Wednesday, Mar. 05, 2003
Steinbeck and Tupac, posted at 8:47 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I spent a lot of last night contemplating how I am going to get this idea of the American Dream across to my students without being depressing, preachy, or giving them information without letting them think about it before responding themselves. Last semester, I was little disappointed with the lack of depth in responses to how John Steinbeck envisioned the American Dream, and I wanted deeper thought and less of me telling them that Steinbeck thought that the American Dream was basically a crock of shit and more of them coming up with that idea on their own and then being able to respond and retort to Steinbeck a bit.So I spent last night making a mammoth (25 screen) Powerpoint presentation that features many modern interpretations of the American Dream. It's got a Tupac Shakur verse (from his song "Panther Power"), a Notorious B.I.G. verse (from his song "Things Done Changed"), and Tracy Chapman's song "Fast Car." It's also got some information from the essay The Dark Side of the American Dream, which seemed to be an updated version of what Steinbeck was trying to get across with Of Mice and Men. I was trying to get some hooks into the kids so that they would get into the discussion.
I also included the following four poems: "America" by Maya Angelou, "America" by Claude McKay, "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes, and "Prospective Immigrants - Please Note" by Adrienne Rich. All of them are here, if you're interested in perusing. Most of those poems are at least somewhat positive in looking at what America has to offer. I also prepared scenes from the films Hoop Dreams, American Tale, and Forrest Gump.
The hooks worked. I was a little concerned with including a piece as political as the Tupac Shakur song (if you go to the link, I used just the first verse), because it is so angry and so pessimistic about the American Dream. I told Gale a little bit about what I was doing last night, and she asked, "Wait - are you trying to tell them that the American Dream doesn't exist and they all are going to remain in their place in life?" and that's the last thing I want them to get out of it. I was hoping to have them at least think about it, though, in a way that let to a deeper understanding of the concept. I wanted them to see connections of this theme that Steinbeck is expressing to their own lives, though I also wanted to provide the positive interpretations of the American Dream as well.
In discussing my intentionally provocative question, "What do Tupac and Steinbeck have in common?", it was interesting, because the students have such different levels of understanding before the discussion begins. That's what a good discussion does, it gels everyone's thoughts and uses the students themselves as the teachers. I've got some kids who gave very surface answers ("They both deal with the American Dream") and then I get kids who are a bit deeper ("They both think that it's not real"), then kids who just get it so right that you get goosebumps ("Both feel the American Dream is inadequate for some people because of the obstacles that society puts in front of some.") By the end of the discussion, all of the students have this deep understanding of the texts because we've broken them down and pulled out the evidence, and it's a true example of student-centered instruction.
They loved the Notorious B.I.G. piece, and loved the fact that I referred to him as Mr. Wallace throughout our discussion. His song basically talked about the lack of options he feels he had in coming from the city - he feels it was either rap, basketball, or selling drugs - and the kids got that this is the same sort of frustration that was running through Of Mice and Men. We decided that Mr. Wallace felt the American Dream was attainable by most everyone, but some have to work extra hard for it. Boo-ya, I think they got it.
We actually listened to most of "Fast Car". I always love to see my students' reactions to Tracy, because even though she's someone who has had two top-5 hits - including one in the last five years - the kids do not know who she is. The kids, because they see her picture, know she's a black woman, and I go ahead and tell them that she's a black woman from the city (Cleveland) who grew up poor, but was inspired by folk music instead of hip-hop and ended up being one of the first women playing the acoustic guitar - paving the way for India Arie and Lauryn Hill. It's also strange to gauge their reactions. I usually do "All That You Have Is Your Soul" with them for my To Kill a Mockingbird soundtrack presentation, and this is the first time I've done "Fast Car." The kids like listening to music in class, though some get a little immature (tapping on desks, singing along), they do basically enjoy it. In listening to the song today, the first class all burst out laughing when the drums kicked into the song in the middle. Their reactions to music they aren't used to is just too funny. My 7th period made me laugh (in my head) even more, because this one girl - obviously expecting something way different after seeing a picture of a women with skin as dark as hers - said out loud, "How did she go and become a country singer?". I thought this was funny, though I just ignored it.
The song did what I hoped it would. I had the kids listen to about three quarters of it, then made them put one minute of silent thought in. Finally, I let them discuss it. I got responses that I enjoyed a lot - "This is just like Of Mice and Men. The girl in the song wants a house in the suburbs just like George and Lennie want to live off the fat of the land, but there are obstacles in the way" or "She's saying that the American Dream is a tough thing to reach for many, just like Steinbeck in the book." I was loving it.
Class time was running out, so I touched briefly on the scenes from the films. I wanted to end on a positive note, so we discussed Forrest Gump, the story of a simple man who makes something of himself through hard work and determination - a quintessential American Dream piece. We talked about MLK's American Dream. We discussed briefly a Langston Hughes quotation. And tomorrow's lesson plan is all ready because I still have all those poems to break through.
I was happy with today. I had checked out the Computer on Wheels (a TV monitor hooked up to a computer) to show the Powerpoint, and it didn't work. So I said, "Okay guys, grab your notebook and follow me" and we went and found a corner of the library to run through it with. (It's all about flexibility.) The kids all gather around on the floor and on the couches for what seemed like a story hour type of day, and it created the perfect backdrop that I wanted - a day that was slightly different, more loose, more appropriate for open-minded and open-ended thought.
All in all, it was worth staying up until 1am to finish a Powerpoint for them. I felt like a good teacher today. I think my kids learned a lot. With baseball, though, I've been extremely busy and sleep-deprived lately, but I wanted to sit and give myself a good twenty minutes of writing so I could sort of break it all down today. I took a 2-hour nap when I got home, and had a disturbing dream (horrible snowstorm, I'm driving and can't find my headlights, then a nuclear bomb explodes and I die and I try not to by doing that thing you do when you want to wake up from a bad dream but cannot) that I hope doesn't repeat. I'm now hoping to get caught up on some e-mails and then perhaps go to bed again. The West Wing is on, maybe I'll get into that.