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!