Teahing Shakespeare

I love Shakespeare. By no means am I an expert, but I simply enjoy his work. Teaching Romeo and Juliet is my favorite thing to do all year. Nevertheless, every year I start out the planning for this unit by asking myself why I teach this. It's a good discussion to have with myself- it certainly helps me prepare to provide quality instruction.

I start by reflecting on my own experience as a freshman reading R&J for the first time. I was so excited. Finally, after many long years of being aware of Shakespeare, I was finally "able" to read his work myself. In many ways, it was my Holy Grail of English education. I was fortunate to have passionate teachers (both about students and subject) throughout my education who kept me engaged with The Bard for the next four years.

Now I find myself in their shoes. The past two years my students have done activities that I have found to be engaging, fun, and meaningful as well as activities that were trivial for all involved. Every year I try to explore new aspects of the text with myself and my students. My history teacher hat certainly shows throughout whatever I teach, but the question remains-- why are we teaching Romeo and Juliet, or Shakespeare at all?

The obvious, although bureaucratic, answer for me is that my curriculum binder says I'm supposed to. Of the entire 9th grade binder, only two texts are specifically mention- Romeo and Juliet and The Odyssey. I take this as a sign of the academic freedom entrusted upon me rather than loose standards. I have spent many inservice and summer hours collaborating with colleagues from all of our districts high schools on texts, lesson plans, standards, and assessments.

The more personal answer for me is my own passion for the text. Even if it were not required, I'd probably slip it into my 9th grade class anyways. I strongly believe teachers teach better when they too are engaged in the subject. I proved this to myself this year by changing the tone of my Great Expectations unit. In the past, I told the students that it would be hard, but it would be a journey we would get through together. Generally, I would lose 70% of those students along the way. This year, I kept myself enthusiastic about a novel (which I generally dislike) and at least half of my students "didn't hate" the book by the end. This, to me, seems like a major victory.

The people are important too. That is, my students, of course, are my audience. Romeo and Juliet really seems to speak to freshmen, when they understand it. When is it best to get a student to connect with a text about non-understanding parents, peer conflict, and unrequited, poetic, tragic love? In the middle of puberty-- that's when. Not only that, but as freshmen are getting their feet solidly planted in the world of higher order thinking (or formal operational, for you Piaget-philes out there) it provides us the perfect oppertunity to explore symbolic poetics. We can explore the possibility of language being moving, powerful, and even life changing. We can realize, together, that literature is about more than enjoyment. It's about understanding ourselves, connecting to each other, and sharing that experience.

So I guess that's why I teach Romeo and Juliet. This year more than ever it seems I've had students ask why we read it. A few of them are antagonistic (either they've read it before, they don't like poetry, and generally aren't the "typical" English student.) Most are genuinely curious. I've given terse answsers like "it's culturally important" or "it will help us understand language and poetry." I think I have a better answer now.

I best be off to bed. There are thumbs to bite, swords to unsheath, and maidenheads to be taken tomorrow.

(Did I mention how fun it is to explain the puns to the kiddos?)

...Being Wrong

I tell my students that wrong answers are just as good as right ones. Mostly, this was the humanist in me wanting to be sure that I was encouraging them to participate in class. Recently, however, I've begun to believe this sentiment on an academic level as well.

When students are wrong, and are corrected, they've learned two things- the right answer and a wrong one. Being wrong, and knowing you are wrong, certainly helps develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. When we are in new situations and have new problems to solve, it is essential that we are able to identify incorrect ways of handling the situation or solving the problem.

The question is then, how do I get my students to realize this and utilize it to their greatest potential?

...being a bad blogger.

I've been bad, and I'm not going to fix that now. What a way to start a blog, eh?
This is mostly just a reminder to myself to write about the following things:
-traveling with kids/authenticity
-being wrong

2.14 update

And it came to pass that there were to be no classes on Friday either, and it wasn't good.

...Snow Days and Time

I enjoy snow days as much as the next teacher. They provide a sometimes much needed break for the student (and me) in the middle of what can be a long and cold winter's week. This week has been slightly ridiculous. Monday's early dismissal came two hours too late, and had we stayed until the normal end of the school day, the storm would have been nearly over. Tuesday's late start allowed me to get a bit of extra sleep, but forced me to revise project timelines for my students. Today's cancellation was appreciated what with eight inches of snow; however, a two hour delay would have sufficed. Tomorrow's cancellation might be needed (a high of -2 without wind chill), but I feel we might be jumping the gun on this a little. We are supposed to get another round of snow Thursday night into Friday morning, so that puts class on Friday securely in the "questionable" column. That leaves us with about a day and half of instructional time total this week. This raises a couple of questions for me:

1. Since the days we miss during the winter term are made up during the spring term, I lose days from my social psychology classes that are not made up. What aspects of the social psychology cirriculum do I deem as "not as important" to account for the 4 days of school we've missed? Right now, the answer is fairly easy-- I cut the analysis of groupthink and group mentality in Harry Potter. This four day activity can easily been done in one day by talking about The Bay of Pigs and the Iraq War.

It will really become a problem if we have many more snow days (which I fear we will since February has always brought ice storms to our little section of the state.) After I finish this unit, I move onto systems of oppression and discrimination. That will take me nearly to the end of the term. If we have more than two more cancellations, I will have to start thinking "what group of oppressed people do I not cover?" I suppose what I could do is not cover class discrimination in social psychology. Then, I could cover it during social stratification in sociology.

2. Is the trimester system really the most effective way of dealing with scheduling? It seems to me that if we were on the semester system, the snow days we missed would then be made up in the same term. Any thoughts on this?

...This Blog

Today I feel stagnant. I feel as if I've been in a rut as of late. Everyday is the same routine: I wake-up, go to school, teach language arts, teach social studies, teach debate, socialize with my friends and co-workers, grade and plan lessons, watch television, and go to sleep. While I generally enjoy each day, I have been wanting something new to break out of the same day-by-day plan a bit. Above all else, I hope this blog helps me be more engaged in my day.

Today I have ideas. I know we're told the benefit of being reflective practitioner, but sometimes I feel that I take this to an extreme. I am always thinking of new ways to engage my students in my classes. Be it through new texts, new technologies, or new experiences, I am regularly thinking of how I can change my approach to the classroom. This seems slightly odd to me, as I haven't even taught for three years yet.

Today I think of theory. From teaching bell hooks in debate, to teaching Freud in psychology, to teaching Marx in language arts, I am constantly grounded in the world of critical theory. I think it is time that education recognizes the postmodern and looks towards engaging students who are constantly interacting with themselves and the Other on a daily, albeit virtual, basis.

Today I am worried. I don't want this blog to be a reason to totally escape from my daily routine. I want this blog to add to it. I don't want to disengage from my friends at work. Hopefully, they will share in this experience with me.

Today I am perplexed. As my students are working on presentations about the Victorian Era, I am wondering how I will keep them interested in Great Expectations for the next six or so weeks. Every year I teach this novel I like it more and more. Conversely, every year I teach this novel the students seem to like it less and less. I'm trying to think of a way that I can make the novel more relevant to the students. Maybe I will have them keep reader-response blogs. Any thoughts on that? Maybe it could be acheived through a Google Group. Perhaps I could use Moodle again. Conceptually, I liked Moodle a lot last year when I used it; however, the administration became burdensome. I don't want to have to worry about students that don't log on frequently enough and have their accounts deactivated.

Today I am ready for tomorrow.