In chapter two of the Renee Hobbs text (2011), she writes of how
language arts instructor Sam Fisher struggled to connect his tenth grade
students to themes Arthur Miller’s The
Crucible. As a secondary language arts teacher, this section really
appealed to me, as I tend to fall into the model of rewarding students with the
film version of the text they’ve just battled through, as Hobbs described in
chapter two. Sometimes showing the film works, but often, as Hobbs indicated,
many students zone out or find movies outdated. It struck me as funny that
students perceived the 1996 version of The
Crucible to be dated, but now I’m dating myself, as I’ve always wanted to
see this “new version” myself, and now it’s already a decade old.
What resonated with me was how Mr. Fisher created a
way to tie contemporary teen issues to historical themes/issues in an
authentic, relevant way by partnering the text with MTV’s reality series 16 and Pregnant. While the subject was
politically loaded, Fisher obviously struck a chord with his students who were
so easily engaged and appreciative that their instructor not only listened with
interest, but willingly jumped into such nonacademic, unfamiliar territory like
MTV, which is ruled by adolescents. Of course, teen pregnancy has been one of
the challenges every generation has had to face, but Fisher was genius in the
way he connected this generation to
the age-old dilemma through the use of the popular reality series.
The possibilities of creating a meaningful interaction of classic
texts and popular culture through digital mediums are endless. The unlikely marriage between a classic
like The Crucible and teen pop fodder
like MTV’s 16 and Pregnant immediately
give teens access, as Hobbs explains in broader context, “media literacy
education has long been understood as a mechanism to reduce the gap between the
world of the classroom and the living room” (2011, p. 29). As a springboard to
Mr. Fisher’s potential assignments with this subject, table 3.1 in the Hicks
text offers a plethora of directions to consider for web-based media (2013, p. 37). In the case of The Crucible,
it would be a blast to have students create a blog in which their essay
features multi-media affordances (hyperlinks, photos, videos, etc.) similar to
the Death of a Salesman essays Hicks
highlights as examples on pages 51-55.
In addition to these essays, students’ blogs could be highly interactive
with their peers with the expectation that students comment on one another’s
ideas and post relevant articles. With this approach, students shift the focus
from writing for their teacher’s eyes only to writing for a broader audience –
and one that specifically influences teens – that of their peers. I can only imagine how much more
invested students would be in a project like this, and it makes me excited to
implement in my own classroom.
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| commons.wikimedia.org |
Sources:
Hicks, T.
(2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Hobbs, R.
(2011). Digital and media literacy: Connecting culture and classroom. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Corwin.
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