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Respond to this week's teaching scenario. To Kill a Mockingbird is still often taught as the (only) text that discusses race in the secondary education classroom. In your response, to this week's class, write about your experience of reading the text, and then, what you would do as a teacher of this text to problematize this novel as a story that is meant to explore race in the United States.
This week’s scenario is West Bridgewater Middle-Senior high school. West Bridgewater has an enrollment—for both middle and high school—of 606 students. It’s a small school in a small town. Also, Plymouth county is one of the most politically conservative towns in the entire state. That doesn’t necessarily mean any one thing in particular, but the parents of these students live in this county and it’s these households they were raised in. There is minimal information available about WB high. Here is what I could find:
41 Comments
Meaghan Cook
10/17/2022 03:23:12 am
When I first read To Kill A Mockingbird (in 2008), I was in 10th grade at a predominately white high school with a predominately white staff. To be honest, I think we may have patted ourselves on the back for reading a “banned” book that openly discussed race. We took pride in the conversations that were started that centered around racial injustice and the corruption of the criminal justice system. And then we moved on and read The Great Gatsby. No further conversations of race were had, nor did we truly discuss or even acknowledge the dichotomy of Gatsby’s privilege compared to the characters of TKAM. It is my sincere hope that this lesson looks a lot different in high school classrooms today.
Megan Moore
10/17/2022 05:46:32 am
Hi Meaghan, I really enjoyed reading through your ideas. Unfortunately, it seems like not much changed from when you first read this novel in high school in 2008 to when I first read it in 2016. It's very easy for teachers to approach this novel from a self-righteous position, but not much learning actually gets accomplished that way. I really love your idea of using other texts by Black authors to compliment "To Kill a Mockingbird." "If Beale Street Could Talk" is a personal favorite of mine, and I also wrote a bit about it. Reading novels by Black authors is a great way to get students looking at the text of TKAM more closely. In the case of "If Beale Street Could Talk," students could be asked something such as "these two novels cover very similar events from different perspectives, what makes them different from one another?" Students would be able to unpack these differences in a more natural way and discover for themselves why TKAM doesn't accomplish what many believe it does. Emphasizing Scout's naïve outlook and white privilege is another excellent way to show how detached the narrator is from the events of the novel. Students of any race are probably more aware of the history of racism in the US than they were even five years ago, and I think that English teachers can harness this awareness to make "To Kill a Mockingbird" a worthwhile read.
Sydney Blair
10/17/2022 12:50:13 pm
Hi Meaghan,
Meaghan Cook
10/18/2022 07:30:05 am
Hi there Meaghan,
Allison Raposo
10/19/2022 03:00:04 am
I really enjoyed hearing your perspective about reading this book in high school and how the information was presented to you. I also liked how you mentioned that you immediately read "The Great Gatsby" and that some of the key elements were also not discussed. I had a similar experience when being taught that text, I did not learn about the deeper meanings behind the significant scenes.
Megan Moore
10/17/2022 05:17:38 am
In an ideal world, "To Kill a Mockingbird" would not be the only novel I use to discuss race in my classroom and the various ways in which authors discuss anti-Black racism in particular. In a perfect world, this novel would be discussed as more of a historical text and we would be able to openly discuss the problematic ways in which it discusses race and white saviorism. However, I realize that these scenarios are oftentimes not the circumstances under which TKAM is taught. When I read this novel my freshman year of high school (2016) and again my junior year (2018), my teachers did discuss the ways in which the novel was problematic, but only briefly. We touched on this is maybe two class periods out of the entire month we spent on the novel.
Samantha Tyrrell
10/17/2022 07:40:10 am
I think your inclusion of supplemental works is a great idea. TKAM works best if paired with more modern depictions of racial inequality, and your suggestions to include "Thirteenth" and "If Beale Street Could Talk" accomplish that. Discussions of "The Birth of a Nation" would also provide more historical context surrounding the novel regarding racism.
Megan Keller
10/17/2022 07:51:03 pm
Hi Megan,
Allison Raposo
10/19/2022 03:12:03 am
I think how you introduce this text to the students is extremely effective by giving the students a background of the time period. Due to the population of students we are dealing with many of them are unfamiliar with the definition of racism. I like how dedicated you are to teaching this text at the secondary education level, and I feel that more teachers should have this mentality.
