| Contents |
Curating against the canon: collaborative curation for critical literacy / Kate Lechtenberg -- What do Olympians, Lowriders, and Shailene Woodley have to do with language arts? Making space for critical, multimodal texts in canonical classrooms / Ashley K. Dallacqua and Annmarie Sheahan -- Shattering literary windows and mirrors: creating prismatic canonical experiences for (and with) British literature students / Jeanne Dyches -- Still fighting for migrant workers' rights 75 years later: a critical approach to teaching the Grapes of Wrath through contemporary youth testimonios / Michelle M. Falter and Nina R. Schoonover -- Examining islands across contexts: reading colonization critically in Shakespeare / Jeremiah C. Sataraka and Ashley S. Boyd -- Teaching The House on Mango Street in the #MeToo era / Amy Cummins -- Fostering critical social consciousness through "text-to-software" connections with Brave New World / Mark A. Sulzer -- A critical race approach to teaching To Kill a Mockingbird / Carlin Borsheim-Black -- Using counterstories to critique racism: critical race theory, Beloved, and The Hate U Give / Ashley Johnson and Mary L. Neville -- Class is in session: why now is the time for a Marxist approach to the canon / Elizabeth Currin, Stephanie Schroeder and Todd McCardle -- Interrupting ideologies within the canon: applying critical lenses to Pride and Prejudice, Eleanor & Park, and contemporary life / Mike P. Cook, Brandon L. Sams and Parker Wade -- A critical emotional approach to canonical literature: lessons from Of Mice and Men / Amanda Haertling Thein -- Canonical texts and cultural critique with English learners / Erin McNeill and Mary Beth Hines -- "This ain't got nuttin to do with my life": art and imitation in Romeo and Juliet / Fawn Canady and Chyllis E. Scott -- Teaching critically for freedom with 1984 / Mary E. Styslinger, Nicole Walker, Angela Byrd and Kayla Hostetler. |
| Summary |
The canon, as much an ideology as it is body of texts perceived to be intrinsic to the high school English classroom, has come under scrutiny for maintaining status quo narratives about whiteness, masculinity, heterosexuality, ability, and even those associated with American ideals of self-reliance, the good life, and the self-made man. Teaching practices around these texts may also reinforce harmful practices and ways of thinking, including those connected to notions of culture, literary merit, and methods of reading, teaching, and learning. Teaching the Canon in 21st Century Classrooms offers innovative, critical ways of reading, thinking about, and teaching canonical texts in 21st century classrooms. Responding to the increasingly pluralized, digitized, global 21st century English classroom, chapter authors make explicit the ideologies of a canonical text of focus, while also elaborating a pedagogical approach that de-centers the canon, bridges past and present, applies critical theory, and celebrates the rich identities of 21st century readers. In using this book, teachers will be especially poised to take on the canon in their classroom and, thus, to open up their curricula to ideas, values, concerns, and narratives beyond those embedded in the canonical texts. |
