Introduction
I know that our district values the incorporation of diverse writing, as they have announced an initiative in the 2022/2023 year to provide some monetary compensation for the inclusion of newer secondary school fiction. What I personally fear, however, is that schools will take this offering (as “free money”) and buy resources that then sit on the shelf. It may be presumptuous for me to think so, and it is certainly not my place to make these assumptions. I have not publicized this motivation on my blog for such reasons. However, it is one of the concerns that propels me forward this summer, and I will include it in this proposal on a less public forum. Outwardly, I have shared my secondary purpose, which is the recognition that while I adore the British, Irish, Spanish, and Italian canons more than I should, we might be past the point where we exclusively teach 19th and 20th century texts in high school. I think we may be turning away some prospective readers. It is not that the topics explored in the 1880’s are no longer a concern today; what defines a classic, in part, is the fact that its themes transcend its time and space. However, we must recognize that English in the 1800’s is nearly a different dialect from our 21st century writing; for example, as if to mirror our dwindling attention spans, even the length of our syntax has abbreviated.[1] We need to ensure that the texts we teach are representative of our population, ideas and words that will speak to them, not just at them.
My purpose is not to encourage teachers to replace or ban these classics. There is much to be said for Atticus Finch’s rhetoric, and a discussion on which writers were granted voices (i.e. publication) at certain times. My vision is that these canonical texts can be supplemented with more diverse and modern publications.
I will propose, then, that one can follow up their novel study units on the “tried and true” books with a Lit Circle, in which students are granted the agency to choose from a series of works and relate them to that one-size-fits-all class novel. They will have already demonstrated the reading comprehension and standardized learning outcomes through that shared class novel; now, as if through gradual release, they will get to explore and work through themes from a more modern text, and then synthesize the two together. This will still allow for higher-order thinking. This will still allow for literacy practices. Hopefully, it will also allow for deeper connections.
Please see the appendix on page 16 for a tentative timeline on how I will accomplish the project, as well as the learning outcomes of this course. Please also note that the title of this Capstone, and therefore this proposal, is still a working title. It will likely change by the end of this project.
Rationale for Choice of Format
While I was not able to survey my colleagues, in June I spoke to our teacher-librarian on this matter. She said (and I have her permission to cite her here) that she feels that the apparent preference towards the canon reflects teachers’ time constraints, more than anything else. As such, my primary focus will be to make my resource(s) concise and easy to digest. Teachers will likely also be reading new texts, so to make this process more efficient, I will produce synopses and guides of the texts I choose, to help them preview what they can look for in their reading.
While I will start with sharing my project with my colleagues, I do intend for this resource to be accessible to other teachers. Our entire district is trying to review their novel study resources from September, so it would make sense to share this Capstone with them, and then work together in the fall to add to the list of resources. To ensure the relevance of my project, I have attempted to research the most common books used in English Language Arts classrooms. While I was unable to find peer-reviewed Canadian data, there were multiple sources that had studied high schools in the USA (Hostetter, 2018; Stallworth et. al, 2006). So, as I conduct my own resource review and evaluation, I will consider which books might fit with novels from Hostetter’s (2018) and Stallworth et. al’s (2006) lists. Titles they mention are also staples at our school, so I know that their list is relevant to at least my school’s situation.
To clarify my final output, I will create a website that will essentially act as a how-to for bridging those traditional novel studies with more diverse and recent publications (in a Lit Circle). To this end, the site will include an infographic for how to conduct Lit Circles, resource evaluations for the 6 texts on which I chose to focus, and a video walk-through to explain how to connect these two pieces together. Unlike this proposal, the content will be concise, visually-engaging, and easy to navigate independently.
Research Methodology
My research is separated into three categories: scholarship addressing the importance of representation in literature; investigation into diverse fiction that we are allowed to bring into classrooms; an understanding of existing book room texts.
