Annotated Bibliography.doc

1. Annotated Bibliography by Zafri Mollon for PED3177
Article: Thomas, Melissa (2003). Teaching Fantasy: Overcoming the Stigma of Fluff.
The English Journal, vol. 92, no.5, 60-64.
Summary of Article: The author notes that while the stigma attached to fantasy has been
debunked by literary critics, some still see it as “literary fluff” (Thomas, 2003, 60).
Melissa Thomas writes that despite these feelings, it is perfect for the classroom because
students like it and because, as she puts it, “It is a metaphor for the human condition- ripe
with mythic structures, heroic cycles, and social and religious commentary” (ibid). As a
metaphor for human experience, it is quite helpful. In discussing the heroic cycles in
fantasy, she writes (2003), that there is a hero, usually an orphan and thus free of parental
scrutiny, on a great quest that “reflects the need of students to make an impact on their
world”, and usually meet up with a wise person which exemplifies students’ need for
guidance (ibid). The hero then conquers the evil foe. Even though the enemies in fantasy
are quite varied, they all represent the struggle of an individual against an opposing force,
be it, “bullies, drugs, gangs, violence, abuse, prejudice, or any of the obstacles placed
before our young, modern-day heroes” (Thomas 2003, 61). Thomas also notes the use of
religious commentary in novels and biblical parallels, which help students, conceptualize
these issues more easily. She also notes that these stories reflect history as well, as the
Lord of the Rings serves as criticism of both World Wars but ultimately show that social
and racial differences can be overcome when the “interests and freedoms of each are
threatened” (Thomas 2003, 62). Gender roles are also commonly dealt with in fantasy
literature, although boundaries between fantasy and science fiction are often blurred.
Authors like Ursula LeGuin deal explicitly with gender issues in novels such as The Left
hand of Darkness. Finally, the author emphasizes the power of social commentary that
fantasy performs. Thomas (2003) notes that topics such as “hunger, pain, loss, confusion,
simple human fallibility and triumph” (63) are explored with humour and insight.
Why it is helpful for teaching English at the Intermediate level:
A great number of fantasy novels reflect the conflicting world that out students live in,
and thus are perfect vehicles for further learning. Many of the issues in the novels
Thomas discusses are still relevant today, and will likely still be relevant in the future.
We, as educators, need to see past common misconceptions about the genre for the
benefit of our students. However, we also need to see that we may have misconceptions
about other forms of literature (such as poetry) and must try to rediscover the positive
impact other mediums can convey. Thomas ends her article with a statement stating that
fantasy serves as an “undistilled version of human imagination- momentary worlds and
magic that may be at odds with the rational truth, yet continue to reflect our culture and
times” (Thomas 2003, 63). Teachers need to keep in mind that what we are learning must
always be relevant to our students so that we can not only cover the curriculum guidelines
but also help them learn about themselves.

2. Article: LeNoir, Douglas W. (2003). "There's Nothing to Eat!" A Half-Dozen Ways to
Find Writing Ideas. The English Journal, vol. 92, no. 5, 25-29.
Summary of Article: LeNoir comes up with a clever analogy for when students complain
about not having anything to write about: when children look into the fridge and exclaim,
“There’s nothing to eat!” LeNoir (2003) argues that students do not have writer’s block,
but are suffering from their “inability to quickly seize a focus” (25). As LeNoir correctly
asserts, it is important for us, as educators, not to give students topics to begin with, but to
give them the tools to quickly come up with their own ideas to narrow their focus before
writing paralysis sets in. The Thesaurus Game is one proposed solution: a thesaurus with
numbered entries is required, a student chooses a number, and that is his or her title (and
students usually assume it is the theme as well). LeNoir asks students to vote for the
person with the worst word, and he offers to switch it for a newly chosen word. LeNoir
(2003) says that he has never required anyone to complete a piece based on these words,
but that the brainstorming and idea-forming associations are usually quite positive and
students do usually end up submitting their story (26). Word Pairs is another option: a list
of adjectives and nouns is drawn up and students randomly choose one of each and try to
come up with ideas from this. Signs and Notices is another possibility that uses random
choice and a sign or notice as a prompt for creating their story. For the Sears Roebuck
Game, students are given a few pictures randomly from magazines and must try to unite
them in a story. The Mental Symposium involves having students take on a persona of a
famous person, alive or dead, and field questions from the class based on their new
personalities. LeNoir (2003) suggests that you point out less obvious choices for famous
figures such as “heroes, criminals, radio personalities, military leaders, [or] religious
figures” (27). Cubing involves creating a cube with approaches to a subject on each side:
“describe it, compare it, associate it, analyze it, apply it, and argue for or against it”
(LeNoir 2003, 28).
Why it is helpful for teaching English at the Intermediate level:
As I enjoy writing, I know how difficult it is to come up with good topics for stories at
times. However, it is not actually the case that we lack great topics to write about: instead
we have too many topics and cannot choose one. This article shows students that they can
come up with incredibly topics at random based on simply choosing words and making
associations. The success of a given story is not totally dependent on its most basic ideas:
it is the execution that matters. The challenge to students is in succeeding at creating
some sort of cohesive story out of the difficult topics they are forced to come up with
from word associations and other ideas. The Mental Symposium can help students
practice drama, while those more inclined towards arguing would enjoy the Cubing
activity. Also, the article made me wonder whether we should be including as many pre-
made topics for essays instead of doing activities which could help students come up with
their own. You could even use a single line, a single paragraph, and come try to come up
with as many themes or motifs as possible just as an example for them. In any case, his
ideas on working with associations and discovering new ideas are intriguing.

