The Importance and Influence of Imagery!

Imagery. Such a small word with so much meaning. Imagery paints a picture for the tone and story that the creator of any medium is trying to convey to the audience. Though imagery is a critical factor in everything that we read or view, oftentimes we completely miss what is trying to be conveyed altogether because we are so wrapped up in the plot line. I fall victim to being enthralled with a plot line, and not taking the time to notice details that truly enhance a story. If your students are constantly reminded to take note of the imagery and what meaning lies beneath it, they will become conditioned to do this with their reading and viewing subconsciously and draw even better conclusions than they would have without noticing important details.

One of the easiest ways to get your students into the groove of paying close attention to imagery is simply to watch a movie. I know that I spoke of another lesson plan involving a movie, and if you can think of any more ideas, I would love to hear them! Many teachers feel that there are more cons than pros to sharing a movie with your class, but if it is done sparingly, I think they can definitely have a tremendous impact on your class's learning experience. Movies also come in handy when there is a lull in the term. For example, now that the warm weather has arrived and students are antsy for summer, an interesting activity such as this will keep them entertained. A movie I recently watched, The Others, is a fantastic choice for this exercise. Keep in mind, permission slips MUST be sent home to parents, being that any movie you choose to show in class must be first approved by administrators and parents. The good thing about The Others is that it is more of a psychological thriller rather than something that is gory or violent.

First, have your students watch the movie during class. For those of you teachers working in high schools with block scheduling, this will be perfect for you. Tell your students to jot down a few images that stuck with them after viewing the movie, and choose some of the more popular scenes amongst the students to re-visit. Pausing on a scene in the movie will give you and your class time to analyze the imagery together, which will be very helpful in their understanding (and yours!) of the movie. I'll do my own example below so you can get a feel for what sort of images work best for your students to analyze if they are not familiar with working intensively with imagery.

Two scenes that I paired together that I felt were very influential in terms of imagery was a scene where Grace, the mother of the movie, is standing at the gate looking for her husband after he disappears yet again. The other scene was near the end of the film when Grace's two children, Anne and Nicholas, are standing at the stairs and peering out at the servants when they realized that they were ghosts.

Image from <http://shirari.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/others3.jpg>

 Image from <http://zangwow.blogspot.com/2012/09/review-movie-others.htm> 

These two separate scenes offer so much information about the underlying tone of the movie. While it may seem as though these main characters are simply peering through a gate and through stairs, it is truly alluding to the how the family has been confined to the mansion's eerie darkness because of the children's rare illness of photosensitivity. Living in a life of isolated darkness would drive the most sane person to lose it, and that is exactly what Grace did. They are peering out into the world they so desperately wish to be apart of. Sunlight exposes the beauty of the Earth and provides us with the energy to live, and they cannot be exposed to any of it. As we all know, confinement is considered a punishment, such as jail and prison. This family was undoubtedly punished by the children's illness. This is such a simple but powerful conclusion to draw from two images. It really represents The Others in a powerful manner, and because I have been working with imagery throughout my life, it now comes more naturally to me.

If you have seen this movie, I would love to know what other images stand out to you. If not, even suggestions for movies that you feel could be influential in the classroom would be wonderful! 

Again, here are some quiz questions in case you want to administer them to your students.

1. What is the first time Grace believes Anne in regards to the people being in their home?

2. How does Grace punish her children when they have been "acting out", according to her?

3. Who do you think is the most motherly figure in this film, and why? Give two examples from the movie.

4. How did Mrs. Mills, Mr. Tuttle, and Lydia know about the mansion and that the family needed help around the house?

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend!

Gambling with Water Ghosts

I felt it was more than appropriate to talk about the novel, Water Ghosts, on such a dreary and rainy afternoon! This novel by Shawna Yang Ryan certainly offers a more unusual take on the relationship between Chinese immigrants and Americans during the 1920s.

My reasoning for the title of this post, "Gambling with Water Ghosts", has a dual meaning. First, some of content within the book may be a little difficult in regards to what is considered "appropriate" in a high school classroom setting, so you may be gambling with a bit of trouble from parents or supervisors. I spoke about this in my previous post, and if Beloved was considered inappropriate by many, I would not be the least bit surprised if there was a fuss about Water Ghosts. Some of the content that could be considered inappropriate to includes prostitution, homosexuality, cussing, sexual relations, etc. This is where I stress that you teachers out there read and RE-READ the novel each time you present it to your classroom, so that you are prepared to deal with how to appropriately relay this to your students, but how to deal with backlash from parents if that issue presents itself.

