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Side-topic: check out the hashtag #disrupttexts on twitter and Instagram - there is a dedicated website as well.
It can be a great resource when you want to teach a specific type of narrative but want an updated version or diversity represented in the characters
Just went to the website. It’s great! Thanks for sharing!
Here is my rant: So many contemporary texts just don’t have the depth of thinking or quality of writing as does a TKAM or even Of Mice and Men or a Night. The contemporary texts’ language has been made so simple that so many of my students read them and feel like they have just eaten a candy bar: well, that was sweet but I’m hungry for a main course. I have kids who come back years later and they still bring up Piggy or Lennie’s death or they talk about what they learned in Night or even Romeo and Juliet. I have never had a kid return and discuss a contemporary novel with the same awe and reverence—except one: The Book Thief. And the only thing they mention is Death and what a unique perspective it is, not the lessons learned.
Sometimes I think that in our rush to get everyone on board or try to find something they all “like,” we forget that they really do look for guidance (Atticus); for others feeling like they do growing up (Scout); in love (Romeo and Juliet without the ending); for strength in adversity and fear (Elie Weisel); and so on. Teens think deeper than we give them credit for, and I want to give them literature they will remember.
I have tried with many, many books but it’s the kids’ reactions that guide me. For example, I do love The Book Thief. I also teach many other contemporary books I really like: All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, The Help, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (nonfiction, but great), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, 13 Reasons Why (before the series), choice books, etc. And really, I like them all. I teach them with enthusiasm and joy and we have great discussions. The kids like them, but they tell me they remember and learned from the classics. And that’s why I’ll always teach the classics.
I read whatever will get the kids interested in reading. Contemporary literature makes that much easier.
Yes!!!
I haven’t taught TKAM and am going to avoid it as long as I can. The student population where I teach is very diverse, with prominent Black/African-American representation.
Other novels or stories, told from a non-white perspective, are just better choices.
Also: the Odyssey was a struggle every year - now: I go over the outline with them, compare it to the Hero’s Journey... and then we dive into more contemporary “hero” narratives.
I'm sorry but either/or questions like this always get my hackles up because the honest answer is both contemporary and classic literature have their place, and there's room for both.
Classic lit is important because it is culturally relevant (a point I won't belabor because it has been covered here already). But I don't see anyone dragging their students through texts like Dante's Inferno or Paradise Lost anymore even though those texts are so ingrained into the culture that people reference them without even knowing it anymore. So the culturally relevant argument does have it's limits.
The thing that really bothers me is classic literature too often becomes code for white literature. I don't understand how TKAM (which I do love) almost always makes the cut, but Invisible Man, Black Like Me, Autobiography of Malcom X, anything by Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Octavia Butler, Fredrick Douglass (the list goes on...) somehow rarely make the cut. If you find yourself saying "we must pass on the culture," ask yourself whose culture and who gets to decide what is culturally relevant?
Contemporary lit is easier for students to digest and often is better for students who don't enjoy reading. But don't let that fool you into thinking they aren't complex. Anything by Toni Morrison is just as poetic as the classics. Even popular texts like Hunger Games can be read in depth (the slavery connection in District 11 has so much historical context you can dive into). The Fault in Our Stars is another popular one that not only has the Shakespeare reference, it basically shows the evolution from nihilism to existentialism. You have most of modern philosophy in one easy to read story- pretty complex if you ask me. Contemporary lit can be complex of you actually do a deep dive like you would with classic lit.
100%. Incredibly well said.
I think they are classic for a reason. There are so many cultural references to many of them that students need to know the work to understand the reference.
I teach English 9, Romeo & Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird need to be taught. President Obama is his final speech as president quotes Atticus, & Oprah says TKM was the book that gave her the idea to create a book club. The day I begin TKM I show short video clips of both of them. However I also teach The Odyssey & I would not mind replacing that with something contemporary.
That sounds really interesting! Thank you for the suggestion. 🙂
I definitely feel like the classics have a place, but some of these classics are taught in middle school like To Kill a Mockingbird. I don’t think the maturity level is there to delve into a book like that. I have done that particular book for a few years now and I feel like the students would have benefited more from a contemporary piece.
That’s a shame. First, it should never be taught in middle school, the vocabulary is too adult & I wouldn’t want to discuss rape with kids that young. Second, personally I’ve had a great deal of success teaching it with ninth graders, they are old enough to truly get it. Then when I pull in the Scottsboro Boys, the students are appalled & really learn.
I think the classics are important, but I also think that dead white guys are responsible for a lot of the equity in education issues we face. It depends a lot on your population of students, too. I read all classics in my honors track in hs, but outside of that I wouldn’t emphasize them as much, especially when it comes to students that struggle with basic comprehension. There’s a lot that can be taught with films, graphic novel adaptations and the like as well.
Agree totally: studying literature in an honors class is essentially studying and understanding the classics. In a standard, typical High School classroom, especially one with a diverse student population, it’s a disservice to stick with the classics.
And frankly: it’s a bit lazy. It causes an obvious reliance on old lesson plans and creates a resistance to change.
(The word “lazy” is not an attack, just used to make a point)