American Born Chinese & John Gaughan's "Constructing a Teaching Life"

I must admit my first feelings when I opened this book were both hesitation and a little dismay. I don’t particularly like comic books – at least, I never read them as a kid or thought much of them growing up. I like the movies that come out of them (Batman is one of my favorite heroes, and I loved the Spiderman movies, however they might differ from the comics, so I hear). But I don’t particularly like to read them. There’s something about reading thought bubbles for an entire book that turned me off. I love dialogue, but I also love the descriptions that go along with them. I like to visualize in my head and not be forced to see what the author sees. Reading a graphic novel reminded me of watching a movie in another language with subtitles. It goes by quickly, but you don’t get as much out of it.

So, while I opened this book with some attitude, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I still have the same complaints (I still missed visualizing it on my own and the descriptions that come with a “classic” novel), but the subject matter was so artfully told in this poignant way. “Know Thyself” is a line in Shakespeare’s Hamlet that is still quoted today. This book had the same theme – be yourself, be proud of who you are, don’t try to be something you’re not, etc. – but was told in a way that students could understand. I’m not saying we shouldn’t teach Shakespeare, because I really believe we should. But I’m beginning to like the idea of pairing classics with modern novels that students can appreciate and maybe even enjoy. Exposure to Shakespeare may be important, but it’s useless if the students only dread, hate, and learn nothing from it.

I thought the article placed a lot of emphasis on this idea of knowing students, and teaching to their personalities. It really hooked me right away in the beginning by talking about three separate teaching styles of Huck Finn, another classic. I thought of Josh and his complete distaste for the classics and how sad it is to me, because as far as I’m concerned they have so much to offer! But I completely understand that it was likely he did not have a teacher that taught them to him in a way that made him love these novels! As I think someone said in class the other day, it is completely all about how we teach novels that can either make or break whether a student loves or hates it.

The ideas in this article played right into what we’ve been discussing in class for weeks now: What is our goal as teachers of adolescent literature – to foster a love of reading, or to foster a skill of critical reading and thinking and writing, or simply to inundate them with vocabulary and literary terms? Why do we need to teach the classics? How can we teach the classics in a way that is meaningful and enjoyable to our students, if we teach them at all? We’ve been discussing this for weeks and I love the discussion that comes out of it. Everyone has so many views, which is what makes us great up-and-coming teachers! There will be so many techniques and ideas and pedagogical styles among us, and all the while we will be trying to come up with ways to improve and be better teachers. It is an “evolutionary process” (6) as John Gaughan says in this article. We have the power to make our classrooms ones that students will never forget – we just have to learn how to use that power and work around the many issues that we will face with administrators and parents as well as students.