F451 The Mechanical Hound BigDog Quadruped Robot UpdateLooking at Our Past and Our Present through Our Future: Expanding and Interpreting Text Carrie Greynolds ELAN 7408 Dr. Smagorinsky December 1, 2007Rationale “Looking at Our Past and Our Present through Our Future: Expanding and Interpreting Text” asks students to build on their definition of “text” by studying, in conjunction with a canonical novel, a wide variety of medium using various learning strategies in an attempt to provide the necessary tools for navigating the often confusing world of mass media. This unit will take place daily for 90 minutes over the course of five weeks in a 9th Grade English classroom of around 30 students. While several specific texts have been chosen as exemplars of these media, I would like to note here that texts may include those brought in to the classroom by students as well as their own writing. In this real-world approach to language arts, students will see literature and literacy as relevant as text and life mirror one another. Through these texts, students will be made aware of: the effects of the media, censorship, and personal choice. Learning strategies will be introduced to help students understand how they learn best as well as to further their understanding of the materials presented. These strategies will guide students as they interpret and analyze various types of texts through critical lenses. Students will use a comparison/contrast format for reflecting on the similarities and differences between contemporary culture and the future. These and other writing assignments will appeal to a wide variety of audiences and serve as both formative and summative assessments. The culminating projects for this unit will come in the form of a commercial presentation and a formal comparison/contrast essay Traditionally, “text” in the classroom has primarily been used to describe textbooks, literary anthologies, or canonical novels. However, that definition haschanged in recent years. Alsup and Bush (2003) claim there are, “ . . . ‘multiple literacies’” and discuss, “the need for modern students to be capable readers of many types of texts that exist in our modern world: Websites, advertisements, photographs, films, television shows, and, yes, even books” (p. 6). Today’s students are faced with a variety of texts on a daily basis. Mass media is part of our reality and deserves a place in the classroom. Ray Bradbury’s dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, creates a forum for discussion about the effects of the media, censorship in the media, and the personal freedom to engage various media. Using texts from our past as well as our current society, students will be able to draw parallels between Montag’s world and their own. In conjunction with the novel, students will be reading current, relevant news articles, an interview with Bradbury, poetry, related scientific articles, and legends. In addition, students will be viewing cartoons, photographs, commercials, news reports, magazines, billboards, and internet websites in an effort to understand the limits and opportunities each provide. According to Garth Boomer, “Once ‘text’ is conceived of as a cultural artifact, any text past or present, classic or popular, fiction or non-fiction, written, oral or filmic, can be admitted to the English classroom for legitimate and rewarding scrutiny, from the standpoint of ‘Who made this? In what context? With what values? In whose interests? To what effect?’ The new English will take its place in the total curriculum as a vigorous, hard-headed, socially-critical, productive field of engagement with the here-and-now through its work with texts” (as cited in Pirie, 1997, p. 17). Boomer suggests a “new English” where the outside lives of students are brought in to the classroom for further inquiry and investigation. Adolescence is a difficult time for many people. Not quite adults, yet no longer children, ninth grade students are at an agewhere they are bombarded daily by advertisements ranging from cell phone plans to credit cards to drinking alcohol. However, many students are not quite aware that they are being targeted daily by corporations who view them only as potential life-long consumers. By analyzing and interpreting real world data in accordance with a character in a novel that is experiencing similar confusion, students can create informed decisions about the literature and the world around them. Hillocks (1995) explains, “The process of developing a thoughtful argument cannot be undertaken without the analysis and interpretation of data, the definition of concepts and ideas, the developing and testing of hypotheses, and the imagining of new relationships and other points of view” (p. 130). As students read Fahrenheit 451 and the various supplemental texts, they will begin to see similar themes. These themes will help students build on the background knowledge they already possess on the topics of censorship, pop culture, and the effects of the media in order to create an informed assessment of the society in which they live. Some may argue that the purpose of a curriculum unit incorporating popular culture and mass media is only a ploy to get students to reject it in favor of culture with a capital “C”. However, like Freire (1998), I feel strongly in asking, “’Why not discuss with the students the concrete reality of their lives . . . ? Why not establish an ‘intimate’ connection between knowledge considered basic to any school curriculum and knowledge that is the fruit of the lived experience of these students as individuals?’” (p. 36). Students are expected to read great works of literature in English classrooms, but, often times, they are more interested in reading magazines, romance novels, websites, oremails. In this curriculum unit, students will be able to see the value in both types of literacy. Furthermore, this topic goes beyond simply wanting students to reject popular culture. In fact, I feel this topic is vital to student success in the future. Margaret Finders in her behind-the-scenes look at the literacy underlife of teenage girls articulated the confusion the girls experienced when viewing teen magazines. Finders (1997) explains, “These teens accepted such images as a ruler by which adolescent girls measure their own successes as they try on more adult