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American Literature: Romanticism research assignment Student Research Submissions 2015 Research Post 1 |
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Lori Wheeler
Romantic
Reading Ladder: Batman to Irving
Since I was a child, I have loved Washington
Irving’s stories. I am especially
fond of the story of Rip Van Winkle because of the way it first came to me: my
aunt told me the story as we were driving through the Appalachians of West
Virginia where she and my mother grew up.
As a child, I thought the story was about those mountains, my family’s
home, and I hoped that magical things would happen to me when I visited.
It was only as an adult that I was introduced to the actual text and
realized that the story was set in an altogether different place.
I tried to read “Rip Van Winkle” with my first class of seventh grade
students because I loved it so much, but the density of the language proved too
much for them to handle. I
wanted—and still want—my students to have the same love for these early American
tales that I did. I have always
struggled with how to get them to the point of not only being able to read
Irving’s stories, but how to help them desire to do so.
Then I fell in love with New York City.
I became fascinated with its culture, its people, and its history.
Wandering the streets of the city, I noticed the many businesses with
‘Gotham’ in the name. Curious to
know if the Gotham of Batman renown was definitively New York City, I discovered
through some quick smart-phone browsing that Washington Irving had coined the
name for New York City, and through subsequent investigation found a blog
posting that provides a more detailed history of New York as Gotham (http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/01/25/so-why-do-we-call-it-gotham-anyway).
The blog explains that the original author of Batman comics, Bill Finger,
was inspired by the name of a business located in the city.
Of course, the business was not named randomly.
In fact, it had taken the name given to it by the literary magazine
Salmagundi
(http://books.google.com/books/reader?id=f_oqAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb_hover&pg=GBS.PA444).
While other contributors to Salmagundi had used the name Gotham to
refer to New York City in earlier issues, it was Washington Irving who “was the
first to explicitly attach the name to New York, and to refer to its citizens as
‘Gothamites’” (Jones, 74). So
my personal discovery of New York City led me right back to Washington Irving
and the tales I loved as a child.
Simultaneous to my New York City wanderings, I
continued to grow as an educator, delving into theory and practice by reading
the work of current literacy leaders such as Penny Kittle, Nancie Atwell, Teri
Lesesne, and Kelly Gallagher. I
heard the call of Gallagher in his book, Readicide, to give students
authentic texts that are both engaging and accessible and not to bury “authentic
reading experiences . . . under lectures, group work, films, worksheets, and
test preparation” (p. 58).
Gallagher’s anthem in his book cries out for teachers to let students have fun
and choice as they read. This
resonated with me, but I still felt compelled to bring more challenging texts to
students to ensure they were reaching literacy goals and growing as readers.
It was also imperative that I provided texts that would challenge my
advanced students who were already reading on a college level.
I found that Gallagher’s reading mandate made perfect sense when coupled
with Teri Lesesne’s concept of reading ladders.
Reading ladders are sets of books that share common themes or threads
that provide widely accessible texts at the bottom rungs of the ladders and are
intended to move students up the ladder to more challenging texts, and thus,
allowing students a way to engage with texts in an authentic way (Lesesne).
Students could have autonomy in choosing from which ladder to read, and
they would automatically be provided with opportunities for growth in more
challenging texts further up the ladder or more simple, fun reading by moving
down the ladder. I had found a
solution, however tenuous, for my Irving problem: setting.
Batman comics and graphic novels at the bottom of my ladder connected to
texts like The Juvie Three and The Dead and the Gone, also set in
New York, toward the middle of the ladder; further up would be Washington
Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow;” and eventually
students could read The Luxe series and The Great Gatsby at the
top of the ladder.
It was not until this semester, though, that I
felt comfortable sharing my Gotham Reading Ladder with students.
American Romanticism finally provided a more pronounced connection
between the rungs of my ladder. I
could make Romanticism the connection between Batman and Washington Irving, and
further challenge students by asking them to find other books that belong on the
higher rungs of the ladder as well as asking how the other books on the ladder
are connected through Romanticism.
With a better understanding of the characteristics of Romantic literature, I
recognize just how Romantic a figure Batman is.
The mythology of his past shows his vision of children as innocents and
the adult world as corrupt, he is ruled by his desire to protect others and in
doing so defies physical logic in his ability to fight villains, his butler is a
dependable source of common sense for him, and he displays heroic individualism
fighting the nightmare world of gothic Gotham.
As much as the characteristics of Romanticism have helped me solidify a
reading ladder that will make Washington Irving more accessible to my students,
I have a greater appreciation for literary movements.
While I prefer romantic texts, my students may not.
By building reading ladders based on movements in literature, I can
increase the number of reading ladders in my classroom and, in doing so,
increase the choice and engagement of the readers, and ultimately improve the
literacy skills of my students.
Bibliography
Gallagher, Kelly. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can
Do About It. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers, 2009. Print.
Jones, Brian Jay. Washington Irving: An American Original. New York:
Arcade Publishing, 2008. Print.
Lesesne, Teri S. Reading Ladders: Leading Students from Where They Are to
Where We’d Like Them to Be. Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann, 2010. Print.
http://books.google.com/books/reader?id=f_oqAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb_hover&pg=GBS.PA444
http://www.dccomics.com/characters/batman
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/01/25/so-why-do-we-call-it-gotham-anyway
https://www.readdcentertainment.com/comic-reader/237/10900
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