Secondly, the title relates to Richard Fong, the owner of a gambling hall in Water Ghosts. I'd like to give you a little background info about a few of the main characters in the novel in case those of you reading have no idea what I am talking about. ATTENTION: Spoiler alerts if you read further! Fong Gum is Richard's birth name - however, upon his arrival to American over a decade ago, he decided to Americanize it. After starting from the bottom of the totem pole, Richard has finally been able to make a living for himself, and even spend extra money on having relations with a white American prostitute, Chloe. Richard has made a routine life for himself in America, though he has definitely had his fair share of harsh experiences along the way. After living comfortably, Ming Wai, his wife from China, appears out of the water on a boat with two other Chinese women. Poppy, another Chinese immigrant woman who happens to be the owner of the prostitute home in which Chloe resides, ALSO happens to be some sort of a psychic. Though she knows there isn't something right about these three women, no one else can see what she sees. Ming Wai moves in with Richard, and seems to be barely alive. He has difficulties with accepting her into his home and into his life, which continues to be a struggle throughout the novel. Let's fast forward a bit to the end of the novel for the sake of your attention span. After a huge rainstorm causes a flood in Sacramento, where the novel takes place, Richard and Ming Wai escape their apartment, but Richard does not escape the flood. He drowns while holding on to Ming Wai, and seems to accept his death by becoming one with her.

My main point in explaining this to all of my readers is this: Richard was struggling with a conflict that many of us face today. He was partially stuck in his old world while yearning for his new desires, such as Chloe. Though Richard's conflict between old and new was the main one discussed in the novel, I think it would be not only beneficial, but necessary for your classroom to do an exercise in where they list each characters past and present memories and desires. Due to the lack of quotation marks in the story, it is very difficult to keep track of the flow of each character's life, and lose sight of the overall story being told.


I feel it is best to list each character's past and present desires as a whole, because some students may be completely lost without this guidance. After listing their desires, I think it would be appropriate to discuss how they ultimately affected each character by the end of the novel. Discussing issues such as gender roles, sexuality preference, and immigration can also be discussed as a whole to make sure things stay appropriate, mature, and strictly educational. Questions about how gender roles, sexuality and immigration can be discussed in terms of how our culture's opinions on these issues have changed since the 1920s, and what the repercussions may have been if these things happened if people did not fulfill the norms of that time.

Here are some quiz questions you could ask the class. I feel these quiz questions should not be used for points, because the novel is even a bit hard to follow for veteran readers.

1. Why did Chloe want to be "baptized" by Sofia?
2. What happened to the three "water ghosts" at the end of the novel?
3. What is Richard's very first reaction to Ming Wai?
4. When did Poppy first realize she was able to see ghosts?

Are there parts of the novel that you feel are more important than each character's past and present desires? Is there a different way you would teach this to a high school classroom? This is definitely a tougher read, so I think keeping it as simple as possible is vital for the reader's understanding of the novel as a whole. Let me know your thoughts!

Banned Books and Bye Bye, Beloved...

 Image from www.bannedbooksweek.org

After finishing Beloved this week, I decided to do a little more research on what other educators and literary enthusiasts thought about using this book in high school curriculum. I had a hunch that it would be controversial between the educators and parents of students, and oh boy, was I right! Though my suspicions about parents being weary of Beloved being taught to their children were absolutely correct, I was shocked to discover that there was a dispute on my own turf in Fairfax, Virginia. This is the article I found about the dispute that occurred in the Fairfax County school district.

Though I may sound as if I am being a bit judgmental, how many parents that are opposed to this novel have actually read it in its entirety? Probably a very slim amount. I have a feeling that their children repeat some of the novel's more graphic or sexual moments to their parents, which results on sending them on a rant about protecting their child's innocence. I would love to know if the readers of this blog agree or disagree with the statement I have just made. What do you think about the parents who are so strongly opposed to their children reading this Nobel prize winning book?

Though ethics come into play for the argument of protecting student's innocence, I feel that teachers and their parents must realize that a teenager in this generation's innocence has most likely already been compromised with the things they hear and see on a daily basis through the media (the most obvious and current example: the tragedy in Boston). Though students have a general understanding of slavery and that African American's were treated very poorly, Beloved offers a plethora of insight as to how slavery truly compromised not only a person's physical being, but mental being as well. It is hard to envision slavery on this level unless you have read Beloved as a whole, and it is an essential part of history for students to understand.

