Self-Selected Project: Text Club

For my self-selected project, I worked with Shae Tervort. Since Shae and I are both history majors and English minors we decided to texts that covered both disciplines that we have studied. Shae and I read the book Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson, viewed the 2006 movie She’s the Man, starring Amanda Bynes and directed by Andy Fickman, and also viewed the 1996 production of Twelfth Night starring Helena Bonham-Carter and directed by Trevor Nunn.

Shae and I agreed that we really enjoyed Swanson’s Chasing Lincoln’s Killer but that it would be more appropriate for younger audiences. This book would work very well in an 8^th grade American History class and would be interesting, although not challenging, for students in upper grades. This book is written like an old spaghetti western but with a serious twist that would intrigue and fascinate students. This text would inspire student-selected reading but would not provide them with an in-depth analysis of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, nor would it really challenge readers to think about the assassination in any new way. This book would show students that history is not boring and would encourage students to read for pleasure in a history class. Shae and I agreed that, while we would not assign this book as reading for our classes, we would certainly provide it as an optional reading assignment for a self-selected project and would probably make it available to our students in our classrooms.

For the English portion of our self-selected project, Shae and I decided to find a way to integrate Shakespeare into an English classroom in a way that would seem less daunting and much more appealing to students. I read Twelfth Night by Shakespeare and then watched the Trevor Nunn version of the film. We agreed that the Nunn version of the film would be appealing to students but, because the film is fairly long (about 2 hours and 20 minutes), and uses Shakespearean dialogue, students may struggle with watching the film by themselves. The best way to incorporate this film into a classroom would likely be using it as a supplement. We thought this would be a good film to show in class after scenes from the play are read so that students can understand how Shakespeare’s work comes alive much more if it is performed than if it is read.

For the other part of our English self-selected project, Shae and I watched Fickman’s She’s the Man, a movie that was inspired by Twelfth Night. This movie was a lot of fun but was one that probably could not really be showed in a classroom. Since the film was only inspired by the play it shares a similar plot and names but many things have been altered. Since the movie varied so much from the book, Shae and I agreed that it would be best to offer students the option of watching this movie as something that they could do outside of class to grasp the play a little bit better. Students could watch the movie after reading the play in class and compare and contrast the two. This would serve as a final project and also reinforce what teachers are always saying about Shakespeare, that students never believe; his writing is still pertinent today.