Samantha Tyrrell
10/17/2022 07:36:29 am
To Kill a Mockingbird presents a challenge in the classroom. It is a novel that deals with complex issues, like racial inequality and the loss of innocence. TKAM is a complex novel that does some things well but is problematic in other ways, so it can easily fall short if not taught well. I first read the novel in high school around 2015, and there was not a complex discussion surrounding it in the classroom. The furthest we got was "racism is bad." While not a bad conclusion, it fell short of what the novel is capable of teaching. If I were to teach the novel, I would discuss historical context, and supplement with more modern novels and films that handle the topic of race in more balanced ways. I would ask my students in what ways was the novel progressive for its time, and in what ways was it very much of its time. I would approach TKAM as not the final word in teaching race in the classroom, but more of a beginning point.
Allie Gallahue
10/18/2022 05:17:05 am
Hi Samantha!
Maddy Ames
10/18/2022 01:20:00 pm
Samantha! I liked reading your post because I also would use TKAM as the beginning of a unit, not the only piece of literature. The diversity of perspective is so important in the classroom. I also like your mention of the complexity of TKAM. There are so many themes within Lee's novel that can take on a life of their own in a class discussion. I like how you want to take a discussion beyond the cliched "racism is bad" and instead, add depth to the story and make it applicable today.
Sydney Blair
10/17/2022 10:20:25 am
Although a controversial text, To Kill a Mockingbird is such an important text, especially in today’s world. Because of its controversy it is important that this novel is presented in an appropriate way. As I read this for the first time since high school, I found myself having a whole new perspective on this story. What I thought was once a story about finding justice, I have now realized how it really puts a spotlight on how naïve, unfair, and judgmental we can be as a society. This novel exploits the injustices, segregation, and the flaws the judicial system was/is as well as pointing out the issue of systemic racism. I think that these topics are extremely prevalent in todays society, and this story allows us to create conversations by letting us connect aspects of this story to modern day. As I read the text, I found myself comparing it a lot to what is going on in the world today, especially in the past 5 years. As a teacher, I would present this story in a way that would relate this story to the world we are living in today. I would first present the book and acknowledge the fact that there are false narratives and problems presented throughout the text. After the text has been read as a class, I would create a discussion to see what the class sees wrong within the text. This could create very heavy and maybe controversial conversations, so I would have to facilitate it to make sure it stays respectful and appropriate. I would want my students to understand why this text is so problematic and how that it is important that we learn from the mistakes made in history and in this book and connect it to events that are happening in modern day. This creates a sense of connection to what was once just a book to now an understanding that not much has changed in the world today. I would want my students to understand that this book is controversial because it brings to light some heavy topics, but it is up to us to not let these books become banned, because if they become unread, how will we learn from them?
Meaghan Cook
10/17/2022 01:35:34 pm
Hi Sydney,
Adam Fernandes
10/17/2022 12:23:22 pm
If I were to teach the novel, I would find primary sources (diaries, autobiographies) of abolitionists, and others who strove to end racial inequality, and teach about the laws that have passed that made things more equal. Additionally, I would have the class read and analyze newspaper articles about race and racism from the 1920s and 30s and compare them to today. By doing so, I would hope the class would start seeing racism as something that isn't "over" but is something that is slowly improving.
Alexa Delling
10/17/2022 02:19:44 pm
A text such as To Kill a Mockingbird has often been read lightly in high school classrooms and the most I can remember is my white male teaching reading the “n” word every time it came up in the story and me cringing in my seat as that haunting word should never be spoken, even if it is apart of a book. I found myself a bit angry when dissecting this text primarily because the predominantly white town I came from did not emphasize enough on the racist and inconsiderate remarks within this text towards the black community. As I read this book a long time ago, I do remember learning about other historic events around the time of this reading like the horrifying events of Emmett Till. But, overall, I would go to English class, my teacher would read some chapters while repeating the n word repeatedly and then I would go on for the day with a pit in my stomach. How could this happen? Why did this happen? This was all very confusing and overwhelming as a 10th grade student. Was this story supposed to add “diversity” into a largely white community? I mention my experience because overall, this is the exact opposite of what I would do. One of the major changes I would make when discussing this text would be to add in discussions of articles like the one read for today “Why To Kill a Mockingbird Is a Fraud” by Frances W. Kaye. This article explicitly states the racist stereotypes of the black community and how as young readers in the past we may have been misconstrued from the true meaning and goals of this novel. I would explicitly discuss the racist intent of the characters as well as the author. As my class would know, history is very dark in many periods of time, and I would want to teach this text in a raw but also comforting way. Within the past couple years, the media and news involving the black community has struck chords across the nation and sadly, we can see parallels from Lee’s story in the world we live in today. By teaching this text, my hopes would be that these tragic and unjust events would open my student’s eyes to a life they have never had to live and to truly put themselves in someone else’s shoes. It is never easy to teach impressionable students about tragic events in the past and in the present, but it is something that must be done.