After reading this article, I came to the the conclusion that it is a teacher's responsibility to have their students participate in Banned Books Week. Though the week of celebrating the freedom to read whatever we choose has already passed for this school year, it gives us teachers a chance to prepare for the upcoming Banned Books Week which lasts from September 22nd - 28th. If you future teachers or new teachers need some information on the Banned Books Week, here is the link about the event.

A beneficial assignment for your class would be to have each of your students work on a journal during the week that explains the importance of reading Beloved and other banned books. They can write what important themes they have taken away from the book, how they felt after reading it, why it is important to keep an open mind regarding stories such as these, etc. Try to steer them away from themes such as "slavery was bad" or "violence does not solve problems". Before you instruct the class to write this journal, have them dig deep into parts of the text that really stuck out to them and analyze them as a whole classroom. This way, the students will truly understand how slavery drove African American's to the brink of insanity, and what it feels like to be classified as an animal or an object.

If you want to be absolutely positive that your class has read and understood Beloved, here are a few quiz questions you could give to your students pertaining to the ending portion of the novel:

1. What happens to Sethe after she tells Beloved she knows that Beloved is the daughter she has killed?
2. How does Denver first reach out for help after she realizes that she is the only one who can hold the family together?
3. What is Sethe's, Denver's, and Beloved's reaction to Mr. Bodwin when he rides up to 124?

Are there any more quiz questions you feel would be essential to obtaining the knowledge that your students have read and understood Beloved? How do you feel about Banned Books Week, or about the article that I posted above? I would love to hear your feedback.

Hope you all are weathering the storm!
 

Sources:
 "Banned Books Week." Banned Books Week. Center for the Book at the Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

Shapiro, T. Rees. "Education." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 07 Feb. 2013. Web. 19 Apr. 2013. <http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-07/local/36963373_1_books-older-students-parents-more-control>.

The Darling Beloved...

This week I have read a portion of the novel Beloved. I have never before read this piece, and I have a hunch that if I blog about my experiences while I am reading rather than after I have finished reading, I will be able to better understand the novel. It's obvious that this is not only beneficial for my own reading, but also beneficial for any teacher using new material for instruction. Making notes of the author's style, how the dialogue is written, and how you feel during certain parts of the novel are all beneficial in understanding what the best way to relay a work back to your students.

Thus far, I have noticed that I am still having trouble keeping track of who is speaking, or which memory belongs to which character. During my class today, we broke down memories through three of the main characters: Sethe, Beloved, and Denver. I felt this exercise was definitely helpful in understanding what we have read and for further understanding for the rest of my experience reading this novel. Though this can certainly be used in a high school classroom, I would suggest taking it a step further.

I have had similar experiences in exploring character's personalities, their actions, how they are portrayed to the reader and anything else you could possibly imagine during my own high school career. One of the most beneficial experiences I have had with character breakdown came from working with the book The Scarlet Letter. Though this work is romantic fiction, the concept can be applied to any genre of literature.

We were able to pick one of the characters to work specifically with, and then instructed to make an artistic piece of work that represented the character. For example, I chose to work with Hester Prynne's daughter, Pearl. Pearl represented sin and shame because she was born out of adultery, and was the reason for the red "A" that was emblazoned on all of Hester's clothing. For my artistic work, I chose to paint her name, "Pearl", using wooden letters in all black - except the A. On this letter, I chose to glue on chains to represent how Pearl and her mother were bound to a life of misery because of the repercussions of adulthood.

An artistic piece to represent a character can be as simple as that! I would definitely give your students a variety of options as to what they want this piece to be. It does not necessarily have to be a work of art. These pieces can come in the form of a written prequel, a sequel, poetry, cartoon strips, collages, fictional movie trailers, or whatever your students can think of that represents the character of their choosing. Focusing on on specific character by tying in an out-of-the-ordinary project will help students to better understand the parts that create their conclusions drawn at the end of a novel.

This could easily be done with the book Beloved, especially because Toni Morrison uses such an abundance of imagery. This could definitely be a book that can be taught in your high school classroom because not only is it great for an English class, but also puts faces to the slavery learned about in Social Studies classrooms.

It may also be beneficial to do the project alongside your students if you are doing this for the first time. This way, you can see the exact ways in which the project is benefiting them, or take it to another level the next year. If I were to complete this project for Beloved, I would choose Denver from what I have read thus far. I would somehow use water for my project because of her water birth, and also depict how she is somewhat drowning in her need to understand and have Beloved for herself. I still have much more to read to figure out the end result of my own project, so I will keep you updated!!

Spring (or summer) has sprung, so get outside and enjoy it!

