Embrace the Cheese

My New Testament class has ended as well as my instructional unit for my ninth-graders. Student Teaching will conclude May 10^th. So, in the slowing down of all things literary for a while, I have begun reading entertainment literature again. It has taken me a while to work out in my head the negative response from many people in my area of study to literature that is considered “fluff”. As English majors and English teachers, we spend so much of our lives analyzing classical pieces of literature—stories that involve the deepest issues facing humanity and the greatest of heroes facing them back—that we develop a sort of tunnel vision, become like literary robots so constantly searching for the greater meaning that smoke starts to come out of the literary device bolts in place of our ears and the Venn diagram shaped spheres in place of our eyes start to spin out of control. It is easy to forget the reason we decided to study literature in the first place; we enjoy it.

When I was a scared freshman at BYU-I, just starting to take my literature courses, I took the rampant criticism of popular books as what I “should” think, instead of what it was, just an opinion. It is all too easy to bandwagon on to ideas that show a clear contrast in opinion of “normal people” and therefore proves a uniqueness of thought and strength of understanding. Or so we think…

I love Stephanie Meyer. I love cheesy stories and cheesy writing. I embrace the cheese. I find meaning in writing that may not last through my descendants and value in spending as much time as necessary reading it. In fact, Young Adult Literature is one of my favorite genres, even though when surrounded by my English major friends, I sometimes have to suppress a desire to profess undying love for books like Moby Dick, All My Sons, Of Mice and Men, and Lord of the Flies. The truth is, some influential and lasting pieces of literature can simply be infernally boring or awful. So, although many, many pieces of classic lit make my list of life changing, forever favorites—anything Jane Austen, most William Shakespeare, Willa Cather, L.M. Montgomery, Bronte, Orwell, etc.—they share a page with works from Stephanie Meyer, Vince Flynn, Catherine Murdock, Rick Riordan, Suzanne Collins, and many other wonderfully dramatic authors.

I just finished reading The Host. Of course, inspired by the recent movie release, I decided to re-read the book that had been one of my favorites as a teenager and remind myself of the story before I let someone else’s vision of it corrupt the vision in my head. I’m glad I did, because in my opinion the actors they cast as the main characters look like children and nothing like their descriptions in the book. That may not seem to matter, but the size and look of these characters are a big part of certain characteristics and events in the story.

In The Host—a futuristic story, post-apocalyptic in a sense—the earth has been conquered by a species of world enveloping, body snatching aliens. The chaotic, violent takeover of the world generally depicted in Hollywood has no place in Stephanie Meyer’s take on beginning of the end.

In this new existence, Earth is green and beautiful. A society of kindness and moneyless productivity drives all behavior and alliances. All are happy. Peace is everywhere. Everywhere, that is, except in the hearts and minds of those who remain their human selves.

New to this world but uniquely experienced among the collection of “taken” planets in the ever broadening universe, Wanderer learns the true meaning of humanity. As if it wasn’t difficult enough to deal with the unbalanced emotions and overwhelming senses natural to this body, Wanderer is not alone in her head. The consciousness of the human host should be gone, right? The way she felt about people in her life, should not exist anymore. Do the people themselves still exist? Whose world is this, really?

The Host is one of those wonderfully dramatic and exciting stories, filled with adventure, discovery, and love of all kinds. I love the take on what it means to be human. It is easy to forget what is really important, until it is all taken away.

“You never know how much time you have.”

To Kill a Mockingbird... (Not an instruction manual.)

I just finished teaching my first literature based unit to my group of ninth grade honors students. I read this book in high school, as many have and continue to. I don’t remember disliking it, but I don’t remember loving it either. This piece of lasting literature has meant much to many in situations similar to those in the book.

After re-reading this story, this time with my students in mind, the perspective I gained as the teacher has been quite interesting. I had the opportunity to collaborate with another student teacher in my department in creating this unit for our collection of over 200 ninth graders. As we developed and planned and created and stressed, we ended up with something that we felt pretty good about. At the end of our student teaching experience, we were required to present a book of information compiling all that we did in our unit and the results of our teaching. Personally, to understand something fully, to see the vision completely, I have to have it physically in my hands or laid out before me. I can narrow something done from way too much information much easier than I can create something from not enough. Creating this book was a great experience for me. My tangible example of the work put into this unit for my students has been helpful in organizing my thoughts for my review board as well as helping me think through what I would change if I were to teach this unit to a new group of ninth graders. I passed, by the way.

