Student Teaching Exercise: literary terms in Yeats' "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"

     I had two terms that I wanted to discuss with my students regarding "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." I wanted to talk about the pastoral literature and the Irish Literary Revival. At first, I just wanted to teach them the term, and then ask how the terms were applied in each case. (It wasn't until well into the planning stages that it occurred to me how these two terms were potentially related.) I was trying to think about applying Harold Bloom's taxonomy [the revised version]; I wanted to amp up the class by doing something different. I usually start with the verbs in the owl diagram (see my previous blog post here: http://paedagogusperplexus.blogspot.ca/2014/11/verbage-using-more-verbs-in-lesson.html) and this time I started thinking about "teaching": how could I get my students to teach each other? So here's what I came up with:


Student Teaching Exercise:

Learning Objectives:

By having students learn the term and then try to teach it to the rest of the class, I'm engaging a few different learning styles: social, visual, oral, and aural. 

Instructions: 

I have a class of 25 students and 2 terms: do I split them into two? This makes for ungainly "groups" and fewer people talking within them. More groups creates more opportunities for people to speak in the small group setting. 

As a drawback, it means that the students hear one term three times and the other term twice, sometimes with some repetition. Is it repetitive? Turns out, it's just repetitive for me, as the students found that hearing the term that they didn't study more than once was actually good for them. 

Each group had a handout with the following on it:

a) a page-length definition of the term. 

As noted in the slide above, they must summarize the information. I used definitions from Encyclopedia Britannica and cited the sources. 

b) An incomplete thesis statement. 

(Eg. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" contains examples of pastoral literature, which is important because ________. They're practicing the "because" part of their thesis statement; once you've seen that a pattern exists in the text, why does it matter? In this case, I've given them the pattern. They have to decide what the pattern means).

c) space for quotations or information from the poem

(Eg. Irish Literary Revival was hard here, but one of the things that they could mention is the lyrical quality or the form, which is unlike any of the English (ie British) poetry they've seen so far, which indicates Yeats' departure from the British canon). 

d) a template for how I wanted them to present their findings. 

Practice organizing and practice preparing answers for an audience!

In the summary part of the class, we discussed what they learned from the other groups. It was difficult, but as they learn to trust each other a bit more in the class, this kind of thing will become easier. 

Some key points that we came up with:

* the pastoral is a mode that has been popular throughout the body of western literature; beginning with Hesiod, it begins its heyday in the 16th Century. As we pointed out, Yeats is writing in the 19th Century, which means that he's reviving it for some reason. 
* with some prompting, we discover that Yeats is probably reviving the pastoral as a modernist commentary.
* the Irish Literary Revival is a result of the Irish being culturally oppressed by the British; it is part of the Irish Renaissance. Yeats is referring to an Irish place, and he's using a form and lyric style that departs from traditional English (and British) literature. ||| There's a more complex argument that the lyrical quality is reminiscent of Irish folk song, but I didn't expect us to get that far. 
* The two terms tie together because the pastoral mode in an Irish context hearkens to historical Irish people: the relationship between Irish folk music, folktales, and the land are inextricably linked, so by using the pastoral mode, Yeats is participating in the renaissance, also. 

Creative Writing Prompt: Point of View

In this lesson, we considered point of view. One of the tactics I have been using lately in teaching creative writing is to always attach it to a concept of writing. I think I was largely just doing fun or quirky ideas before, but now I'm actually thinking about one thing they're getting out of the lesson (For example: character, plot, setting, dialogue, etc). It's pretty basic, but I think I get more bang for my buck this way: I give them something fun to do, but I also give them a concept from writing which will serve them well.

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Point of View

You may not realize it, but every story is written from someone’s point of view: that means that someone is telling the story based on how they see things happening. A narrator is the person telling the story.

You can have one of three different types of narrator:

The first-person perspective: the person telling the story is the person who the story is about. This person describes things that happen to them using the words “I” or “me” or “my.” This type of story has a lot of perspective on a person’s feelings, because they often share how they feel in the narrative. This narrator is a character in the story.

 The third-person perspective: the person telling this story describes what is happening to other people who are in the story using the words “he” or “she” or “they.” This type of story will usually have one person as the main focus, but the narrator will not know what their feelings are, so the reader will have to wait to see how the characters are described, or to read what they say in order to find out how they feel. This narrator is not often a character in the story.

 The omniscient narrator: the person telling this story also uses the words “he” or “she” or “they” to describe the characters and their actions. The word “omniscient” means “all-knowing.” The difference between this narrator and the third-person narrator is that the omniscient narrator knows what everyone is thinking: this narrator will often describes their thoughts and feelings so that the reader knows everything that is going on in the minds of the characters. This narrator is almost never a character in the story

(I can think of one really great exception: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak has an omniscient narrator, who is the character of Death, personified. An omniscient narrator who appears in the text is probably going to be someone with supernatural or god-like powers in most cases).