A Teacher's Solution for Scary Kids and Tech Troubles

When I say "scary kids", I do not mean the students within your classroom! I am referring to the main characters in horror movies or stories being children. Last week, I viewed the 1980s film version of The Changeling. Though Joseph - the child doing the haunting for those of you who have not seen the movie - was only shown through flashbacks, his presence was still utterly terrifying. Now that is a scary kid: one who can perturb you without actually even being seen. After viewing this movie, I went on to read "The Wind in the Rose Bush" and "The Lost Ghost" by Mary Wilkins Freeman. I would definitely suggest tying all three of these together in the classroom to make comparisons of a haunting through child characters. Now here comes another thing that will make you squirm: making sure each of your students actually views the movie and reads the stories!

Finding the time and the means to view movies and use sources outside of a standard curriculum can be difficult for a teacher in a high school classroom. This can become even more complicated due to standardized testing (another scary presence in the classroom!) and being on the brink of springtime and warm weather. Both students and teachers begin to get a bit stir-crazy from the winter's cabin fever and are ready to let loose. Though this may seem like quite the task, I am here to let you know that it CAN be done!

For those of you who are reading as future teachers or are new to the profession, it is imperative for you to remember that not all students in your class will have access to a computer or the Internet. Though it may seem that in this day and age that every teenager and pre-teen on the planet is completely obsessed and able to obtain some form of social media, this is not always the case. Using this sort of aesthetic awareness is critical for utilizing movies or any sort of media successfully in a classroom. My suggestion would be to allot a day for everyone to watch the movie during class time. If this cannot be done all in one day, have the students jot down some notes during the movie to remind themselves of the plot line over the course of time that the movie is being watched. A plot refresher is always helpful. Though this may sound a little corny, having the students bring snacks or even bringing popcorn yourself never fails to entice students to watch a movie in class.

Setting up the frame for what you want your students to look for will also be helpful in assisting their thought process about Gothic literature. Tell them that you want them make note of each child character, because every reader can skip over important comparisons such as these without even knowing otherwise.

As for my experience with The Changeling, I am feeling more horror stricken than I have thus far in my studies of Gothic literature and film. I immediately pinpointed what petrified me the most - a child in the form a ghost is the main focus of all three plot lines. Why is this so common amongst those who read and view horror stories?

My first thought is that when viewing something that disturbs the routine of our everyday normalcy, we start to feel uncomfortable and intimidated by what we cannot explain. If one were to describe a child, the words "innocence", "playful", and "naive" may come to mind. People expect children to misbehave, but they expect this to come purely from innocence and naivety, rather than out of spite and revenge. People expect adults to to wretched things because we regularly hear stories of how adults have committed some horrendous crime. It is the unexpected deviousness of a child that gets under our skin. Can anyone think of any other films where children are featured that completely scares you out of your wits?

My second thought is that in both of these stories by Mary Wilkins Freeman and The Changeling all feature children who were neglected by their parents, which adds to an already unsettling feeling. Rather than feeling suspense during the plot, it fills the reader with curiosity, and even a little sadness. Children are helpless without their parents, and it is unfathomable to many that people can abuse or neglect their spawn.

I would think that I, personally, would be more fearful when an adult is featured in a horror story such as these because we know that adults are capable of these types of atrocities. Would you agree? Is it more frightening to watch movies with suspense featuring adults? Or is it more uncomfortable when a small, creepy child seems to be tugging at your heart strings?

Race Portrayal in "Po' Sandy"

"W'en Tenie see so many things happenin' ter de tree, she ‘cluded she’d ha'ter turn Sandy ter sump'n e'se; en atter studyin' de matter ober, en talkin' wid Sandy one ebenin', she made up her mine fer ter fix up a goopher mixtry w'at would turn herse'f en Sandy ter foxes, er sump'n, so dey could run away en go some'rs whar dey could be free en lib lack w'ite folks” (49).

This is a quote from a story I recently read called Po' Sandy. This is not only helpful for me as a teacher, but helpful for your students as well. By having your students hone in on a certain part of a story, especially one with hard dialect such as this, it helps them to understand the story as a whole and practice their analyzing skills and making text-to-world connections. Taking parts of stories can helps the reader to understand what the author is trying to argue as a whole. Below is my personal thoughts on the above quote, and I would love to know how you interpret it as well! Making lesson plans and activities for class don't always have to be complicated - keeping it simple is always effective. This story would be great for learning more about the Civil Rights Movement, or about any literature that was written or based off of the time of slavery.