3. Article: Mitchell, Diana (2003). Using Student Work as the Basis for Classroom
Activities. The English Journal, vol. 84, no. 6, 110-114.
Summary of Article: Diana Mitchell noted at some point that students pay more attention
when the questions they are answering are their own. Basically, Mitchell (1995)
advocates using “the work students generate as the basis of activities in class” (110). She
writes about her experience with Stephen Crane’s short story The Open Boat. The
students had a tremendous amount of questions, so she had them write them down,
compiled a list of all the questions, not necessarily just the good ones, and printed it out
for the next day. The students had to eliminate questions they believed could not be
answered and those that were similar, and then she had the class divide into groups and
answer them before presenting their findings to the class (Mitchell, 1995, 110). She used
student-made responses with poetry too. She had them write their responses to Crane’s
poem “War is Kind” and typed them up for the following day. Students read the
responses and, in groups, were asked to determine what Crane was trying to say in the
poem based on evidence from the responses. The tactic works for novels, as Mitchell
asked students to write common motifs and themes from The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn and were asked to answer the question “What was Mark Twain trying to show us
through the novel?” (Mitchell, 1995, 112). Students came up with lists of generalizations,
and students voted on which they thought were the strongest and which were the weakest.
When analyzing the novel The Giver, she asked students to make inferences from facts
about the society there, and determine its values. She typed up the responses and tried to
determine the strongest inferences before turning to their own society. Mitchell also uses
student brainstorming for creative writing assignments. She asked them to think of all the
childhood games they could remember, then typed the list and asked them to examine
commonalities between them, and were asked to write essays in groups on what children
learn playing games (Mitchell 1995, 113). Open ended statements students can relate to
are also used, such as, “Being a teenager means…” (ibid). Students were grouped and
asked to rate the top ten things teens worry about. Mitchell (1995) had students watch at
least three TV shows and “list the issues that surfaced in these shows” (114). They also
compared these issues to short stories.
Why it is helpful for teaching English at the Intermediate level:
Mitchell writes, discussing her use of student work in her lessons, that “They are not
responding to a teacher’s interpretation of the novel but their own reactions. It seems to
make sense to begin this way because then students feel ownership in what they are doing
and are much more eager to get involved in the activity” (Mitchell, 1995, 112).
Sometimes teachers come up with lists of questions that students could easily have come
up with on their own, except that because it is the teacher’s questions students are less
interested in answering them. Also, we often underestimate student interest and intellect
in dealing with issues in literature, and thus Mitchell’s examples of the ways in which
teachers can use student-generated work as the basis of activities are enormously helpful.
As long as learning is about exploration and discovery, why bother with loaded questions
and worksheets when students would happily answer questions about what they are
interested in. Mitchell (1995) rightly concludes that, “Harnessing [their] energy and their
ideas is our great challenge, but since students seem more interested in getting involved
in what their peers say and in what they know, it is to our benefit to find as many ways as
we can to use student input in our classroom” (114).