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LITR 4370
TRAGEDY
Midterm2 Samples 2015 (midterm2 assignment)
Model Answers to Part 3. |
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Part 3. Begin Research Report: Write at least
3-4 substantial paragraphs with two sources toward completion of
your Research Report on selected special topic
(to be completed on
Final Exam)
Alejandra Ayala
A More
Effective Way To Teach Tragedy to High School Students
I think I have learned a lot about tragedy in this
class and other literature classes I have previously taken in community college.
As a future high school English teacher, I tend to think about ways I would like
to teach my future students while I’m learning the material myself. I make
mental notes of different techniques my professor’s use that I would like to use
in my future classroom. One thing I noticed that was prominent in most of my
previous classes is showing or mentioning modernized books or movies of the
readings we had in class. This is a great method I will, more than likely, use
in my future classroom.
Tragedy can be extremely
difficult to teach because students tend to be closed-minded about the meaning
of tragedy. Most students believe tragedy is always depressing and filled with
deaths but tragedy is much more than just that. Tragedy has various elements to
it than just death. Tragedies that I had to read when I was in high school,
consisted of
Hamlet, The Odyssey, and
Romeo and
Juliet. However, they were simpler versions of
the actual stories, mainly summaries that only gave the main points of each
story, to where we did not have to analyze as much compared to the original
stories and formats. Even then, fellow students dreaded and were uninterested in
these readings and they did not learn much or appreciate the stories. Most
students found these readings as a waste of time or pointless.
I am very passionate about
literature; I love to read and to analyze books I normally would not choose
myself. As a future educator, my goal is to make literature—no matter what the
genre or style—as fun and enjoyable as possible. Knowing most students do not
enjoy tragedies or stories such as the ones I had to read in high school, I
would approach teaching tragedy differently from how I was taught; I will have
students read parts of original text, like the ones we have read so far in
class, such as,
Agamemnon, as well as
have them read modernized versions of the
original text for students to better understand and relate to the story. I have
not really had any classes that compare modernized books to original books or
plays except for this class. However, in the online education class that I am
taking this semester we have had to search for different types of book we would
like to incorporate in our future classroom. Through this project, I have found
various modernized books of classic books that I think students would enjoy.
Mourning Becomes Electra
is a great updated version of
Agamemnon, it was, in my
opinion, an easy read and more enjoyable compared to
Agamemnon.
Anahi Montemayor mentioned that, “the best way to get
my classroom [to grasp] Agamemnon is to try to get them into [a] discussion of
what types of movies Agamemnon reminds them of”. We have not really discussed
what movies remind us of the plays we have read so far in class and I think this
would be a great technique to include in class every now and then; I think this
would get more students to participate in class discussions. Although using
updated versions of original tragedies helps students comprehend the story, I
think it is important to show parts of, if not all of, the original tragedies as
well. Having students only read modernized version will, in my opinion, take
away from classic tragedies. I will teach my future students what elements make
stories a tragedy and then have them give me examples of recent movies or books
that could be considered tragic in order to help them understand tragedy.
As mentioned earlier, I have
had previous professors who have discussed modernized books and movies in order
to give the class a better understanding and to emphasize the book or play we
were assigned. We have briefly discussed modernized versions of tragedies and
plays in this course as well; I remember that
The Lion King
being a version of
Macbeth
was mentioned in class.
A professor I had last semester, in my
Shakespeare class, tended to use examples of modernized movies that portrayed
the plays we read and discussed in class. The professor would give us examples
such as the films,
10 Things I Hate About You
being a modernized version of
The Taming of The
Shrew, West Side Story and
Gnomeo & Juliet
as portrayals of
Romeo & Juliet, as well as various movie
adaptations of
Measure for Measure and
Richard III.
She would show the class several clips of each
play and then have class discussions of how the modernized clips were different
from the play or how they made us feel. Rebecca Bridjmohan stated, “Students
need to be able to draw meaningful connections to whatever they learn and by
teaching the modernization of tragedy they are able to see classic tragic plays
evolved into plays that are more relatable and realistic”. I agree with Rebecca
and I think that the professor was aiming for this idea when she decided to
incorporate modern clips of the plays we would read into the lessons. Using
clips in this class made us connect the plays to the clips by having us compare
the two and it also made the plays more relatable to our everyday lives. This
would be a great method to use in high school in order to make the plays and
tragedies more appealing for students. It helps keep the focus on the reading
but at the same time makes it fun for the students. In that same class the
professor also put us in groups and made us come up with our own modernized
version of one of the plays we had read. We were given a set of questions we had
to answer such as, what actors we would use to make the movie and why we chose
those particular actors. This helped us look at each character in the play more
closely because we had to find textual evidence and use it to explain why we
chose certain actors for the characters in the play. This activity would also be
great to use with high school students because it will make them dig deeper and
analyze the play/tragedy more than they would if they just had a class
discussion.
We also have clips in this
course and although they aren’t as modernized as the ones I would watch in my
Shakespeare class, they are still helpful in analyzing the plays more closely
and having more class discussions in class. As Katherine Vellella mentioned
in her essay, “there is value in introducing the
students to more modern concepts of tragedy to compare the differences with the
older tragedies”. I do think I have learned more about tragedies in this class
by comparing video clips to the plays we read. It makes the class think at a
deeper level and would be great to use for deeper thinking in high school
classes. Using modernized books of original text can also help high schools
students learn about tragedies more effectively.
Works Cited
Bridjmohan, Rebecca. "LITR 4533 Tragedy UHCL 2014 Final
Exam Samples." Teaching Tragedy in Today’s
Ever-Changing World. 1 July 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2015.
Montemayor, Anahi. "LITR 4370 Tragedy UHCL 2015 Midterm
Samples." Teaching Tragedy in a High School
Classroom. 1 Mar. 2015. Web. 2 Apr. 2015.
Vellella, Katherine. "Why Teach Tragedy?"
LITR 4533 Tragedy UHCL 2014 Final Exam Samples.
1 July. 2014. Web. 2 Apr. 2015.
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