When you write a story, it is important that you know from whose perspective you write: if the narrator is a character in the story, the story is told from their point of view.

It is also important that the point of view remains consistent: you don’t want to change from a first-person narrator to an omniscient narrator part way through.

Also, the point of view should make logical sense:

-          A story told by a princess will look different from a story told by a vampire: they will think differently about their actions and how they justify their thoughts and feelings.

-          You should ask yourself who and what your narrator is so that you can feel the way they feel: a story with an omniscient narrator should be pretty neutral. You don’t want your omniscient narrator to be too present. That is, you should not be able to notice there is a narrator when that narrator is omniscient. By contrast, a story told from the perspective of a shark should feel like a shark wrote it. Their thoughts should sound like shark-thoughts, and their actions should look like shark-actions.

Today you will practice writing from different points of view.

Pick one of the following Point of View Prompts:

Write a story about a dragon that saves a princess from a knight (You may use any of the following points of view: the perspective of the dragon, the princess, the knight, or an unnamed narrator). 

Imagine you live in a world where sharks swim in the forest, and you become lost in a forest overnight. Tell the story of what happens.

Tell a story from the perspective of a painting in a museum.

 A teenager has just discovered undeniable, 100% accurate proof that everyone around them is an alien. Describe what they do tomorrow.

 Imagine you are a fairy-tale villain (of your choice). Write about how someone wronged you in the past, causing you to become villainous.

 Tell the story of a lost button becoming reunited with its coat.

 You have picked up a rock which gives you the ability to know everyone’s thoughts and feelings. Tell the story of the first day you take your mind-reading rock to school.

Consider the following questions for the point of view that you choose:

Who is the narrator?

How do they think?

What are their goals and motivations? (What do they want?)

Why do they want what they want?

How are they going to get what they want?

Now, write that story! 

*** I ended up needing a bit of further explanation for a few of my young listeners. So I told the story of Little Red Riding Hood from three different perspectives. Not for the first time was I reminded that examples are often the trick! 

Frankenstein and Intersectionality: Guest Lecture

I had the opportunity in Term 2 to Guest Lecture in Lindsey Banco's English 110 class. Since I wrote my Master's on Frankenstein, we thought this would be a good idea. In this lecture, I introduce the basic theoretical framework of my Master's project to the students. (PS - these are my lecture notes, so not the polished handouts that I frequently post. I have put in a selection of the slides, too, for further clarification where potentially necessary)

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Frankenstein: Intersectionality and the Creature

I’m going to do something different. I’m going to start with a question that I’m not going to answer, and I will end the class with the same question, which I still won’t answer. Here it is:

Is the creature gendered feminine?

(explain difference between sex and gender in most basic terms: We are not asking if the creature is female, but rather does he exhibit feminine traits? (or for that matter, uniquely masculine traits?))

(reasons why I won’t answer: I don't want to bias your opinions (I am extremely biased!); I want to give you the tools to come up with your own answer to the question, etc; I am experimenting with basic teaching principles because I CAN!)

In the meantime, I’m going to give you some tools to think about how to answer the question: I’ll give the same question to you at the end of the class.

Three terms:

Binaries

Hierarchical binaries

Intersectionality

Binaries

-        

            Anybody know what a binary is?

-         (Shout out opposites)

-          Tall

-          Small

-          Thin

-          Hot

-          Wide

-          Good

-          Ugly

Ok, now they get harder

-          Love

-          Green

-          Light

-          White

-          Sun

Some of these pairings are neutral, some of them are not: one half of the binary seems to be better than the other.

One foundational aspect of how we learn is to learn how to categorize things into groups of twos: this is a simple way that we learn how to understand the world, and so it is introduced to us at a fairly young age. One of the difficult things about this is is that it’s a system of organizing information that does not allow for a lot of flexibility or complexity.

The creature has a number of binaries that he exists in: TAKE TO THE BOARD: (get them to list) (give them “good”) child/parent, child/adult, evil/good, artificial/real, unfeeling/ caring, dead/alive, etc –

One of the things that you may have noticed is that there is a side of most pairings that you want to be, while others appear to be somewhat neutral. So tall, beautiful, good, come to mind. White and Black can seem neutral until you start to consider that these colours can also be shorthand for race, and you can start to see the privilege inherent in the word white over the other.

