ELA Staples

I thought for my next reading I would revisit ELA classics from my years as a high school student which remain in most ELA classrooms today. There are certain works of literature that seem essential to the collective experience of being a student which they all share while passing through American high schools. These works shape our culture at large and contribute to our shared knowledge which connects us to our social experience. Most Americans have at some point during the course of their education read books like Romeo and Juliet, Fahrenheit 451, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Beyond our immediate surroundings, these books enrich our experiences and help students think deeply about what can be an otherwise mundane existence. As I reflected on high school literary staples, this prompted me to ask the question: Why do students read To Kill a Mockingbird? Unlike the tragic love story that begins in the streets of Verona or a book burning firemen in a futuristic American city, the story of 6-year old Jean Louise Finch, or “Scout” as she is known, from Maycomb, Alabama is uniquely American. She tells the story of America in the distant past in the language of the times. The book complements the dry informational history and social studies texts by giving a human voice which is often times missing from the impersonal topical writing found in most textbooks. I began my reading of To Kill a Mockingbird having forgotten the entire storyline in the course of my twenty or so years since first picking up the book. I was therefore able to approach the book from the perspective of a student, albeit more mature and experienced and thus with a greater appreciation for the chapters that followed. The story opens with Scout telling the story of her childhood growing up in a small Southern town in the 1930s. In her opening narrative, she hints at a situation which resulted in her brother Jem breaking his arm. The only clue she offers as to the reason for the accident is a character named Dill who “gave [them] the idea of making Boo Radley come out.” This leads the reader into her story that begins in the summer of 1933 with the mystery of Boo Radley looming in the background. Harper Lee’s reflective narrative through the young voice of Scout is easy to follow and lends itself to an analysis of a variety of literary elements. The reader is able to connect with the young and naïve protagonist as she explains the plot from her adult perspective. As of chapter six, the characters Jem and Dill have been the central focus with her father Atticus growing in importance. Lee uses narrative devices to cast the reader into the mind of a child with the readers imagination clouded with gossipy myths of their strange neighbor Boo. As I read chapter six, I found myself increasingly curious of the Radley house and on edge as the children devise ways to make Boo come out. I believe that To Kill a Mockingbird is an excellent choice for high school students as it can help students develop a sense of empathy which can help them better understand others as well as themselves.

Precision of Language

Throughout the dystopian novel The Giver there is a heavy emphasis among the community on the importance of “precision of language”, which is one of the major ironies of the novel. In their effort to promote clear communication of ideas the community initially appears to share the same values as your typical ELA teacher. I recall my Shakespeare professor once chiding me for being too wordy and advised me to be more sparse yet precise in my use of language. However, the precision of language valued by the community is an effort to maintain order and what they refer to as “sameness”. The society of the story’s protagonist Jonas is extremely strict and highly controlled with rules that govern all aspects of life including the use of speech. This Orwellian world is reminiscent of the dystopian classic 1984 with the fictional language known as “newspeak” similarly controlled by the state. Both “newspeak” and “precision of language” share similar aims and characteristics which include elimination of concepts like individualism and a more simplified vocabulary and grammar. The tension that the precision of language creates is exemplified in the opening of the novel when Jonas tries to find the correct word to describe his emotions as he approaches the Ceremony of Twelve. This is an important moment in the lives of children in the community who will be assigned a career and begin their lives as adults. Jonas colors the opening with a somber tone by describing his feeling as “frightened” but quickly rejects the word as incorrect in favor of the word “apprehensive”. The community also makes use of euphemisms to describe the killing of the infirm or euthanasia using the word “release” to deceptively disguise the real meaning. The use of the word “release” has a much softer connotation than the actual act of violence that it really is – the words “killing” or “murder” are more accurate descriptions. The novel The Giver is an excellent reading for a middle school ELA class as it provides the perfect segue into a discussion on the importance of precision of language. The use of language is tied directly to our description of emotions that the omission of a particular word can result in the omission of the emotion. This is best exemplified in The Giver when Jonas is ridiculed by his parents for asking if they love him to which they respond by saying the word is too general and therefore meaningless. The omission of a single word by the community has resulted in the loss of this emotion by his parents. The concept of precision of language can be carried over into writing which is skill that needs attention, especially by teens who are known for their redundancy and overuse of certain adjectives and verbs.

