As most of you dear readers know I’m in Shanghai! Teaching
here has been an experience for sure, but I have some pretty awesome students
to make up for the parts of my job that drive me crazy.
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| I've only read 5/12 =( |
I recently completed a unit on dystopia with my 9th
grade English class. Dystopia is one of my favorite genres to explore. Not only
is trending in YA literature right now, but it’s relevant to the world today
regarding government, security, advances in technology etc.
I did a dystopia unit in the US with 12th
graders. It’s probably important to note that my 12th graders were
all reading different dystopian novels. My 9th graders all read the
same book—Lois Lowry’s The Giver.
Here’s the reaction to learning about dystopia I got from my
American 12th graders:
“WHY DO THEY HAVE CAMERAS IN THE HALL MISS SULLY!? THEY
WATCH US DO EVERYTHING! THEY DON’T TRUST US! WE EVEN NEED PASSES TO GO TO THE
BATHROOM! THIS SCHOOL IS A DYSTOPIA!”
So the 12th graders were a little dramatic. Naturally,
this time I was prepared for more dramarama but that’s not really what I got.
Most of my Chinese students haven’t been exposed to the
genre before. They’ve seen the movies for Enders
Game and The Hunger Games but
didn’t know what those types of stories are called. So, a lot of this unit has
been building background knowledge and bombarding them with as many
supplemental texts which I will list later on. (Oh, you know that The Giver book review is on the
horizon.)
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| Anyone else think he looks like Darwin? |
Now, The Giver is
an interesting one. I hadn’t read it in a long time and there was so much I
missed the last time I read it! Starting with the fact that the Giver is an
asshole and ending with the fact that Lowry very cleverly critiques and
promotes the society she creates. The conversations between Jonas and the Giver
about what is good for the people of the community are wonderful. And even in
the end Jonas still struggles with what is better—the “perfect” society or
freedom.
And then it comes down to what this has done to me. Maybe
it’s just the way the year is going (we did a unit on myths and fairy tales and
debated the importance of books and storytelling in our society) but I have
started to see dystopia everywhere. I feel like I am becoming one of my former
12th graders. I’m pretty much convinced society is going to become
MT Anderson’s Feed.
But perhaps that is a better rant for another day.
There is also the overall impact this unit has had on my
teaching, because in the end I have not been pleased with this unit. There have
been some hiccups along the way (not enough copies of the book for each kid to
have their own etc.) but I’m the dystopia gal. YA is my specialty and this is
my genre. I know how to rock a dystopia unit and I feel like I didn’t rock it.
And I think this is the reason why…
Most of my students come from Chinese Local Schools. They
have to have a certain English ability to get into our school, however, most
have never read a complete English book before or (more importantly) been asked
their opinion about anything.
Never before have I appreciated so much the power of asking
“why.” Asking students to explain themselves. Asking them to agree or disagree
or stand in the middle and defend their position.
Our school promotes an “East Meets West” education and
dystopia is where they come head to head.
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| SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM! |
There is me questioning Jonas’s bravery and the Giver’s good
intentions.
Then there are my students who can tell me of course Jonas is brave and the Giver
is good. Duh, Lois Lowry wrote it right here so it MUST be true.
But, this is really more about me. It’s about me knowing
better. Me knowing the background of my kids and scaffolding the questioning.
About me being more explicit and offering more practice for finding text-based
evidence. Seeing that the kids come from a background where questioning isn’t
encouraged and learning and memorizing are the same thing, so I should give
them some more time.
Me saying that I will not lower my expectations but I can
approach them in a different way.
Me saying next time I will be better.
Not to say there have been no positives in this unit. There
were definitely students who embraced the genre and have started reading other
dystopian novels. There were students I had to keep yelling at because they
read ahead and tried to spoil the ending for everyone.
And there were students who were appreciative of the
questions. Students who for the first time were told it’s ok to talk about the
world and critique different societies—even North Korea.
One of the overarching concepts in dystopian novels is the
idea of making everyone the same, and that if this were to happen the world
would be a better place. In the end I’m confident I managed to hammer into my
students that it is ok to be different.
In fact, I want them all to be different—with their own opinions
and own questions—and that is what makes a western English lit class work.
Bringing everyone’s different backgrounds and ideas together is what creates a
richer and more meaningful reading of the text. This is something I will
continue to work on and encourage with my students.
