Starting off the year with epics is a difficult task. Each year, my SOPH LA students must start the class by reading excerpts from at least 4 different ancient epics. If you have studied literature at all, you know what a challenge it can be just to keep the names of the characters straight! I do what I can to make it easier for my students to comprehend these complex works. That might include using puppets or cut outs to differentiate between characters, play acting what is happening, using voices to read dialogue aloud, drawing pictures on the board, or stopping frequently to explain events or words.
Some of the students are champs and, even though these texts may be difficult, stay actively engaged with my reading and the material. There are those, however, who shut down when something is beyond their comprehension, and use the difficulty of the text as an excuse to fall asleep. "I was paying attention, but I didn't understand it," they say. So instead of trying to understand it, or waiting for a moment of clarity, you give up and fall asleep??? Not only is that extremely lazy, it's also very rude. Here I am, giving it all I've got to try to help you understand something new, and you lay your head down and fall asleep. Good job.
Last week in SOPH LA, we read from the Mahabarata, the chapter about King Sibi. He is a righteous king who does everything he can to protect a dove, that has landed in his lap, from being eaten by a pushy hawk. The hawk tries everything he can to convince Sibi to give him the dove, but Sibi does not waver. Instead, Sibi offers his own flesh, equal to the weight of the dove. At the end of the story, we learn that in order to equal the weight of the dove, Sibi must give his whole self because no life is worth more than another. Good lesson right? Before we began reading, I gave the students a synopsis of the story using paper cut-outs of the characters. This got their attention, and they were interested in hearing more. As we read, the students understood the story pretty well. I stopped at various points to explain the plot, dialogue, or difficult words. Plus, they enjoyed my dramatic reading of the text. :)
This week, we read about "Sundiata" from The Epic of Mali. This one is about a boy who is born with deformities and handicaps, but is destined to be a glorious king for his people. It's a story about overcoming adversity to proove everyone wrong who doubted you. My second period is my smallest class (only 7 students), and as I read "Sundiata" aloud, one of the students fell asleep, another barely kept her eyes open, 4 had their heads down, and one was copying notes that she'd missed the previous day. There were only 2 students who were paying full attention and following along. It was so aggrivating! I told them that they should feel lucky to have a teacher who would spend so much time trying to make sure they understood such a difficult text. Of course, they tried to say, "Miss, we were paying attention!" I didn't want to hear it. I told them to work on their review guides while I wrote a detention slip for J__W___, who was sleeping. I don't care how tired you are...if there is a teacher in the room, you should be ashamed to even put your head down on the desk! I never did such a thing when I was in school! Luckily, it was a different story with my 6th period. They enjoyed listening to the story, followed along very well, and even asked questions to improve their own comprehension. What a difference!
I've found that giving my students a preview of what the story is about really does make them curious enough to want to hear more. I try to relate the preview to them as much as I can. For instance, in describing "Sundiata," I told them about the prophesy, the King who marries and ugly woman, the handicapped son, the jealous other wives of the king, the insultes, etc. I built it up, and told them that it was very much like a telenovela/soap opera. They immediately understood that the story would be filled with drama, and they wanted to know more!
Speaking of drama, my JR LA students moved on to the Puritans these past couple of weeks. First, we read two Puritan poems, and discussed the beliefs, morals, and culture of Puritans. Then, I showed them a slide show (another one that I'm proud of!) of the first Puritans to arrive in the New World, what it took for them to settle into their new lives, the growth of the colonies, then the witch trials and the Great Awakening. The students enjoyed seeing pictures of the Puritans and asked a lot of questions about them. Once we got to the witch trials, they were all excited. These past couple of days, we've been working on some pre-reading activities to get them thinking about the themes and conflicts in The Crucible. They've been writing and talking about issues like adultery, age limits in relationships, religious intollerance, forgiveness, etc. It's been an interesting concersation! Tomorrow, we'll read a synopsis of the play and discuss all of the main characters. Then, we'll read an even more succinct synopsis to make sure they have all of the main plot points in mind. After this, we'll begin reading the play! We probably won't have time to read the whole play, so we'll read enough to get the idea of the conflicts that occur in the story and then watch the film. The film version with Winona Ryder and Daniel Day Lewis really is fantastic. It's my favorite "film I'm allowed to show in school." :)
I hope the read alouds for it go well...