The Value of Dystopia

After finishing The Hunger Games and The Old Man and the Sea I had a hard time choosing which book to read next. At first I leaned more towards traditional literature used in secondary level ELA courses – novels like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Outsiders immediately came to mind. But having read these stories as a teen I didn’t feel quite the same amount of motivation or thrill one might feel picking up a completely new, and more contemporary, fictional work. While at the public library I did a Google search on popular books for teenagers and randomly picked the book The Giver by Lois Lowry. The book is a recipient of the John Newberry Medal and another dystopian novel that differs from other works in the same genre such as The Hunger Games and Feed which prompted me to ask the question what can we learn from this particular fictional genre. It seems that the school environment is not the place to spend much time on a direct critique of society, culture, and politics. The regular subjects are more intent on teaching students what is, rather than what could be. We study history to learn about the past in order to have a better understanding of the present. Science and math are subjects that focus on what is known and further breaks this down into answering why this is. As previously mentioned, English language arts allows some leeway to teach values indirectly through a reading and analysis of literature. The dystopian genre allows us to look at culture or technological forces in the modern world, and to imagine and test these forces when taken to their logical extreme. For example, the novel Feed by M.T. Anderson follows the course of current cultural trends which has seen an inclination towards materialistic hedonism and moral degeneration as institutions that have long held together the social fabric, i.e. religion, family, and education are slowly eroded. The book allows readers to imagine a type of world where values such as dignity, self respect, and human self-worth appear essential to our sense of humanity. In some of the older dystopian novels like Fahrenheit 451 we can see near-accurate social predictions such as our obsession with security and the mass media come to fruition sixty years later. The novel The Giver begins in what appears to be a futuristic utopia where conflict and suffering have been eliminated from society and people live in a state of organized harmony. As I’ve gotten further into the novel it is becoming clear that such a seemingly ideal state has its downfalls. For example, the world in which the protagonist Jonas inhabits is a monotonous existence devoid of color, choice, and emotion. With pain and suffering completely eliminated people haven’t the slightest inclination of what pleasure is as they have nothing to compare it to. The joys of pleasure lose their value when one is unable to remember a time when they felt pain. The dystopian genre forces students to look at the present in ways they might not have ever thought about before and definitely has a place in an English language arts class.

Inspiring Students Through Fiction

After reading The Hunger Games I decided to turn my attention to Ernest Hemingway’s classic short story, The Old Man and the Sea. In my quest to read the stories I intend to teach in my secondary level ELA class, I thought I’d revisit this old personal favorite. There are indeed similarities between these two stories as they both depict battles to the death and touch on themes of honor and determination. The writing style of both Collins and Hemingway, though quite distinctive, both share a straightforward prose and brevity in style. However, this is where the similarities end. In the context of an ELA course I began to wonder how to sell this story to teenagers who would are more likely to read a book like The Hunger Games on their own time. Let’s face it, on the surface a story about an old man on a fishing trip doesn’t stand up to teenagers fighting to the death in a futuristic reality show. The story of Santiago, an aged Cuban fisherman, who after 84 days without a catch strikes out on his own in his skiff and spends the rest of the story reeling in a marlin, is a story teenagers seem unlikely to pick up on their own, which is precisely why I would use it in my class. The Hunger Games is an exemplary piece of commercial fiction with all of the elements that appeal to a broad audience, i.e. a distinct plot, characters pursuing a goal, and a tease of romance. It’s an excellent way to get students interested in reading, but does not have any lasting effect on their sense of morality. In our effort as educators to impart both knowledge and values, the heavy emphasis on informative texts accomplishes the former but leaves little room for the latter – this is where literary fiction finds its place in the ELA class. As educators we should always remain secular in the classroom, but still use literature to impart a sense of morality by exploring the human spirit. Stories like The Old Man and the Sea lend themselves to deeper levels of character analysis and the cultivation of empathy and understanding as we read and discuss the motivations and values of the characters. This all brings me back to how I would sell this story to a class of teenagers. When I read this story I was reminded of epic heroes like Odysseus, Aeneas, and Beowulf all of whom possessed traits such as honor and bravery while struggling against great odds in the face of defeat. But what makes these characters human is that they all possessed a fatal flaw, which in the case of Santiago is his pride. These characters help us reclaim our sense of humanity with all of its strengths and weaknesses, in a world that often seems intent on disconnecting us – nearly anyone can relate with them. Just like the epic heroes of the past who have inspired generations of cultures and nations to aspire to greatness despite the odds, The Old Man and the Sea possess this same element that with the right execution has the potential to inspire students in an ELA class.