Once the component of time constraints is addressed (through these concise resources), the next step to encouraging teacher change is to ensure that they understand the importance of making this shift. I believe we make time for that which we believe is important; so, let us be sure that we understand the powerful impact of students seeing themselves (and others) in their readings. For this, I will relate Chantal Francois’s (2013) discussion on the how multi-cultural narratives can help students not only see themselves, but also develop empathy for other cultures. My teacher-librarian shared with me Rudine Sims Bishop (1990), who came up with the metaphor of books as windows and mirrors. Since then, Bishop’s metaphor has been adapted and expanded to talk about all the ways in which books serve individuals.
While some research will be directly for the teacher audience, I will also use source material to aid my own process of creating this project. As stated earlier, I am referencing Hostetter (2018) and Stallworth et. al (2006) to understand what texts are most commonly used in schools. I will also bring in Geoff Bender’s (2022) study on how diverse texts can be mis-included (i.e. included as tokenism, for the sake of “diversity”) in classrooms. I will add as well Borsheim-Black et. al’s (2014) framework of Critical Literature Pedagogy (CLP) to inform how I communicate my learning activities and outcomes.
Conclusion
PME896 was not offered when I began my studies, and I am grateful that the University allowed me to take this course as an elective. The need for more reflective practices in English novel units is pertinent, and our political climate is such that our students are ready to bring diversity into the classroom. Further, our district is offering to put a small amount of funding into this initiative. Change is hard for anyone, teachers included, but we have here a pivotal opportunity to revitalize our practices. This Capstone will be an optional guide to help teachers through this process.
Annotated Bibliography
Bender, G. (2022). Things (Don’t Quite) Fall Apart: Exploring the Diversity Insertion in the
Secondary ELA Canon. Changing English, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1–14.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1358684X.2022.2081131
In his article, Bender argues that previous actions to address the lack of diversity in English classrooms are ideal and additive. He offers many contributing factors for this, including assessments and the prevalence of more canonical sources in these tests. He addresses how current solutions are more bandage fixes to a larger societal problem: “I deem these texts diversity insertions because their incorporation into the mainstream curriculum seems intended to respond to calls for diversification without effecting substantive structural change in a primarily White canon” (3). He studies how Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1958) is used in an AP English classroom as a tokenistic gesture, articulating that, while the novel does represent “diversity” to some extent, the overarching narrative is still one of White innocence or, at best, a sense of ambivalence. In conclusion, Bender suggests the consideration of Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give (2017), which I have taught with a Grade 10 class. Ultimately, Bender employs the English teacher to consider the dominant narrative ideologies of texts they may consider to be diverse, and consider deeply the rationale of their texts.
Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors.” Perspectives: Choosing and
using books for the classroom, 6 (3), n.p.
One cannot discuss diverse representation in literature without recognizing the works of Rudine Sims Bishop. Bishop famously argued for the importance of diverse fiction, for both minority and majority cultures, using the metaphors of books being mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. The mirrors are to reflect ourselves back at us, windows as a lens with which to view other worlds and peoples, sliding glass doors as a practice in empathy as we “step into” other spaces. Since then, there have been multiple additions to her metaphor, being books as escapes, quiet spaces, warm blankets. I am indebted to my teacher-librarian, Ms. Jane Leung, for sharing this resource when I discussed my Capstone with her.
Borsheim-Black, Macaluso, M., & Petrone, R. (2014). Critical Literature Pedagogy:
Teaching canonical literature for critical literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult
Literacy, 58(2), 123–133. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.323
Perhaps more than any other sources in this list, Borsheim-Black et. al take the most objective view to the battle between contemporary resources and traditional English books (i.e. the canon). They introduce the framework of Critical Literacy Pedagogy (CLP), to be used as a tool for students and teachers, as they evaluate reading source material. They define CLP as having 5 dimensions: canonicity, context, literary elements, reader effect, and assessment. With each, the authors offer critical questions to consider the value of reading with or against the text in question. Their framework walks students (and teachers) through a thorough investigation of (what defines) literary merit, how power is exerted and upheld through literature, oppression in the unseen/ unheard, and the value of “cultural wealth” through the canon. In the context of my Capstone, this will be an invaluable resource in my own evaluation of sources for suggestion, but also as a way to provide new ways of still studying canonical texts (for teachers who so desire); after all, my primary purpose is not to implore teachers to recycle all their Of Mice and Men class sets, but offer an addition to their teaching to reflect the values of diversity and representation. As well, Borsheim-Black et. al’s point around cultural wealth is one that cannot be ignored in this conversation; to their conversation, I will add Martin’s (1996) article on time constraints and the teacher’s onus to teach such capital.
