Written by During the academic year, grade twelve English students examined numerous media articles and broadcasts questioning the place of literature in 21st century curriculum design. Does literature, and all that it can bring, belong on a contemporary syllabus? In an age of rapid technological innovation, decreasing attention spans, job training now driving education reforms across North America, is there room for Shakespeare, Plath, Hawthorne, and Williams? Will their voices still be relevant, comprehensible even, to a new breed of student who is being told to prepare for jobs that don’t yet exist and don’t require literary studies?
Should literature be shelved, once and for all?
My students don’t think so. Their voices offer a counterpoint to the academic discourse that claims literature is dead. They have taken to the Internet. They are reading, writing, and fighting for fiction, using their 21st century skills and digital dexterity to show that, even in an age of rapid-fire innovation (or perhaps because of it), literature, and the challenge to critical thinking it offers, is now needed more than ever.
They can tell you, better than I can.
Through blogging, students share and respond to one another’s farewell letters to favorite authors and characters, poems, rumination on education, and examinations on the role English literature plays in their lives.
For more on our story, please click here for an overview of our project and links to related articles and broadcasts. Student blogs are up and running, and the excitement surrounding this project has created opportunities for further sharing and research within the school community. Next week, I will be presenting this action plan at a full-faculty meeting.
As always, we welcome your feedback.
You and your class have done a wonderful job in getting this initiative going, Shelley. Been reading some great comments and reflections by your students. Perhaps this is already on the cards but here’s a thought. What if all English teachers in the cohort (to start with) follow up with similar online projects and, with the school year nearly over, get their kids to list and share five favourite books in their high school years that they can “put out there”, with a brief, non-spoiler, summary of why each book is on their list? Not just, or even, books they’ve studied, but novels, plays, poetry, biographies, that they think others will enjoy. “Contemporize” a great books list for all students as they head into the summer. Of course there are many sites already out there, but this one would be personalized by fellow students.
Great idea, Colin. What would be on your list? Which books would make the top five?
I meant the list to be drawn up the students. My list would not necessarily be their list. I would love to see them network (is that the right word?) suggested titles that worked for them.
Check out one student’s approach:
http://mottylcat.blogspot.ca/2013/04/my-treasure.html
Hi Shelley,
Thanks for this post and for putting yourself and your students out there in this debate. I am not sure if you caught it or not, but last weekend X-country check up did a great show about the death of the book. It talks a lot about what literature is today, and what it means to be literate.
http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/episode/2013/04/07/the-decline-of-books-ever/
Enjoy!
garth.
Thanks for the link, Garth.
I plan to share some of this debate with my class. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks for the resource.