Binaries have two types of relationships: the relationship between the two sides of the pairing (old vs young) as well as other halves of binaries that are associated with them. (Old is associated with ugly and young is associated with beauty, because the binaries are organized along positive and negatives.)

The hierarchical binary is therefore the idea that a) one side of the binary is usually preferable and b) negative sides of binaries are associated with other negative sides (and similarly for positive sides of the binaries, which are associated with other positives).

I would like to complicate this idea of binaries, however. With a little bit of whiteboard magic, I want to show you how we can remove some of the simplicity from binaries:

(Turn VS into a LINE)

Explain the spectrum (using the example of the creature: pick any binary)

_______________________________

So let’s take a few minutes to think about the creature’s binaries and hierarchical binaries: what are his perceived binaries, and where would we map him on a spectrum of those binaries?

[Label quadrants of the room: old vs young, alive vs dead, real vs artificial, good vs evil, caring vs unfeeling, etc]

In the group at your table, discuss what side of the binary you would place the creature on. Find at least one passage in the text that supports your idea. I’ll give you five (10?) minutes to do that.

5-10 minutes to discuss. – while we are discussing, write down the binary spectrums with the “good” on the left, and the “bad” on the right.

From the analysis of how binaries interact with one another comes the idea of intersectionality.

various biological, social and cultural categories such as gender, race, class, ability, sexual orientation, religion, caste, species and other axes of identity interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels, contributing to systematic injustice and social inequality

Observe:

Put the creature’s binaries down the page. (Go back to board)

Place a dot where you think the creature exists.

Then put a vertical line through the dots. What verb would you use to describe what the vertical line is doing to the horizontal lines?

-        

                    Going through, passing through, intersecting!

Intersectionality is a term that we use in feminist studies to think about identity: how identity is constructed both by the self and externally by society.

Intersectionality is supposed to make us think about the way that privilege works in society: if one side of the binary is usually privileged, if you identify with or are identified as being part of multiple privileged (or under-privileged) sides of the binary, that will affect the way you are treated.

Based on intersecting binaries, who has privilege? How is this person privileged or not?

Compare Donald Trump (as himself) to Gugu Mbatha-Raw (playing Dido Elizabeth Belle). 

What privilege do they have? What ways are they oppressed by dominant cultural ideas? 

In what ways do the intersections of their qualities overlap to create more or less privilege? (That is: wealth, race, gender, age, etc)

Consider these questions in regards to the creature: 

Intersectionality allows us to think about how the creature exists on a variety of spectrums rather than just one; is he young / old? Real or artificial? Good or evil? Is he such a mixture of both sides that it’s difficult to place him on any one side of the spectrum? All of these parts together give us a much more complex vision of his identity, which is another way of complicating his identity.

To put it another way, if we simply think: “is the creature good or evil?” we must choose one side.

If we put him on a spectrum of good ----------- evil, we might place him on different sides at different ends of the text.

If we then say that he exists on several other spectrums (caring / uncaring; young / old; real / artificial; etc) do these other spectrums not give us context to the original question of whether he is good or evil? (if he is both real and artificial, and both alive and dead, might we be a little less sure of where he definitively good or bad?

We can do the same thing with other characters from the text:

Elizabeth, Victor. (is Elizabeth intelligent or kind of imaginative and wispy? Is Victor good or bad? 

A parent or a child? A mother or father? Etc)

A final note to summarize:

Victor says that he “pursues nature to her hiding places”

·        Victor feminizes nature, here.

·        What do we learn from Victor in this very short passage?

-          Aggressive

-          Gendered

-          Eroticized and non-consensual

His project – making the creature – is feminized. The science of discovery and the creation of life is feminized during the act of making the creature … until the creature is formed, when it becomes male, and is no longer referred to by Victor in the feminine.

Only when Victor sees that his pursuit has failed does he consider it a failure, when the project becomes male / masculinzed.

What if, instead of being a failed act by a masculine human, the creature is actually a successful response by a feminine nature? What if the creature is nature’s intentional response to Victor --- "to heck with you, Vic! Go back to your books!"

Does anybody have any final thoughts?

Here is your question that I will leave you with:

Is Frankenstein’s creature feminized?

Frankenstein's Creature on Trial

So, we put Frankenstein's Creature on Trial.

This was a completely new and different way to think about close reading, group work, and classroom presentations. It was also a unique take on my debate structure. It was fun!

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At the end of one class, I handed out these descriptions of the groups, and divided people into pairs. I also used our University Learning Services program to create groups and give the students access to a discussion boards and a blog, in case they wanted to communicate in different ways.

Frankenstein’s Creature on Trial:

To what extent is the creature at fault for his crimes?

