I know it's been a while since my last update. I've found that teaching two classes gives me much less time for reflection on my experience because I spend more time reflecting on my lessons, which isn't something I'm very inclined to do on this blog.
That said, right now I'm working on two of my favorite stories. Children's Literature is reading Alice in Wonderland and British Literature is tackling Frankenstein. I love both of these stories deeply.
Anybody who knows me well would be able to tell you that Alice is my favorite story. It's such clever nonsense that the book manages to entertain my again and again. It's absolutely wonderful to see my students experiencing the same enthusiasm (for the most part) for a book that I enjoy. It's been mountains of fun helping them work through the jokes that Carroll weaves into his text. Some definitely went over their heads, but then, I don't know that I expected them to get some of these jokes. A true understanding of about half of Carroll's jokes require an understanding of life in the Victorian era, which these students don't have because we're not a traditional literature class. I've given them some instruction, but for the most part, we've been looking at how Alice is a fantasy story and what makes it appropriate for children. We did have a tea party last Friday, though. I definitely enforced Victorian tea rules (the students weren't very happy about that).
As for Frankenstein, this novel just fascinates me to no end. Not only is it by a female author, but it's one of the first modern novels ever written AND it's science fiction. Mary Shelley adds so much detail to her text describing characters and their motivations. We're reading the novel in conjunction with Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" because of the influence that poem had on the creation of the novel. We've also looked into the story of Prometheus in Greek mythology because the subtitled to Frankenstein is The Modern Prometheus. We are just about halfway through the novel right now and a lot of my students are amazed at how much they're liking the story.
I'm still struggling with one of my students. It's like he's just completely given up on doing any work and I really wish I knew how to help him. I know that he's capable of doing the work that I assign--he managed it last semester--but now it's like he's protesting me. Even if I give my class time to do their work in-class, he'll sit there and just stare at the blank page rather than even try. It's very frustrating. And the worst part is, he's not going to pass the class if he keeps this up. He's already failing beyond hope for this quarter (grades close in two and a half weeks) and once I put in the grades for the assignments he's missing and has already told me he's not planning on turning in, it's going to be even worse for him. He chose this course over other junior English classes. He came in talking about how interested in British literature he was. Now, he's just not even making an effort. I don't understand him at all, but I'll keep trying to find ways to encourage him to work.
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