Module 2

In this unit, we focused on using nonprint media to reinforce reading. If you aren’t a Language Arts lover like a lot of us, typical English classes can be dreadful. Literary analyses and research papers have their value, but students burn out very quickly and need something a little less dense to keep them focused and passionate. That’s where this module comes in with the concept of transmediation and representing your average text through nontraditional means. When all a student sees is words, words, words, I can understand how they can feel discouraged by walls of text. As teachers, we can help convert different sign systems –the words—into other modes of communication such as images, music, or acting. I’ve also become familiar with the concept of intertextuality, which means making connections with past texts to help understand new ones. Some students need to connect a text with something more familiar to them to fully comprehend it, so something as simple as comparing The Outsiders to Grease can provide some context and a visual that makes the book more understandable.

Shakespeare continues to rear his old-fashioned head into readings and class discussions, so I’m learning many different ways to tackle his plays. “Making the Classics Matter…” explains some issues in teaching some books in the canon. Often, the books we’re forced to read in school seem outdated, with a completely different cultural context and language. Students can have trouble caring and investing time into novels that they don’t feel connected to, so it’s our job as teachers to make the classics relevant and enticing. By applying concepts in these books to our students’ lives, we can establish these necessary connections. Plus, with the use of technology, we can give the texts a modern twist. For example, reading Jane Eyre in high school was the bane of my existence. I could not get past the Victorian context and language to see a worthwhile story until my teacher provided an assignment where we cast each of the characters with relevant actors to put a modern twist on the novel. Shakespeare can be more accessible to students through intertextuality and transmediation as well.

Literature is all about making connections, and we need to be able to bridge the gap between difficult texts and the students who read them. Also in this unit, we began talking about graphic representations and incorporating comics into the classroom, but we touch more on that in the next module. To briefly summarize, all of these readings and discussions provide examples of taking the print sign system and making sense of it through different mediums.