Note: Prior to drafting this post, I was recommended a piece by Randy Ribay that not only said what I would have written more clearly, but it expanded my ideas of what was possible and quelled some of my anxiety about incorporating critical theory in the classroom. You can find Ribay’s post here: “Critical Lit Theory as Preparation for the World.” So, what to do besides incorporate some of his ideas when we “return” from the Covid lockdown? This piece will share my key takeaways from his article and then propose a number of pedagogical concepts that I can pair with what I have learned, each worthy of its own exploration.
Randy Ribay’s Practice for the Real World
Ribay is often asked why he teaches with texts about dark and depressing topics. He responds, “If you work with teens, you already know the answer to that question. The real question is are we, as educators, ready?” I think the same thing any time I question the “appropriateness” of a book. Parents and teachers shudder at the idea of something racy or explicit in a novel, but tolerate complete access to whatever is available on Netflix, YouTube, or elsewhere online. Teens are engaged by challenging issues, tragedy, and controversy. Ribay suggests we English educators lean into this.
He includes an excellent list of methods with which we can make accessible the concepts behind theory without directly reading scholarship. Once these patterns of discourse are established, criticism can be done on any fiction or text.
- Debates
- Harkness discussions
- Writing projects
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Creative nonfiction
- Secondary sources
- Primary sources
Ribay suggests starting with feminism, postcolonialism, and Marxism theory to examine and critique patriarchy, racism, capitalism. What can this theory-based work achieve? According to Ribay, we are giving students “a safe space to work through and name their emotions” and forcing them to answer the question: “What are you going to do with those feelings?”
Future Pedagogy Post Topics
“More Social Justice in Classroom” — How to Teach and Talk About Issues
- Research into scholarship about how YA raises social justice awareness, pedagogy of teaching these ideas and scholarship on discussing social justice in the educational setting
Social Responsibility in My Lesson Planning
- As I plan, I want something I can return to to remind myself to ask: Do my standards get specific enough about race, gender, etc theory? I need to consider my potential complicity in systems of power that affect my students. In other words, I need to practice what I preach.
- I made a note during class when Dr. Meixner made a point about relationship-building and body language via webcam meeting. With the inevitability of virtual classes, I need to be proactive to make sure the virtual classroom is as welcoming an environment as my physical one. I’ll be honest, I am not sure where to start my research into this idea.
Pedagogy on Race and TKAM
As I read Brooks and Cueto’s article, “Contemplating and Extending the Scholarship on Children’s and Young Adult Literature” , I couldn’t help but think about how I can expand or supplement my instruction of To Kill a Mockingbird. Although it is about racism, it privileges the perspective of an innocent white child and emphasizes her epiphanies about race in the American South. Very little space is given to Tom Robinson, and we only ever hear from him in two scenes. So far, I have supplemented the novel with social studies material.
A project idea I would like to revive for this site as I do my summer planning is to create a new unit on race through an inquiry into alternate and paired texts. First, as Coats explains in “Young Adult Literature”, students need more engaging and relevant material in order to understand the ideas of the text. YA lit should be prioritized over “classics” “in order to engage students in the critical process through literature they actually enjoy” (Coats 317, emphasis mine).
So far, I have noted that I can do the following based on the data analysis explanation (Brooks and Cueto 20-21).
- Context – situate texts within a particular historical, social, and political context with social studies-type nonfiction and writing from black authors and memoirists
- “Theory” – Engage students with ideas about postcolonialism and slavery, paying attention to home/place, identity, and imbalance of power
- Passages galore – The literature portion, students apply the theoretical ideas to texts related to young black people, forced migration, perceptions of Western prosperity, opportunities for black adolescents, personal and community goals of the characters
Society of Spectacle (fits theory, analysis, AND pedagogy)
- Society of the Spectacle: WTF? Guy Debord, Situationism and the Spectacle Explained | Tom Nicholas
- Adapt this into reading questions about how characters display themselves to one another. Or maybe the best way to say it is how they present themselves to others. What do they do in a performative way to show that they are better than other characters in what way do they show that they are, as Nicholas uses as an example in the video, a Mac and not a PC?
Public Scholarship as Mentor Text for Critical Analysis
- Offer mentors of public scholarship modeling critical analysis
- Assign public scholarship options for publishing analysis
- What is “public scholarship”?
- Should we write it?
Leveraging Netflix Addiction to Teach Literary Analysis
- During a long drive recently, I could tell I was disappointing a non-teacher friend with my rant about the struggle to “get kids to read”. Afterward, I asked her what she absorbed from it.
- I was (allegedly) being cynical about:
- Willingness of students tocare about relating to others
- Narrative fiction as a useful tool for teach empathy or critical thinking (I was feeling salty and said this was a low priority)
- My concerns
- “No one reads with enthusiasm anymore”
- Netflix addiction
- My Goals
- Use netflix addiction to my advantage
- Apply critical thinking to classic novels after more high-interest content
I need to explore how I can work with familiar and high-interest fiction to get the ball rolling on critical thought and reflection. This post would detail my findings and suggestions for how to achieve this.
YA DYSTOPIA/QUESTIONING ISAs
- Ahh, the one that got away. Due to the Covid shutdown, the interlibrary loan system was on a lag. I didn’t get this book in time (or ever), but here is a description from the abstract. I hope this helps with my instruction of YA and dystopian literature, both high-interest genres with well-known plots.
- Campbell, Joseph. The order and the other: power and subjectivity in young adult science fiction and dystopian literature for adolescents. Illinois State University, 2010. The order and the other : young adult dystopian literature and science fiction / Joseph W. Campbell. – Princeton University Library Catalog
“In this dissertation, I establish that it is possible to see the two genres of science fiction for young adults and dystopian literature for adolescents as distinct when they are viewed through the lens of the critical work they perform, even when some characteristics, such as their settings, may appear to be similar. I do so using the concept of genre as use-value. Science fiction for young adults has its use-value in clearly demonstrating the concept of othering to the adolescent; dystopian fiction for adolescents has its use-value in requiring the young adult to question the ideological apparatuses of the culture being critiqued.
English, Please 