Context
My point of inquiry initially stemmed from a general question: How can high school English teachers make literature relevant in teens’ lives? Throughout this past year, teacher candidates have taken on that challenge by introducing fresh content in an attempt to breathe new life into a relatively restrictive curriculum. Creative ideas such as the introduction of multimodal use in the classroom and the application of contextual and critical thinking approaches to the literature surfaced as a way to provide a deeper level of interaction with the text. Although engaging in these methods provides for interesting interaction with literature, I am not fully convinced that these approaches will leave a lasting impact on students long after they have left the classroom. As a result, I began to consider what providing context to a piece of literature means. A large aspect of what informed the writing of these authors was what was going on around them at the time the piece was written. In other words, it was the community surrounding the authors that influenced their writing. Understanding that, I decided that the best way for students to connect with the literature they were reading was to connect it to the community that surrounded them. As such, I chose to focus my point of inquiry on the idea of connecting literature to community and I began to focus on how to incorporate humanitarianism into the English classroom. In addition to this, I recognized that one of the challenges teacher candidates faced was that we were limited to texts that were found in our bookrooms. To further my inquiry, I chose to research material that was easily accessible and didn’t require a teacher candidate to order new books.
Approach/Method
My approach to this inquiry involved a variety of methods. I researched academic literature to determine whether introducing humanitarian working into the classroom was possible, and if so, what the benefits were of engaging students in this type of work. I also researched both teaching methodologies and examined curriculum documents to discover appropriate teaching materials and examples of projects in the classroom. This then allowed me to synthesize my own unit plan to incorporate humanitarianism in my English classroom.
Findings
To answer the question about the importance of this type of work in the classroom, I found a definitive answer in Kathryn Agard’s article, Learning To Give. In this article, she states that students no longer live in extended family groups, they are raised without close community networks and they no longer grow up in communities of faith. Students are less likely to participate in voluntary character development groups like Scouts or 4-H. As such, the school system remains as the lasting formal structure to reach all children for the purpose of developing good citizens in a democracy. The article defined the void that community work could fill in a teenager’s life. (Agard, 42)
In my research regarding the benefits of humanitarianism work, the pros were clearly outlined in Rosalyn Black’s article, Classroom Coalition: philanthropy and school education. Here, she identifies three reasons as to why students stand to benefit. Firstly, she states that students who engage in this line of work have an opportunity to identify with success. There are students who believe that success is not a realistic option for them. However, being exposed to stories of success and arming them with tools to do good work allows success to be a reality. Secondly, she states that exposure to this line of work provides students with stimulating environments that they normally would lack. In the process, students would build confidence in exploring the unknown through experience and settings. And finally, Black introduces the idea of educational capital where she suggests this type of experiences builds the value of reading for those students who come from an environment where reading is not a regular activity. (Black, 3)
The next question I chose to answer was how to fit humanitarianism in the classroom. This question focused on researching what type of material works best and acquiring material to use in the classroom. As mentioned earlier, teacher candidates, and teachers alike, face restrictive school budgets and are forced to teach whatever is available. Appreciating this reality, I chose to explore a form of literature that would provide some flexibility in acquiring the material. The genre I focused on was short stories. In her article, How Short Stories Enrich The Classroom, Diana Mitchell states that this genre offers an excellent opportunity to introduce students to critical thinking and learning through interpretation. Short stories also promote collaborative learning, as the teacher is not as familiar with the texts as she is with classical literature. Short stories also inject new life into the standard high school booklist and are more easily attainable than ordering new novels. Perhaps the most important aspect of short stories that Mitchell identifies is that short stories, which often present a snapshot of a moment in time, connect literature to life. (Mitchell, 74)
The final stage of my inquiry was to connect pieces of literature to humanitarian projects. Through my research of teacher resources, I discovered a unit plan on the website Edutopia. (Edutopia.org) This specific unit plan, entitled The Generosity of Folktales, provided tales from around the world that contained morals that reflected selflessness. The unit then provided project ideas for students to take part in, in their community. As well thought-out as this unit was, I felt it could be improved on. My desire was to have students read text that required a higher level of intellectual engagement so as to develop their literary skills. They would then use the content of the literature as a launch pad for humanitarian projects in the community. The folktales provided in the unit were quite basic in their content and would not allow for a deeper analysis of the text. Upon further research, I discovered a number of anthologies that would fit the unit plan I had in mind. Amnesty International released a series of short stories written by world-renowned authors under the title, “Freedom”. In this collection, the authors take on one human right identified by the UNHDR (United Nations Human Declaration of Rights) and write a short story encapsulating the idea. Students could choose one short story, and after an analysis of the text as a large group, would have the ability to contact community organizations and construct a project to participate in, at the local community level. There are a number of other teaching resources I discovered during my research inquiry, which will be listed in my bibliography.
Implications
Naturally, there are challenges that teachers face when they take on project-based learning outside of the classroom. To begin with, some of the material covered may contain sensitive subject matter that teens may be personally affected by. To address this, I would permit students to pass on the activity and submit an alternative assignment. Another challenge would be the accessibility of the community organizations. Schools located in the suburbs and rural areas do not have access to public transportation readily available. A possible solution to this would be to encourage projects that are classroom based or online, such as viral campaigns. Administration barriers are another challenge teachers may face in that school policies may prohibit students’ work outside of the classroom due to safety precautions. The solution to this would be to ensure administration has cleared any projects before teachers proceed.
Bibliography
Agard, A. Kathryn . “LEARNING TO GIVE.” Principal Leadership 5.1 (2004): 43. Print.
Bjorhovde, Patricia O. “Teaching Philanthropy to Children: Why, how, and what.” New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising 2002.36 (2002): 7-20. Print.
Black, Rosalyn. “Classroom Coalition: Philanthropy and School Education.” Australian Philanthropy Issue 70. (2008) 3-4. Print.
Brandes, Gabriella M., and Deirdre M. Kelly. “Shifting Out of “Neutral”: Beginning Teachers’ Struggles with Teaching for Social Justice.” Canadian Journal of Education 26.3 (2001): 437. Print.
Desetta, Al, Ed, and Sybil Wolin Ed. The Struggle to be Strong: True Stories by Teens about Overcoming Tough Times. Free Spirit Publ, 2000. Print.
Falk, Katherine. “Teaching the Next Generation about Philanthropy: A Case Study of the AFP New Jersey Chapter’s Youth in Pilanthropy Program.” New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising 2002.36 (2002): 55-72. Print.
Generosity of Spirit Folktales. Edutopia.org 2013. Web. 4 Jan. 2013.
Kamara, Mariatu, and Susan McClelland. The Bite of the Mango. Toronto: Annick Press, 2008. Print.
Montaño, Theresa, et al. “Teachers as Activists: Teacher Development and Alternate Sites of Learning.” Equity & Excellence in Education 35.3 (2002): 265-75. Print.
Mitchell, Diana. Using Short Story Collections to Enrich the English Classroom. 86 Vol. 1997. Print.
Various Authors. “Freedom”. Amnesty International. Mainstream Publishing Company, Limited, Oct 1, 2009 – 448 pages