Boyd, Causey, L. L., & Galda, L. (2015). Culturally diverse literature: Enriching Variety in an
Era of Common Core State Standards. The Reading Teacher, 68(5), 378–387.
Boyd et. al offer a template for teachers to select authentic, culturally-diverse literature in their hypothetical case study of a “Mr. Case.” They begin by defining culturally diverse literature to extend beyond face, but including socioeconomic status, religion, physical and mental disabilities, family structures. In doing so, there is implicitly the idea of intersectionality, and how, in representing different voices, even a student from one minority culture may find similarities in stories from other communities and peoples. A section of their article discusses more institutional matters with regard to diverse literature, discussing availability and awards given to culturally diverse literature. But the case study is directly useful, as they chart how Mr. Case measures resources against awards, authenticity, and his curricular objectives. The prompting questions offered to teachers in terms of informed decisions, pre-learning, and criteria are also helpful.
Charles, J. (1987). For the sake of a fad: the misrepresentation of American Indians and their
literature in high school literature anthologies. The Journal of Ethnic Studies, 15(2), 131.
Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/sake-fad-misrepresentation-
american-indians-their/docview/1300562102/se-2
While dated in its publication, Charles (1987) provides a wider context for understanding previous movements in American schools for diversity. He discusses grassroots and more formal movements in the 1960’s and 1970’s, contrasting this with the general statistics to reflect the demographic of the student population. The content focus here is the representation of Indigenous peoples in textbooks, connected to an Anti-Defamation League. Interestingly, Charles (1987) contrasts the representation of peoples with the 1980 Census to point out the under-representation of specific peoples (e.g. Eastern Woodlands) and articulates how misrepresentation (what he calls a “problem of imbalance”) can perpetuate stereotypes – specifically, the idea of one group of Indigenous peoples to represent the whole. His suggestion is to broaden the inclusion of sources of texts (i.e. from various Indigenous peoples) and types of texts (mainly, the inclusion of oral narrations). From a 2022 context, addition complications can be added to these suggestions from the perspective of ownership of stories, and understanding fully the cultural and spiritual values of storytelling to Indigenous cultures. As a new teacher in her twenties, however, this research is helpful for me to understand that the movement for diversity is not a “new” concept of this generation, and that action has been called. It sparks curiosity in me when I consider the sociopolitical trend of the pendulum shift: I wonder if the call for diversity in literature has seen a similar movement, historically, and what this may entail for the near future.
Francois. (2013). Reading Is About Relating: Urban Youths Give Voice to the Possibilities for
School Literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(2), 141–149.
In her article, Francois studies focus groups of students Grade 7-11 to determine how students engage with fiction. The main purpose of her study is how to improve reading practices and literacy, but interviews with students reading about Latino gangs and immigrant youth from the Dominican Republic provide anecdotal evidence as to the impact of using books as mirrors (to borrow Bishop’s metaphor). Francois quotes one student from China, and how he related to the Dominican Republic characters and noticed similarities in the immigrant experience.