A judge in the judicial system takes into account the circumstances of a person’s life when they have committed crimes; there are several circumstances in the creature’s short life that would excuse many of his behaviours. To what extent is Victor Frankenstein at fault for his creature’s actions? On March 20^th, we will put Frankenstein’s creature on trial for the crime of murder.

You will be divided into one of the following groups:

The Prosecution team. The Prosecution team works on behalf of the crown. What are the crimes that the creature is guilty of? Show how the creature commits his crimes in full knowledge of his actions, and that he should not be excused for his crimes just because his creator neglected him. Does sentience also grant an assumption of morality? Do we rely on parents to impart a sense of that morality? Your statement should be at least 7 minutes long.

The Defense team. The Defense team works on behalf of the creature. Part of your defense should be in showing how the creature’s life – being “raised” by Victor Frankenstein – created his circumstances for him. The other part of your defense could also include casting doubt on the creature’s guilt by making the case that Victor is the real culprit. Finally, how much does it matter that the creature is not technically human? Laws are created for humans; is the creature above / beyond the law? Is being sentient enough to grant him status as someone who is bound to human laws? Your statement should be at least 7 minutes long.

The Jury. The Jury should prepare by re-reading pg 217-221 (starting with “That is also my victim!” (217) and ending with “My spirit will sleep in peace; or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell” (221). Consider this passage to be the creature’s last statement on the case. Does this persuade you that Frankenstein or the creature is more at fault? If it persuades you of the creature’s fault, how does it align with the content and tone of his earlier statements regarding his sense of self? Ultimately, you must make a decision together about the creature’s guilt based on the prepared statements you will hear.

The Judges. The Judging team must prepare by creating a set of questions to help you determine the guilt of the creature. You can ask the prosecution and the defense team five questions each, for a total of ten questions. At the end of their prepared statements, they must answer the questions you pose to them. Consider both the law as well as your level of discretion: you may choose to empathize with the creature, but the defense and the prosecution team will help you decide how much to empathize with them. The jury will give you their decision after which your team will have the last word on the creature’s guilt. You will have five minutes to confer with one another, and create a Reason for Decision, which you will present to those present at the trial.

The students had a week to prepare their group.

I gave the students further practical instructions on a slide on the day of the trial:

The Prosecution team actually went through the entire text and made a list of the criminal offences that the creature would be guilty of (there was a moment of discrepancy where there was some question as to what legal system was being used (Vienna?  Canada?) and in what year (1818? 1831? 2015?)) But once they got over that discussion, I discovered that this activity had forced them to do a different sort of careful and thorough close reading. Furthermore, all of the teams were confronted with the creature's morality vs the ethics of his society, which is a frequent discussion amongst Frankenstein experts and scholars. The Judges' team asked some extremely probing and substantive questions. And the Jury - who was, by necessity, fairly quiet throughout - gave a very thoughtful reason for their decision. If I do this again, I will find a more active role for the team that is on the Jury. Overall, however, I was impressed with how well this activity worked. 

Interviewing Sylvia Plath

Objectives:

- to use role play to consider authorial intent

- to compare two Plath poems: "Daddy" and "Mushrooms" 

Pre-Assessment: 

1. A lot of Plath criticism tends to focus on her untimely death, and how her poetry does or does not foreshadow that. I think of "Mushrooms" as a great example of how her poetry defines her humanity; she is more than just her death. Having read "Daddy" last class, and "Mushrooms" at the beginning of this class, what strikes you as the largest differences between them?

2. How do you think Plath perceived these poems as a reflection of herself?

3. As a literary critic, how do you see these poems reflecting her?

Instructions:

1. Assign everyone in pairs. 

2. Decide which poem you will be discussing. 

3. Decide which one will be the interviewer, and which will be Plath.

4. Interviewer: take 15-20 minutes to brainstorm questions; remember, you are trying to determine why Plath made particular choices in her writing. 

     a. Word choices?

     b. Images?

     c. Rhythm and metre?

     d. (etc)

5. Plath role-player: take 15-20 minutes to re-read the poem several times, and consider what it would be like to write the poem.

6. Spend 5-10 minutes exchanging questions and answers.

7. Swap roles. 

Post Assessment:

What was it like to think like Sylvia Plath? 

How is thinking like the author different from thinking like a critic?

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Summary: 

I've been thinking about using more role-playing activities in my classes lately, because of the way that these activities can draw out more kinesthetic learners; they learn by doing, so in acting the role of critic (say, as an interviewer), they are more likely to get a feel for how to be a critic. The other advantage of role-playing is that it mixes things up: class isn't just group work and lecture (or some combination thereof), but there are also different activities to keep things interesting.