Mary Viera
10/30/2022 04:22:00 pm
Hi Alexa! You make a really strong point that it’s important we teach this text with all it’s rawness. I like the questions you raise, and how you use those questions as a foundation for lesson planning. I agree that reading Kaye’s article is crucial to teaching TKAM. It changed my reading of TKAM, and I wonder if you would introduce this before or after the students read the novel? I also like how you draw connections between the text and what’s going on in the world today. Literature is a powerful tool to be able to help students make these connections and look for them on their own.
Megan Keller
10/17/2022 07:44:36 pm
When looking at how I would personally teach To Kill A Mockingbird in the classroom I have been given, I would definitely focus on the more recent discussions involving racial tensions in America. It is clear that racial inequality is yet again at an all-time high in America and in order to discuss the novel, we need to also talk about recent times. Once there is a brief discussion on the more recent racial tensions, I feel it is also important to discuss the time in which TKAM was written to familiarize my students with the work and the events that inspired the novel. This can include primary sources to fully acclimate and allow my students to immerse themselves into just how real these racial inequalities were. As I was told, most of the class is white and I feel it is important for my classes to have that sense of background before reading. Once the students read, I feel that discussing race and relations to today's racism is needed. The students will compare and contrast the novel's racism to today's racism. I feel this will be beneficial for the students to see how their own experiences and today’s news can relate to the novel that is so important to read in its entirety.
Allie Gallahue
10/18/2022 05:11:51 am
Hi Megan!
Allie Gallahue
10/18/2022 05:07:33 am
When I first read To Kill a Mockingbird in 2017 as a freshman in high school, I was told by my white teacher, while sitting in a class of 32 white students, that talking about the “race issue” in this novel was “uncomfortable.” This has always bothered me, and I knew that I would never teach this text the way that she did; this novel can not be read or discussed if people ignore the issues with race that Lee wrote about. I think that before starting the novel I would give context of the time the novel was written. For example, I would heavily inform my students about the Jim Crow Laws. I would also teach them about the impact that the Great Depression had on people, specifically members of the Black community. Throughout the novel, I would remind my students about how the speaker comes from a privileged, white household, as touched upon in “Another Lesson from the Mockingbird: Institutional Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.” Not only do we not get this story about race from someone who is not Black, but we also do not get this story from the perspective of an adult who understands what is going on around her to the full extent in which it is happening. This school struggles with a lack of diversity, but it is still so important that everyone is taught about the history of Black people.
Katie Rodrigues
10/18/2022 11:51:40 am
Hi Allie,
Jenivieve D'Andrea
10/18/2022 07:09:10 am
Knowing West Bridgewater very well, since my cousin grew up there, its evident that teaching TKAM here would pose especially great challenges. I think in many ways, the close knit neighborhood of Maycomb county is similar to the small-town of West Bridgewater. Students understand the importance of who you know, and what you know about them--just as Scout shows through her vivid descriptions of her neighbors throughout the novel. When I read TKAMB in 2014 my teachers never mentioned that there is a problematic nature to this seemingly lovely story about valuing the content of individuals instead of their skin. However, since this is clearly not the case, a town like West Bridgewater that lacks diversity can definitely benefit from this lesson.