Hostetter, C. (2018). Considering the high school canon. PALS.
https://teachingpals.wordpress.com/2019/11/25/considering-the-high-school-canon/
Hostetter’s blog post conducts a literature review to compile the English novels studied in her teaching context over the last 30 years. While a number of her references have come up in my literature review, it is helpful to see her comprehensive list in one source. The texts she lists are as follows: Catcher in the Rye, The Crucible, The Glass Menagerie, The Giver (across grade levels), The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, The House on Mango Street, Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, The Joy Luck Club, Julius Caesar, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, Night, The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, A Raisin in the Sun, The Scarlet Letter, The Secret Life of Bees, A Separate Piece, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Hostetter draws attention to each text written by a female, which is far under-representative of the actual population of women. Interestingly, as she goes through the different studies, she seems to suggest that many of these texts were found in each study, adding only a few titles towards the end of her literature review with each source. Of these 22, I can confirm the following to be taught in my school: The Crucible, Joy Luck Club, Julius Caesar, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Secret Life of Bees. I believe the Grade 12 teachers used to teach Hamlet, but at least in the last four or five years have both switched to Othello. I also had to confront a bias that I seem to have: in sorting Hostetter’s titles into alphabetic order, and doing the final count, I found myself comparing this list against what I have read myself. In K-12 education, I’d only read The Giver, Gatsby, Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet. Since then, I’d only been able to add four more (only having discovered Zora Neale Hurston this year). The fact that I was disappointed at only reading 9/22 texts here made me recognize the biases I still hold towards elevating the classics, as some sort of cultural wealth.
Martin, J.R. (1996). There’s too much to teach: Cultural wealth in an age of
scarcity. Educational Researcher, 25(2), 4–16. doi: 10.3102/0013189X025002004
In his article, Martin discusses the responsibility of the classroom teacher to provide knowledge that falls under the category of cultural wealth. This is part of a broader conversation that considers education’s shift from skills to more conceptual academics, as the world moved towards more neo-Renaissance ideals of the pursuits of academia. He considers how cultural stock, usually high-culture, is ascribed a value to then become synonymous with one’s wealth. While people may normally associate these fields with art, literature, philosophy, Martin argues that it is in fact broader than this. Essentially, there is a large, encompassing list of responsibilities that schools would adopt if they are (to become) “guardians” or “custodians” of cultural wealth. Martin asks how schools can balance the old (tradition) with the new (contemporary), while still maintaining its primary role and identity. This resource is particularly relevant in connection with Borsheim-Black et. al’s (2014) discussion on Critical Literacy Pedagogy.
Stallworth, B. J. (1999). Diversity in the English curriculum: challenges and
successes. Multicultural Education, 6(3), 19–21.
Stallworth conducted a qualitative study of 240 teachers in Alabama to determine the novels taught in high schools, and the extent to which multicultural content was included in their teaching. The limitations for applying this study to my own context are largely the relevance, as well as the socio-political context; that is, Alabama in the late 1990’s is not a close parallel to British Columbia in the early 2020’s. However, what transcends time and space are her rationale for multicultural text inclusion and, I believe, some of the constraints teachers gave for barriers to diverse inclusion. Stallworth quotes Grade 9-11 teachers who offer reasons such as effort, controversy, value ascribed to the canon, and lack of clarity around multicultural literature (I admit this last one may not be as applicable any more). The rationale Stallworth presents for diverse inclusion echoes the reasons heard before, further supporting Bishop’s metaphors. She adds, “When teachers embrace the goals of teaching with a multicultural perspective, students will begin to realize that differences make America a unique mosaic, not a polarized nation divided along racial, ethnic, gender, and social class lines” (21). While focused in America, there are some points of relevance to the multicultural Canada.
Stallworth, B., Gibbons, L., & Fauber, L. (2006). It’s not on the list: An exploration of teachers’
perspectives on using multicultural literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy,49(6), 478-489. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40017605
Stallworth et. al, in this study, surveys 142 teachers in Alabama using the same research questions as Stallworth (1996) conducted under ten years ago. While the list of texts offered in the 1996 study confirmed the list provided by Hostetter (2018), Stallworth et. al’s updated list adds five more titles: Animal Farm, A Separate Peace, Lord of the Flies, Our Town, Wuthering Heights. They posit that the definition of the classics is changing from Harold Bloom’s 1994 ideas around Plato and Shakespeare, noting how To Kill a Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby, for example, have replaced the likes of Beowulf and The Illiad. Their study also offers interesting rationale for reliance on the canon, including the idea that classic are “safe” insofar as they, according to one teacher, “just seem to have less objectionable subject matter as far as parents are concerned” (484). What feels safe to teachers is often what they were taught themselves. But of course, Stallworth et. al offer a series of other constraints that appeared in their study: lack of support, resources, expertise, time. All of these obstacles, I feel, are worthy of consideration as I consider my own Capstone.
