Hobart Participatory Learnians and Sponsored Spelling

My mind is still on participatory learning, and it probably always will be because that is IMPORTANT. In Hobart Shakespeareans Hobart Elementary, it’s especially important, and Rafe uses this literacy learning technique in an exciting way. Watching his students, I saw them participating in class by voicing their opinions and problem-solving together; in after school theater practice as they memorized and understood hard Shakespearean plays; in their own homes as they read and learned from the environment around them; in themselves as they shaped their individual selves outside of society’s judgements; in how they handled a classroom money system responsibly; in the field trips they took to learn about history and why it’s important for the future; in the guest speakers who came to their class like Ian McKellen and saw that these students were bright and passionate for Shakespeare; and in the way that they helped each other out and learned life lessons on respect and kindness and hard work, even when they were having fun and “just being kids”. According to Reading in a Participatory Culture, all of these things in how they went out of their way as students and how Rafe went out of his way as a teacher to help these 5th graders truly know what it is their learning and love it, all why teaching them in a non-standard way that makes them rely on each other, is participatory learning at its finest. I think that Henry Jenkins would approve of Rafe’s teaching methods (although he might argue with Rafe on video games being useless, because they’re not. Theater isn’t the only valuable way to teach kids literature!) I also think that Jenkins would ask Rafe if he would ever consider incorporating creative writing into his classes, rather than just theater, because it could give a new and modern spin to plays such as Hamlet. Rafe said in the documentary that he taught his students Shakespeare because that was what he grew up on and he was passionate about it, so it makes me personally wonder how biased he is as a teacher and how flexible he could learn to be in his curriculum. Although his students do a lot (each class and every year), they also all repeat what past classes have done almost exactly, and that could become monotonous even for participatory learners.

Deborah Brandt, author of “Sponsors of Literacy”, would have something to say about the documentary Spellbound. The movie follows the lives of a handful of children who have won their way into the National Spelling Bee at Washington D.C. Each child is different- some boys, some girls, white, black, Indian, Mexican, from all different backgrounds in education and in wealth. Some sponsor themselves, relying only on their brains and the support from their family, friends, and community, never given a cent towards making it to D.C. Others are sponsored by money from their parents and from the prayers of a country, from tutors and from better school systems. As they win and enter D.C., most if not all of these students gain sponsorship through media before their final run in spelling. Some of these children are experiencing Nationals for the first time, and for some this is their second or third time. Regardless, the sponsorships of these students vary, but they all make it one way or another through their own will to learn as well as the cheers from their loved ones. And, as seen in the film, money doesn’t always mean you’re the best- some poorer means of sponsorship are richer in value to the children than the dollar bill could ever be. And of course, even when the kids lose one by one, their family is still proud of them, and D.C. is proud of them for coming to this safe, brainiac environment where they can thrive and excel and try, try, try to spell again.