This post is in response to Kacee’s response to Caitlin’s post. Confusing enough for you?
I already posted about how I feel about Caitlin’s research blog platform–I see the merit in both canonical and modern novels. I liked Kacee’s point about seeing someone teach The Odyssey using a graphic novel. If I remember correctly, this teacher used a graphic novel with no words. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but if an old bottle of vitaminwater can be used as a text, I guess a bunch of pictures put together can be, too.
Don’t you see the messages yelling at you from this bottle? No? Look closer.
I believe I’ve already admitted I’m not a big fan of Shakespeare, and the same goes for The Odyssey. If I struggle with it, I’m not going to like it. Plain and simple. I believe it’s fair to say I’m not crazy if I don’t expect my students to be excited about these texts, either. Of course, some will like it–when we read The Odyssey in the eighth grade, I felt like the only one who wasn’t into it. I wonder if I would like reading the graphic novel version of it, though. The plot is interesting–it’s just the words used that get me.
The same goes for Shakespeare. I’ll admit, I will still read some Sparknotes.
Yeeeeeah, Sparknotes…
Do you want me to get it or not! I don’t have three weeks to break down what he’s saying, I have a night! I think the plots for most of his plays are interesting, but I just don’t understand what he’s saying.
Then we have the other parts of the canon that I like–The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, To Kill a Mockingbird. I’ll read those all day long. But I think back to reading them in high school, and I think I was the only one who actually liked these. Weird, right? But we watched the movies, and my fellow classmates were into those.
I’m not sure what my point is–I think it’s that using various “texts” to get students into the canon is a good idea.
hjstone 