I’ve been dealing with a number of problems in teaching this semester. My biggest one stems from an obvious disconnect between myself and my students, particularly in regards to the text, American Gods. Frankly, I don’t think they’re reading it. I mean it is clear to me that they aren’t getting it early on and I gotta wonder how much of that is me not leading them in the right direction. I’m reminded of my early dev english classes when I would start the game with Cranium cards designed to be solved in one minute or less and legitimately need to spend five minutes or more before someone coughed out a reasonable answer. This is not to say students are less intelligent, per say, but instead to point out that they aren’t trained to do patterns of thinking outside of what is assessed and how it is assessed in high school. Even fewer read for fun, which is why American Gods, a text with no possibility of being taught in high school, is such a tough sell.
Wait till I ask the Mythology kids to read the Gunslinger.
So, I’m at a point where I need to think hard about what it is I’m trying to accomplish with them and whether or not it is in the realm of possibility. What I want to do is link the book to the film V for Vendetta and then again to Dawn of Justice, taking a subjective tour of the many masks we wear and others wear. Tomorrow is a very crucial lesson, because this is where it is supposed to come together with me asking them how the identities of certain Gods can be recognized as masks that these characters wear/roles that they play. Then I’d like them to be able to connect that to the masks that they themselves where and the characteristics highlighted, emulated, etc, through the wearing.
All of it does seem rather tenuous and limited in terms of connection–a gossamer linkage between thoughts and concepts that touch on every facet of human behavior. Still, having that near invisible webbing over everything is exactly how you can release students to dig deeper on anything.
Some Thoughts:
- Technote: The true link here marks the page as 3225, but I don’t see how that is even possible, even allowing for additional pages and past pages. The numbering system must be set as variable in some odd way.