In the depiction of the couple’s plan to turn to foxes, “Po’ Sandy” suggests that white folk can obtain any dream they desire, while slaves are confined to knowing they will never live freely or escape their role as inferiors. The image of the fox in relation to white folk is similar to the nature of the depiction of Sandy as a pine tree. When looking up “foxes” in the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of: “with allusion to its artfulness and cunning” as well as, “to act cunningly; to sham” fits the disposition of most discriminatory white people living in the 1890’s. In “Po’ Sandy”, we see Sandy and Tenie’s masters acting deviously toward their slaves without a bat of an eye. For example, Sandy’s master sends his first wife to another white man without even telling him, and offering a less than acceptable apology. Sandy’s owner also treated Sandy like disposable property when he sends him around to his other family members because he is such a “good slave” and he has to be “fair” to his family members. Somehow, being “fair” means sending Sandy away from his home, and people he cares about. While foxes are swift and sly, trees are simply stationary and can be used for innumerable purposes. A fox can live anywhere it desires and live a free life, such as the white people do in the story. A tree can only be moved if someone uproots it or saws it down. It is then forever damaged and reused. African American’s were constantly being uprooted from their homes and from the people they love, and being damaged by their owners who simply treated them as objects. Tenie conjures up the idea of her and Sandy becoming foxes and being free, but in the end, both her and Sandy can only imagine this sort of life.

The larger argument that Chesnutt suggests is that no matter how hard they dreamed and aspired to become something more than a slave, African American’s were bound to a life of misery because of their race during this time. I whole-heartedly agree with this aspect of his theory of history from my prior background knowledge, and from reading about how Sandy and Tenie were treated. They were passed around like objects. For example, when Sandy is gone, his master ships off his first wife and feels no remorse. The narrator tells of Sandy’s master referring to Sandy as a “gift” when the master cannot just give him to one of his children, but must send him to be with all of them to be fair. Fairness only comes into play when it applies to white people. Sandy and Tenie are constantly being treated like objects, and are shipped away without any warning. White people can find love, get married, have children, be treated like humans, and work any job of their choosing, while African American’s had to obey or they were killed. Just as the tree was cut down and destroyed, in the 1890’s, ignorant white people shattered an African American’s physical and mental being.

Though everyone else in “Po’ Sandy” thought Sandy just ran away, Tenie knew the truth, and instead of comforting or consoling her, they turned her away. They deemed her as insane, and all of the white people wanted nothing to do with her. Even if the white people didn’t know the truth, they still acted as though she was wrong for being upset that the love of her life was gone. White people disregarded any feelings the slaves had, which then made the slaves feel like they weren’t even human. Tenie, Sandy, and slaves not only wished they could run away and live like white people, they wished they could express their feelings, thoughts, and beliefs like white people without being reprimanded for them. White people are like foxes in the sense that they move swiftly, and they had no problem with swiftly moving Tenie out of their lives to maintain normalcy and supremacy in theirs. Foxes are rarely ever caught, just as the white people were never “caught” or punished for the way that they treated other human beings.

One would never think that they could get such a wealth of knowledge from analyzing one simple quote. The best part about doing an exercise like this is that each student could offer a different perspective that you never would have thought of yourself, because writing can be interpreted in so many different ways.

If you'd like to ask your students a few thought-evoking questions about the story and about the activity itself, here are some examples!

1. Do you feel that the narrator feels the same way that Sandy and Tenie did, even if his employers were kind to him?
2. Did you feel that this activity was helpful? If so, why? If not, why?
3. What do you think the significance is of Sandy wanting to be transformed into a tree?
4. How did you go about reading the story's different dialect?

I hope to hear your thoughts about this activity, and if worked well for your classroom!

Welcome!

Welcome to not only my first blog post for "Gothic Exposure", but also to my first blog ever created! Over the course of the next few weeks I will be posting ideas for lessons and my own experiences with literature for future teachers about popular Gothic texts used very frequently in high school English classrooms.

As a future teacher, I know that using the Internet is not only efficient, but a more interesting way to learn from fellow teachers and hear about their personal experiences within their own classrooms. This being said, feel free to comment on how you would teach and describe Gothic texts, or your past experiences teaching texts within a classroom setting.

Being a college student has introduced me to it all: Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Vine, Instagram, and countless other sources of social media I have wasted so many hours on (whoops). I will now be experimenting with the concept of blogging for my future classrooms. I will write about how I feel the blog has helped me to better understand Gothic literature, or if I feel that a blog could be a teaching method for me to use in my classroom one day.