(no subject)

[elucreh]

Here's the thing about my Teaching English to High Schoolers class: what I want to do for my big project is teach them to write fanfiction.

Good fanfiction, I mean. I don't want to say, "write about the characters from Romeo and Juliet being attacked by zombies." Because then, before you know it, they're saying "Juliet hauls out a chainsaw and kicks ass."

I want to give them an activity sheet that says, "Find three problems Juliet faces. What does she want that she can't have? How does she attempt to achieve her goals? Does she succeed? Does she learn from not succeeding? Does she always try to solve problems the same way? What do her problem-solving methods say about her as a person?"

And then I want to say, "Zombies attack Verona. Knowing how Juliet approaches problems, what does she do next? Is she the kind of person who tries to save herself, the kind of person who tries to save herself and her family/friends/beloved childhood pet, or the kind of person who tries to defeat all the zombies and save the city and its orphans and thieves and beggars and annoying Aunt Marges who once told her she should marry a fat old guy because she won't get a better offer? Whatever it is she tries to do, how does she try to do it?"

And yeah, I'd be teaching them a lot about how Shakespeare tells by showing, about characterisation, about finding motives, about how stories are driven by problems and the people trying to find their solutions.


But mostly, I intend to be in fandom for decades yet, and I want the upcoming generations to write good AUs.

Comments

[harriet-vane.livejournal.com]

My friend llemma who is a BRILLIANT English teacher basically does this. She has a unit where she has the students figure out the major problems the characters are facing and then write themselves in and see how that changes the narrative and decide if they make it better or worse by going to Hogwarts with Harry or to the Other Mother with Coraline. Her class is amazing.

[darksylvia.livejournal.com]

Way to help train up the younger generation!

[openmydoors.livejournal.com]

OHMYGOD. If I ever had an English teach like that, I would have had SUCH a happy high school career. Not that, you know, high school was a nightmare for me, but the English teachers kinda were.

[reni-days.livejournal.com]

I have often thought fanfiction would be an excellent mechanism for all sorts of English classes. The beauty of it is the way it incorporates original source material and actual creation of new work. So your Romeo and Juliet example makes an awesome assignment in a literature unit, as a way to explore characterization and style and a hundred other things. Or it could be an equally awesome assignment during a creative writing unit, providing an interesting and engaging structure to explore different aspects of story creation.

Obviously, it would not be a good idea to call it "fanfiction" and encourage high school students to go home and investigate what people are writing in their own favorite universes ("Hey! My teacher just told me where to find all the porn! Check it out--Juliet/Mercutio bondage porn, with whips! Hey, what's 'felching?'") but "Transformative Works" sounds perfectly respectable.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

See, it's not a new idea--there are, like, seven examples in my textbook--but A) most of them are Mary Sue scenarios (ie, self-insert, which, I mean, I realise my brain chemistry is fucked up in a lot of ways, but I hated those) and B) most of them just say, "Zombies attack Verona" which ends in Juliet yelling "yee-ha" and firing up the saw. The textbook appears to have avoided what they should be learning from this, which is dumb.

[reni-days.livejournal.com]

I don't care for self-insert either, though I acknowledge that, if I got my way about life and got to teach a "Literature/Creative Writing Through Transformative Works" course or whatever, there are probably perfectly valid lessons I would stumble across along the way where that might be a useful tool? But that's not where it actually has the most impact. Your thing about "knowing what you know about Juliet, how would she react to the zombie attack" is an excellent and important question. There's a POINT to that. Also, my ex-husband accidentally invented fanfic, before we knew it was an actual thing, as a series of writing exercises to help me with individual issues I was having with original work. I bitched to him that my characterization tended to wander throughout a story; he said, "Write me an episode of Buffy. You don't have to invent characters, you don't have to invent a universe or whatever. You know these characters. Just write, and if they start out looking like themselves and they end up looking like themselves and they look like themselves all through the middle part...you win." And it helped. We did that exercise when I was having trouble keeping my stories on-task, and when I was having a hard time wrestling with handling multiple plot threads in a single story, and even when I needed to learn to create stronger characters myself.

Idk. That kind of wandered into what is probably actually a little beyond your average creative-writing unit in a high school course, but my point stands: Fanfic in schools. Someone needs to make more of this be happening. =D

[kaalee.livejournal.com]

Sorry to crash in this thread, but I really enjoyed reading this. I think your ex-husband's idea for you to write your own episode of Buffy as an assignment in character is brilliant. It really took away all of the other variables that go into original writing and let you focus on just one aspect. In that circumstance, the plot mattered, but simply as a means for exploring the characters and not as something to hold you back. And like you said, it is a perfect exercise to let you work on different aspects of writing within the confines of something you know well and don't have to invent yourself.

It makes so much sense. This is going to be in my mind for a long while; thanks for giving me something to think about. ♥

[reni-days.livejournal.com]

LOL. Not at all, I thought he was pretty brilliant, myself!

[lstinhpfdm.livejournal.com]

Umm.. Teens these days know all about fan fiction, at least my daughter and her friends do. They would probably be shocked to hear about it from a teacher though.

[reni-days.livejournal.com]

Wow, really? My sisters and their friends don't, for which I am endlessly grateful. =D

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

I approve of your ambitions. Very much.

[maple-mahogany.livejournal.com]

♥

I honestly wish someone had told me that the concept of fanfiction was okay. I don't mean in the LiveJournal/Kink-Meme kind of way. Just that I've been 'creating' fanfiction and alternate universes in my head with my favorite stories since I was a child but it wasn't until well into adulthood that I discovered that other people did it, too.

I love your ideas.

[mrsquizzical.livejournal.com]

heee. firstborn's big project this term is an article she's writing on 'why reading and writing fan fiction is a legitimate use of my time'. &her;

i think this is an excellent strategy and you are doing us all a service! thankyou! ;)

[spinfrog.livejournal.com]

Heee! :) Homeschooling: it gives your kids that extra time they needed to finish their BBB \o/

[lstinhpfdm.livejournal.com]

If you could teach my daughter this, it would be freaking awesome. You would make the most brilliant English teacher. Not that she doesn't have a kick-ass teacher this year (young and really enjoys teaching), they just did The Great Gatsby and she loved it.

[kaalee.livejournal.com]

I love your brain so much; this is perfect. It allows students to apply what they've learned and thought instead of simply regurgitating everything back.

I still remember some great assignments from college where we were allowed some freedom and some creativity within the parameters of the assignment, but still allowed us to apply what we'd learned and show that we had.

This is brilliant; I think your students are going to love it.

Also, I have a couple of questions/ideas if you're looking for input into the assignment.

♥

[halflinen.livejournal.com]

THIS. &hearts

[innie_darling]

I used to be an English teacher! I loved it so.

I totally approve of what you're doing here - this is a smart way to ask the questions that will help your kids learn how to think intelligently.

[redorchids.livejournal.com]

I very, very much approve of this teaching method. :DDDDD

[flamingsword.livejournal.com]

But mostly, I intend to be in fandom for decades yet, and I want the upcoming generations to write good AUs.

You'll be around to teach us. I have great faith in this future.