Getting creative with the Classics!

In one of our classroom discussions, I heard that only about 3 out of 30 kids in the typical English class will be excited about reading the assigned text. Teachers of today have to figure out not only how to get their students excited, but also how to keep their lesson plans relevant to what is happening outside the classroom. Fortunately, there is an active community of educators tackling these challenges and coming up with new, exciting methods to encourage participation in the English classroom. The result of their research is the focus of “Reading In A Participatory Culture, Remixing Moby-Dick In The English Classroom.” The first time teacher Becky Rupert used the modules listed in the book, she stated that it was the most interesting and fulfilling classroom adventure she’d had yet in her teaching career. As a future teacher, that endorsement peaked my curiosity!

I love this book because it encourages the use of modern technology in the classroom. It’s not about ditching the old ways of reading texts, it’s about ways to “negotiate a new stance toward both print and digital culture, embracing new opportunities, even as we preserve older practices, texts, and values” ( RIAPC). Ultimately, teachers need to prepare their students to be more than information consumers, but to be producers as well. This book gives the tools needed to help educators reimagine education in a culture of social media and remixing.