Chloe Tavernier
10/18/2022 08:44:53 am
Hi Jenivieve,
Chloe Tavernier
10/18/2022 08:19:45 am
I’m certain, just like my peers, my first experience with reading, How to Kill Mockingbird was in highschool as it was a required reading assignment. It is certainly illuminating how many of the messages, characters, and especially its thematic symbols continue to prove relevant even after six decades since its publication. It's both astonishing and discomforting how many parallels and connections can be made with the occurrences and the events that transpired in the novel, to the racial tensions that are continually discussed in the present era. How the emotions it stirs still strongly resonates and continues to be attributable to modern day racial and social inequities, injustice, and prejudice. If I was an instructor, I would approach my lesson involving TKAM, I would first provide my students with a summary of how systematic racism was exhibited in the past. I would also provide historical elements, such as the case of Emmett Till or the Scottsboro Boys, that help put into perspective how prominent the dogmas of stereotypes, discriminatory judgement and flagrant injustice were. Following a brief discussion, I would then ask my students to identify in what ways was TKAM problematic, especially when considering the false narratives. I would intend to use TKAM as an introduction point of sorts to begin delving into the ever-persistent topic of racism, inequality, and inequity, but I wouldn't solely linger on TKAM as the only means to this end. I also supplement my lesson students by allowing students to become familiar with Black authors of more recently published works that tackle similarly relevant and pressing multicultural and or racial issues in America such as Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, and Dear Martin by Nic Stone.
katie rodrigues
10/18/2022 11:45:40 am
Allison Raposo
10/18/2022 12:00:20 pm
I had not previously read "To Kill a Mockingbird" in high school like many of my peers have. Upon reading the comments of my current peers in this class I have noticed that they were not taught about the book's true meaning, and the symbolism behind it.
Maddy Ames
10/18/2022 01:06:18 pm
I echo the same sentiment as my classmates: when I first encountered TKAM, I was taught that it was a book of liberation; however, as I revisited it and gave it more thought, I feel the way I was taught to view it is not necessarily correct. If I were to teach it myself, I would preface it with a discussion on critical race theory and asking the students why they think books get banned. Then, I would try to connect both CRT and our discussion on banned books to TKAM. Throughout the book, I would implement smaller lessons on the evolution of the American judicial system (pros and cons), and segregation in the South during the time the book was written/published. Then, after we finished TKAM, I would ask my students to discuss what they thought about TKAM in relation to our series of mini-lessons and discussions. After we finished our book, I would introduce poetry by Maya Angelou and books like The Hate U Give to turn it into a unit. My hope would be to showcase powerful black authors and literature instead of only using literature where they are oppressed. I understand as a white, middle-class female, my perspective has extreme limitations, so I would do my best to use as many voices other than my own as possible.
Patricia Diaz
10/18/2022 01:20:05 pm
Hi Maddy,
Patricia Diaz
10/18/2022 01:12:49 pm
When I first read this book, I read it a year ago as part of my summer list of books. I never had the chance to read it in High School, but I wanted to give it a try and read it because I felt tired of not knowing what the book was about when people would reference it. I liked the book; I think the themes are vivid and it’s beautifully written, but regarding the racial aspects, I felt that it didn’t portray the whole story. I felt like it left a few gaps that needed to be closed with more knowledge.
Maddy Ames
10/18/2022 01:27:41 pm
Patricia,
celeste barbosa
10/18/2022 03:25:00 pm
Hi Patricia!
celeste barbosa
10/18/2022 03:16:04 pm
I never read To Kill a Mockingbird and I made the mistake of reading the criticism before I started reading the book so when I first started the book, I already had some bias when reading it and I paid more attention to the suppression of the characters interwoven in the book. Since I believe that multicultural literature is such an important factor in an English classroom, I think this book should still be taught, but in a different way. Of course, To Kill a Mockingbird should be looked at for Harper Lee’s use of characterization and symbols and themes, but it can also be used to open up the conversation of racism. I don’t think it should be praised for the “white lawyer trying to save the innocent black man” but it should be praised for the ability to open a conversation that addresses such interwoven issues. Also, I feel allowing students to understand that any emotions they have while reading this book is valid and they have the environment to talk about it if necessary. Talking to students about the different ways advocacy took plan in this setting compared to the 21st century, and how there are better ways to approach advocacy. This novel is very clearly somewhat problematic in society for valid reasons, so addressing this from the very beginning of the unit will allow students to understand that we are reading this for literary reasons and as a sort of lesson to understanding the issues that have been built in society.
Catie Mullen
10/18/2022 03:51:47 pm
Hi Celeste! I love how the main theme of your lesson is advocacy and that you want to follow up this book with another book that has a positive touch. Amazing ideas! The two books you mentioned would also be great young adult literature pieces to teach in a high school classroom, so this approach is great. Adding another book, as we learned last week, is another great way for a conversation starter and to deepen critical thinking. These books can spark important conversations that need to happen and are prevalent in today's society, especially if these students aren't being exposed to this information by their parents at home. Plus, advocacy is a great topic that everyone should be exposed to in order to support others and benefit themselves.
