A History Lesson...

Earlier this summer, my advisor pushed me to think critically about why doing a study on boys' and curriculum meaning making (a jargon-esque term = what do boys get from the texts I pick in English class and how does their understanding translate to their writing?) mattered.  I reminisced over the course of several weeks in the summer and went back to when I started at The School...

As a new teacher, I didn't have the authority (or time) to inact major changes to the 8th grade English curriculum and inherited a pretty "standard" list of texts: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm, Twelve Angry Men, and Romeo and Juliet.  I immediately sensed that there were voices missing...perspectives, ideas, and humor almost invisible.  After polling a few of my former students (I taught in the South for two years), I quickly decided on using The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian (Alexie) for the 2009-2010 school year and was determined to "reimagine" the cannonical texts I had inherited.  An early conversation with RJ, one of my students, I remembered, seemed to  periodically poke at my academic sensibilites throughout the year...

We'd just finished reading Twelve Angry Men, I think, and my ears rose to attention when I heard him grumbling about the play.  The words "boring" and "depressing" crept into my multitasking teacher frame and I called him out.  I wanted to know what he thought and asked what could be better.  I asked what he liked ("Sci-Fi") and it seemed to me that the student voice was also almost invisible in my classroom and it others.  I began having random conversations with students about reading and what kind of experiences they had in English classes.  What was "boring" and why did they think it was that way?  In an attempt to focus the incessant questions I bombarded myself with (and with the help of a colleague) I applied for a research grant.  I wanted to know a few things:

• What do boys "get" from English literature?
• What role can they play in the development of English curriculum?  Does it matter that they do?
• How do I (as a teacher) influence what they experience in class?

These were just a few of the questions.  My thoughts were jumbled and confused, but I knew that looking at this "situation" would be interesting.   Luckily, a group of my peers thought so as well and I was awarded the grant for the 2010-2011 school year.

And so, my works begins...well, not exactly.  It is October when I'm supposed to start this project, but I still have to get through the Institutional Review Board process...whew!