Fairy Tales

As a child, especially as the first child in my family and for both sets of grandparents, I was read to very frequently and the recipient of dozens of books. The majority of those books and readings were from fairy tales or folk tales. I grew up in the golden age of Disney Princess mania, with a new character to love and admire every year. The influences of Ariel, Belle, and Cinderella were evident in the Halloween costumes, merchandise, and repetitive viewings of their films. One of my earliest memories is listening to my grandmother read a version of Cinderella to me before bedtime. In fact, every night before bed when one of my parents would ask what I wanted to read, 9 times out of 10 I would choose a fairy tale of some sort.

I am sure that I am not alone in this phenomena as I have heard many other girls say the same thing about their childhoods. I think that fairy tales have become such a large part of our culture, especially for young girls; it is almost expected and assumed that every little girl would want to grow up to be a princess. I think this is in part because the of the tradition of passing these stories down from one generation to the next. I am sure if I ever have a daughter I will enjoy reading Cinderella to her as my grandmother did to me. I think that fairy tales are also somewhat important in today's fast-paced society in that they expose children to elements of the fantastic and encourage them to believe in things of that nature; in some small way, fairy tales help to preserve an element of childhood for a little while.

Alternative Value Stances in Multicultural Adolescent Literature

The article for this week was very interesting and conveyed relatable facts about how adolescents deal with multicultural literature in different ways. "High school students may have difficulty interpreting characters' practices because they are not familiar with the cultures portrayed in these texts." This particular passage from the article shows a side of teaching multicultural literature that is often overlooked. We teach multicultural literature to expose students to cultures other than their own, yet when we teach these texts, we automatically assume that students will understand those different cultures simply from reading about them. In truth, the lifestyle of today's typical adolescent often causes students to have difficulty in understanding cultures hundreds or thousands of years old. Take, for example, Esperanza Rising. Many students used to today's technology and lifestyle would have some difficulty fully understanding the lifestyle of a poor Mexican immigrant. In order to help students more fully understand the context of these texts, we as teachers must give students a wide range of opportunities to understand the cultures spoken of in these texts. Activities in which students can try to look at life through the eyes of the characters or extensive historical backgrounds of the time and area in which the texts take place are just a few examples of ways in which teachers can help students grasp a more full understanding of the texts they read.

Research Proposal

An abundant amount of literature taught and directed toward high school students references rape and/or physical abuse. I would like to find out whether or not this exposure has an effect on the perception of sexual or interpersonal relationships or also of literature for adolescents. As a broader idea from this topic, I would like to know if students respond with more interest in "controversial" topics in literature than they do toward "classics" that we as teachers are expected to love. I came upon this topic through a discussion during the literary circles in class. If you think about all of the literature that you read in high school or that is generally taught in high school classes, as well as recommended for high school students, never blatantly reference sex-- unless it is rape or abuse of some kind. After attempting to come up with novels and literary examples to discount this idea, all I could think of was Shakespeare, which never directly referenced sexual acts, or novels taught in AP or high level classes. This presents a few questions: why do authors focus more on scaring events than the normal or mundane that everyone must deal with? how do students respond to controversial topics such as rape and abuse in literature they are exposed to in the classroom and does it have an effect on their ideas of relationships? how can these scenes of traumatic experiences teach students about dealing with those types of situations?

For my research I plan to consult at least one major literary journal to see if this idea has ever bee researched before. I also have a growing list of books both taught and recommended in high school classes that show examples of sexual or physical abuse, some of which I will explore and analyze in order to see some of the authors tactics and intentions with inserting this type of situation into their work.