Nicole Shepard
10/18/2022 05:00:55 pm
Hi Celeste!
Lucienne Quirk
10/18/2022 03:26:52 pm
Revisiting this text as someone who grew up in Plymouth County in a school very similar to West Bridgewater Middle-High, I feel like my eyes have been opened. In highschool I went to see the play version of the novel in New York, which was promised to be “less problematic” than its original– and I didn’t understand that before. How was it problematic? Wasn’t it a story about learning that African Americans are equal? And yet, after revisiting the text and reading the scholarly articles, the glaring sentiments Harper Lee encourages are all too clear. This text is not to uplift the African American, but rather to laud the archetype of the white savior– and use black lives as a “learning tool” for secluded white students.
Catie Mullen
10/18/2022 03:45:32 pm
This was my first time ever reading To Kill a Mockingbird. I wish I was exposed to this book in middle or high school because I now find myself wanting to read it over again, focusing on specific themes such as racial injustice and inequality. This book adds to the conversation about the unfair justice system, prejudice, socioeconomic priviledges, and so much more. I heard things about this book before I read it. While reading this book, I could only think about how messed up so many things were, especially how the Tom Robinson case was handled by the jury after Atticus's long speech to them and the facts that were presented to the examinations with the witnesses.
Nicole Shepard
10/18/2022 04:54:30 pm
The first, and up until now, only time I read To Kill a Mockingbird was in my high school freshman year English class made up of all white students. The school was comprised of a majority white students with almost the entire staff and faulty also being white. To Kill a Mockingbird was my teacher’s favorite book, so she was excited to teach it to my class. I had high expectations because I valued my teacher’s thoughts and opinions and really thought this book was going to be a hit. It wasn’t until I read it for the second time this week that I realized how little we actually discussed important topics from this novel in my high school English class. From what I can remember, we spent more time discussing the basic plot than topics such as racism, gender, and economic disparities. Other than the time we spent discussing the novel right after we read it, we never talked about it again.
Linnea Fawkes
10/19/2022 01:35:41 pm
Linnea Fawkes
10/19/2022 01:56:44 pm
Hi Nicole,
Christina Lynne Carter
10/19/2022 05:19:30 pm
It is true that To Kill A Mockingbird still is one of, if not the, only texts regarding race at least explicitly. In my experience reading and being taught the text a few things stand out. The first being teachers often lack hesitation, or provide justification for, using the slurs written in the book. I have heard many stories, and experienced it with my own teachers, of how they neglect to omit these slurs. Some preface the reading with how saying these slurs outside of the context is wrong, and how much power these words have but it still does not remove the uncomfortable feeling that crawls under my skin when they choose to say them. Second, they focused mostly on race and not the intersecting identities, and how those intersecting identities also played a role in characters’ lives. In reading the text in school, I did feel like it was easier for me to understand the time period and what it must have been like for both black and white people. I appreciated the text for its themes and literary significance.
Mary Viera
10/26/2022 08:50:24 am
My first reading of this text was in 8th grade (2014) and I remember that there was a lot of excitement and sense of importance around it. I remember not really fully understanding it but still feeling inspired and “empowered” in a way. This was my second time reading it, and while I started to question some aspects I still had that “feel good” feeling talked about in “‘I’ve got this vision of justice’: Why To Kill a Mockingbird is a fraud”. Unfortunately, I feel like I’m only just now starting to question and argue with texts. In the future I would like to start this process earlier with my students. I want them to question choices made in the book, and ask for a student perspective. To Kill a Mockingbird is a great one to practice this because of its age and also because of it’s multiple discussions it brings up. Some difficulties in doing this, however, would be that the majority of these students have difficulty with reading and writing. Students must be able to read the text with understanding in order to be able to do the kind of analysis I would be asking them to do. It might be important then to group students up so that they can work together. I would invite an open discussion asking them what their thoughts were after each big plot point. I would use the discussion to further plod them to begin questioning the text and it’s decisions encouraging them to argue with it. The students are growing up in a predominantly working class, small town that I think would allow them to connect with the main characters more and imagine themselves within the text. This is important in being able to critique the text as well. I might ask the students to draw connections across time periods, and look at how much attitudes have changed. Leave a Reply. |
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