Watkins, N., & Ostenson, J. (2015). Navigating the text selection gauntlet: Exploring factors that
influence English teachers’ choices. English Education, 47(3), 245-275. Retrieved
As I consider recommendations for text inclusion, I must understand the processes with which teachers select their resources. Watkins and Ostenson studied over 300 English teachers (Grades 7-12) to determine these factors and considerations. Stallworth’s (1999) study indicated that one barrier was being a new teacher; by contrast, just 23% of Watkins and Ostenson’s participants were considered new teachers (to adopt British Columbia’s definition, which is 5 years or less of experience). In contrast to Stallworth et. al’s (2006) survey, the teachers in Watkins and Ostenson’s study largely perceived high levels of teacher autonomy in tasks like book curation: 50% felt “a lot of autonomy” and 13% “complete autonomy.” Just 11% felt little to no autonomy. In relation to this, while 35% of respondents said that texts were chosen for them (at either the national, state, or district level), nearly half said it was based on the department, and 17% said it was their choice. Watkins and Ostenson go into further depth to qualify these factors in their study. Some of their concluding recommendations are for teachers to be educated on YA (Young Adult) literature, specifically, and the availability of newer texts ((269-270). This, of course, champions the intended value of my Capstone.
Appendix
Project Timeline (subject to revision as necessary)
Week | Class Focus | Capstone Focus | Resources Needed |
Jul 18-22 | Mindmap & proposal | · Finish reading all resources to be reviewed · Conduct lit review · Start to think about how I will assess myself (to honour backwards design) · Update process blog | - Library books - Queens library resources |
Jul 25-29 | Use of technology | · Set up website to use for product (separate from process blog) · Write content for 3/6 Resource Reviews · Turn Resource Reviews into aesthetic one-pagers · Update process blog | - Blogger? Wix? Wordpress? Google Circle/ Plus/ Something? - Microsoft Word - Canva.com |
Aug 1-5 | Scholarship and sharing | · Write content for the rest of the Resource Reviews · Turn Resource Reviews into aesthetic one-pagers · Make Lit Circle infographic · Update process blog | - MS Word - Canva.com |
Aug 8-12 | Assessment of Capstone | · Draft/ outline walkthrough video · Film walkthrough video · Edit & upload video · Finalize Capstone rubric · Update process blog | - iMovie - Free Music Archive for CC-Licensed music - MS Word |
Aug 15-19 | Capstone sharing & Reflection discussion post | · Complete write-up to accompany Capstone project · Put all components on the website · Test website | - MS Word - (whatever website software I chose in Module 4) |
Appendix B
Texts Used
As stated in an earlier blog post, I chose my 6 resources for inclusion based on what was allowed by BC ERAC, an organization that determines which resources are deemed appropriate for classroom usage. I narrowed my texts down to the following:
- Tristan Strong #1 (Mbalia, 2019)
- Darius the Great (Khorram, 2018)
- I Was Their American Dream (Gharib, 2019)
- Care Of (Coyote, 2018)
- Moon of the Crusted Snow (Rice, 2018)
- The Best We Could Do (Bui, 2017)
- Five Little Indians (Good, 2020)
[1] My favourite example to bring to conversation is Henry James’s The Ambassadors, where a sentence can be nearly a page in length. Nowadays, if a student were to write this way, we would write ROS in red pen (run-on sentence) and have them revise it. Even Umberto Eco, arguably one of the most famous modern Italian theorists and authors, has talked about how some quintessential Spanish texts would likely not be published today, for the periodical shift in what is considered marketable pacing.
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