In today's lesson on the Scarlet Letter I really became interested in the book. I also loved the idea of the students writing from the perspective of one of the characters. The idea that the students have to become reflexive and look through the eyes of another with beliefs that may not be their own was great.
The discussion on traditional writing was so necessary. All to often we fall into the rut of OAT hell and are pushed by our administration to read and write to comprehend for that minute and not for the long hall. Most of their knowledge is there today and gone tomorrow because they have not made it personal. Writing is so personal to me, and I need to make it for my students.
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The Scarlet Letter is an early soap opera. So soaps are not original. Hawthorne is. Love the way you so quickly fired questions at our responses. It made me dig deeper and see the other side.
ReplyDeleteAnother big soap opera book is Great Expectations by Dickens which is great if you teach world/British/freshmen classes.
ReplyDeleteI love Dickens too, Tonya--for all the complications these soap-relationships point out!
ReplyDeleteThe "sin" exercise threw me for an interesting loop--honestly, I haven't heard that word for a long time . . .
I think that it is of great value, maybe not so much on the academic level, to ask students what they really think is not OK. Many times they haven't considered how they really feel about, say, adultry. I feel that they need to find their own morals, especially when parents have neglected or have been less than great role models. And maybe that ties in to the academic level more than I know.
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