The Hunger Games in the Classroom

In my quest to acquaint myself with recommended books for secondary level students I have wrapped up my reading of The Hunger Games – this is the easy part. After a total of six hours reading time over the course of three weeks I am now ready to wrestle with the planning process of implementing this into an ELA class. In a class of students whose abilities may range across the literacy spectrum this is where things get a little tricky. According to the Quantitative Measures listed on the Common Core Standards site, this book has a text complexity rating for 7th grade to adult level. But in an effort to boost student reading skills of my students to a higher level, I would use this as a whole-class novel for 7th graders. The process would begin with a diagnostic teaching assessment of the reading levels of each student in the class. I can assume that the class will range from those students who will read The Hunger Games at an independent level to a frustration level, with most students falling somewhere in between at the instructional level. There are a total of twenty seven chapters in the novel and each would have to be carefully assessed to determine which may require additional support, which may require some scaffolding and which are independently accessible for the class as a whole. The chapters that are independently accessible can be assigned to students to read outside of class on their own. For those that are a bit more challenging I would utilize some scaffolding strategies to build their comprehension. I would begin the scaffolding process by introducing vocabulary prior to beginning a particularly difficult chapter. As a dystopian fiction, The Hunger Games introduces some challenging vocabulary that would benefit the entire class to become familiar with, for example, apothecary, paraffin, tesserae, and the word Panem, which is Latin for “bread”. For chapters that require some further scaffolding, I would generate an outline of a graphic organizer as a class which I would then allow the students to complete as they read silently. If the chapter seems too difficult for some of the class then I could use the Oral Reading Strategy to model thinking strategies to instruct the students on ways to maintain focus as well as monitor comprehension. Sounds doable right? I realize that the realities in the classroom may not be so clear cut but these are just some ideas to shelve while I build my repertoire of young adult literature. I have yet to decide what’s next for me though I am tempted to start on the next book in The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire. As Collin does at the end of each chapter in the novel, the book ends unresolved with Katniss and Peeta returning home after winning the Hunger Games to confront their real lives. The big question still lingering is if the Katniss-Peeta romance was all part of the Hunger Games strategy.

Inequality in The Hunger Games

I have reached the climax of The Hunger Games and am neck-deep in the novels action. The book is an easy read with straight forward prose and crisp sentences that move the story along briskly. Collins is a master of ending each chapter with a hook that compels the reader to read into the next chapter, and then on to the next. I am beginning to see why this book is recommended in the Common Core Standards 7th grade and higher complexity band. If it were not for the avalanche of reading assignments I have for MAT coursework, I could easily devour this book. I began thinking about how I could use this novel to touch on broader themes that students will inevitably encounter in other books as well as in real life. I like how the book’s futuristic setting and action draw the reader in without meandering around complex themes like economic inequality and social justice. Students would be able to empathize with the novel’s protagonist, Katniss, who comes from a poor district where food is a scarce commodity and her family’s survival depends on her ability to hunt. The economic conditions in the nation of Panem create an allegoric representation for economic inequality in the world today. In the annual spectacle of the Hunger Games two tributes drawn from the twelve districts are randomly selected and forced to fight to the death on national television. However, due to the tessera system which forces the children of poor families to enter their names in the lottery multiple times in exchange for food and oil, they are most likely to be selected as tributes. The children of rich families, known as Career Tributes, receive better preparation and training and thus have more of an advantage at survival than the poor tributes. There are many parallels that can be drawn from the modern world which I would leave to the students to think of themselves. Some example issues that can be touched in a discussion about the novel’s theme of inequality are: economic mobility, social justice, and the market versus command economies. These can be sensitive topics to discuss which may inevitably encroach into political territory, but I believe the novel does a good job of subtly introducing the theme of economic inequality and students at the 7th and 8th grade levels are capable of making allegoric connections.

Staying on Top of the Games

As an English teacher I’ve always been an advocate of requiring my students to only complete tasks that I am capable of doing myself. Perhaps this is common sense and/or common practice for most teachers. After all, a high school English teacher with a bachelors degree should be able to do high school level work. But prior to giving out an assignment, I will actually do the work myself. This gives me a good idea of the steps involved from start to finish, anticipate problems or concerns, and provides the class with a perfect example of what the finished product should look like. So when I read the criteria for the PRABE assignment, I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to acquaint myself with books popular among middle and high school students. I’ve always been an avid, albeit slow reader – it took me almost the entire summer to read The Aenid by Virgil. I am also a regular skimmer of various news publications like The New York Times and The Bangkok Post, but as an ELA teacher I do believe it’s important for me to be a shining example of extreme literacy – so I feel the urge to step it up a notch. I spent some time recently observing secondary level ELA classes and decided that if I was going to be this “shining example” I would need to acquaint myself with the recommended literature at this level. I checked the Common Core Standards for ELA book recommendations for middle and high school students and saw on this list The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I began a slow reading of The Hunger Games and made it to page 85 by the third week. Though I’ve never been much of an avid sci-fi fantasy reader, I’ve since fallen into Katniss Everdeen’s survival adventure on the ultimate reality show and have been swept up by the story’s plot. I can see why kids are fascinated with the story. The actual setting is a futuristic North American landscape that is easy to imagine and with the popularity of reality shows among teenagers, a fight to the death on live television does not seem too far off. The story is also narrated by the voice of the 16-year old protagonist Katniss, who is an easily identifiable sympathetic character. This is all great stuff, but I am beginning to wonder how this book ended up on the list of Common Core Standards ELA recommendations?