn it are going to fall behind, and those teachers who can’t teach it are going to right there with them.  Being an English teacher in a digital world means not only keeping up with current technology, but accepting newer forms of writing as valid as well.