This is the “Unit Overview” that was part of a required section in my work sample portfolio. It is my explanation of the “big picture” outlook on this unit, the “why is this valuable?”:

To Kill a Mockingbird, is a powerful book to read with fourteen and fifteen year olds. Ultimately, the goals behind introducing students to this book are to grow students’ familiarity with classic literature, their ability to connect literature to their own life, and most importantly to introduce the concept of humanity and accountability for their choices. Through themes in To Kill a Mockingbird, students begin to recognize that their choices and their opinions affect their world and the people around them. Students learn about times in our country’s history that have been dark and how, as a nation, we have come out of them. They learn about the seriousness of life and the factors that make a difference in the characters’ lives and in their own lives as well, such as education, family, gender issues, and social interactions. This book provides many great opportunities to engage in class debates, discussions, and projects in which the students learn to think critically and realize that their opinion is not the only opinion. It in turn provides opportunities to practice expressing these new ideas in writing, both analytical and persuasive. Just as To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming of age story of the young characters in the book, students are allowed to embark on their own coming of age process as they contemplate the important lessons taught in this book alongside the clearly taught literary themes (symbolism, flashback, stream of consciousness, dialect, etc.).

I do love To Kill a Mockingbird. Somehow, in high school, my focus on life around me overwhelmed some of my ability to experience literature like I do now. Always, though, there was a spark. Always, the themes stayed in the back of my head, just waiting for me to pick it up again. This time, when my focus was clear and my mind, trained, I loved it. The characters created by Harper Lee represent a unique aspect of life that can apply and teach each of us something. Scout is the tempestuous little girl just beginning to deal with the reality of life. Jem is the young man, trying to figure out his place in the world. Atticus is the imperfect hero, doing all he can to succeed, but failing in the definitive sense of the word. Atticus is a great success in the eyes of his friends, however. Boo is misunderstood. Miss Maudie is a maternal hand. Calpurnia is the glue that holds their family together. This entire world of characters, set to the background of the real and igniting world of the time, presents us with a sense of self and quality of life to live up to. The Finch-bar, set in morals and values, is imperfect but attainable, requires hard work but gives much hope. It is almost impossible to read this book and not come out wanting to live a noble life.

One of my favorite days and activities in our unit was:

· Boo Radley day- Leading up to this day, we created a character chart as a class and watched the development of the different characters in the book. It ended up that Boo showed the greatest change, as planned. As characters and students opinions of him wavered and then changed, we began to discuss what this all means. Are our opinions and treatment of others always correct? Boo Radley was grossly misunderstood and in turn mistreated by those who could have loved him. How do we create "Boo Radleys" in our own little worlds.

On Boo Radley day, we began by reviewing the literary term, symbol, and discussing the symbolic nature of the mockingbird and Boo. I then divided students into groups of about 5 and told them to stand in tight circles around the room with one person standing outside of the circle. After quieting the excited-to-out-their-desks 14 year olds, I gave them one very specific instruction, “People outside of the circle, your job is to get into the circle.” As you can imagine, the fun began. Instantly, the circles tightened, students bore down, held their ground while those outside the circle jumped, rammed, ducked, and pushed to complete their goal. 14 year old are a little bit like dogs (and if you know me, you know that I love dogs!). Tell them one thing, and they jump at it without knowing exactly why. Do now, ask later.

Once people got into the circle, cheered, and taunted those they believed to be the “losers”, we switched and played the game again. Finally, using my newly discovered “teacher voice”, I gathered the class back together, and restored order in my classroom. Although they had fun, they were confused and intrigued. They required explanation, “Miss that was random, why did we do that?”

“What were my instructions to you?”

“To not let them in the circle!” they shouted in excited unison.

They were wrong however, and were playing my game perfectly. I reminded them of my exact words, “People on the outside, get into the circle”, not, “circles keep the others out.” We then proceeded to discuss the applications of this activity to our lives. Why do we naturally keep people out? Where do we see this happening at our school? How can we stop creating “Boo Radleys”? This conversation turned serious and we found real examples of this happening around us.

We then watched the cutest and most inspirational YouTube clip of all time, “Kid President: Pep Talk”, and we assigned them their project. Students were received a handout laying out a week long assignment in which they were to figure out a way to either correct a mistake or reach out to someone. They were to provide evidence somehow of their effort but that was all. This project was to encourage intrinsic motivation. We told them this was their opportunity to just do something good. The next week was fantastic. Of course there were plenty of confusions and emergency emails about the project the day before and the day of, but reading through those personal stories and the efforts, that were huge to these kids, was amazing. I had a unique opportunity to see inside the minds and emotions of so many of my students. I will for sure do this project again.