My Haiku

Virginia Tech Terror

Gunshots in my hall.
Sound then silence--RA hell
It could happen here.

High School Musical: A Reversal Essay

This is an assignment that I did for my Teaching Composition class, but I think it applies nicely to the media blog premise for this class.

The Truth About High School Musical

“Miss Laura, Miss Laura! Can you really speak Spanish?” a breathless Olivia Schwalb gasped at me. “I should hope so Olivia, since I’m your Spanish teacher,” I replied looking at the enthusiastic seven-year-old with my eyebrows raised. “Yes! I told Jackson you could tell me what it means!” she laughed as she strutted towards her eight-year-old brother Jackson, her every move dripping with presumed superiority. I turned to the summer camp counselor next to me curiously “I wonder what that’s all about?” “Sounds like you might have a little translation work on your hands…I’m sure you’ll find out soon,” was the laughing reply.

Sure enough, as soon as the first-graders were safely settled into their seats in my Spanish/Language Arts classroom Olivia pulled a DVD out of her sequin-covered purse and the class let out a collective gasp. Then: “I love that movie!” “Troy Bolton is my hero” “Can we watch it Miss Laura?” “Yeah, can we watch it, please?” “Please, pretty please!” I sighed. It was going to be nearly impossible to get them to calm down when they were in the same room with the Remix Edition of Disney’s High School Musical. “Okay, Olivia, tell me what you’ve got there” I demanded as soon as I could quiet the class down long enough to get a word in. “Well Miss Laura, see, there’s Spanish in this movie and I just thought we could watch the Spanish parts for practice. You can tell us what it means and we can practice it.” “Yeah, yeah, Spanish!” was the general class reply. At times like these, I was profoundly glad that I could design my own curriculum and I wasn’t teaching for a test; I was teaching at an academic-based summer camp, and if I wanted to let my kids design their own learning experiences, I could. So, I slipped the DVD into the player, handed Olivia the remote with a request to find the “Spanish part” quickly, and prepared to be disgusted by the low quality and mindless content of the pre-teen film I was about to “translate.”

I’d been hearing about High School Musical for months. My little sister watched it on the Disney Channel the night they premiered it, but I was in the middle of my first year of college at the time, and I had much more important things to think about than my sister’s gushing recommendations of some pre-teen Disney Channel Original Movie. I was above such things. When I came home to work for the summer, my sister listened to the soundtrack incessantly, and tried to convince me to rent the movie and watch it with her. I was annoyed by the whiney voices and shallow lyrics of the stupid songs (I had no context to put them in), disgusted with my thirteen-year-old sister’s jump onto the bandwagon, and most definitely adamant against the idea of exposing myself to the latest pre-high school Disney phenomenon. I was convinced that the adult world, of which I considered myself a member, was not to be infiltrated by a pre-teen flick like High School Musical.

When Olivia found the scene she was looking for and let the movie play, two over-the-top characters danced onto the screen and the classroom was transformed. I watched that whole class of seven-year-olds singing along, swaying to the music subconsciously. “Adults don’t like Disney Channel Originally Movies,” I warned myself. At first I was determined to find fault with the show, even if I was only watching a small clip. I couldn’t. Sure, it was corny, it was over-the-top, but it was catchy, it was fun, and it was wholesome. I was converted. High School Musical was no ordinary pre-teen waste of time, it was a funny, wholesome show with catchy music, fun dancing, and themes that apply to all ages, pre-teen and beyond. I found that you don’t have to be a “tween” to be a High School Musical fan.

The popular website Wikipedia describes High School Musical’s plot as “a modern retelling of Romeo & Juliet…a story of two high school juniors from rival cliques: Troy Bolton, captain of the basketball team, and Gabriella Montez, a beautiful and shy transfer student who excels in math and science.” When Troy and Gabriella decide to break the norm and try out for lead parts in the school musical, their friends try everything they can think of to discourage them. In the end, Troy and Gabriella “resist peer pressure and rivalry, inspiring others along the way not to ‘stick to the status quo’.”

The basic plotline goes as far back as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Again and again this plotline has made appearances onscreen and onstage. West Side Story and Grease both follow the same pattern, and they were/are wildly popular musicals. Why shouldn’t High School Musical join the ranks of movies that expand on the universal themes of love and acceptance? In a CBC news article, John Calhoun, the famous Broadway director commissioned by Disney to bring the TV movie to the live stage, compared High School Musical to the similar-but-sketchy musical Grease, and explained the universal charm of this “bubble-gum version” of the story: ““In Grease, the message is: you have to be a greaser to be cool. Sandy [the heroine] has to lose her real self to become cool. And at this show, there’s a wonderful message that you can just be yourself and that’s cool enough; whether you’re Troy the basketball star, or the brainiac like Gabriella, it’s OK to be whatever you are. It’s a wonderful message.” Cliques, stereotypes, and unfair judgments are not unique to high school. Peer pressure to be someone you are not is a universal occurrence. Do seven-year-olds fully understand this concept? **Probably not. Do adults relate and identify with this concept? Probably. Thus, High School Musical is a film for all ages—kids can love it for it’s fun representation of high school life and adults can love it for the be yourself theme.

In June 2006, a news website called Times Online posted an article about the High School Muscial phenomenon stating, “The story might seem hackneyed to anyone over 20, but High School Musical has caught the imagination of an army of American kids and is about to sweep the world.” They assume that you have to be younger than twenty years old to really enjoy Disney Channel’s latest huge hit, but I think people of all ages can relate to the movie, appreciate it, and downright enjoy it. **You don’t have to be in love with the actors, you don’t have to belong to a fan club, and you don’t have to wear t-shirts with Zac Efron’s (the actor who plays Troy Bolton in the movie) head prominently displayed on your chest and stomach. You do have to enjoy catchy music and fun choreography, look past the corny exterior to the real message, and give the movie a chance.

Natalie Neilson is almost twenty-one years old, and she loves High School Musical. “It just makes me smile,” she says. “They say it’s like Romeo and Juliet, but I say you don’t have to be that serious to get the same message across. It’s okay to be fun and colorful and exciting and it’s okay to like a movie that was made for kids. You get what you want out of it.” Patty Keyser is almost fifty-five years old, and she loves High School Musical. “I’m not afraid to let my future grandkids watch this. I’ll watch it with them! It’s fun and happy and just darn good for everyone who’s watching.” We all like the movie for slightly different reasons, but one thing’s for sure: “we” does not just include the tweens of America.

High School Musical characters belt out, “This could be the start of something new, it feels so right to be here with you, oh-oh-oh, and now looking in your eyes, I feel in my heart—the start of something new.” These are not the normal lyrics you’d here booming from a college student’s car at a stoplight, but chances are pretty high that you’d hear them streaming from my car’s speakers on any given summer afternoon. Me and every mini-van full of pre-teen/early teenage girls in the nation. At least that’s what I like to say jokingly when people ask me about my choice of music. But the truth is, people of all ages can enjoy a good viewing of Disney’s High School Musical.

Sources:

“High School Musical.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 10 March 2008. 14 March 2008 .

Keyser, Patty. Personal Interview. 15 March 2008

Morrow, Martin. “Teen Spirit: High School Musical Plants it’s Upbeat Message Onstage.” CBC News Online. 28 August 2007. 12 March 2008.

Nielson, Natalie. Personal Interview. 15 March 2008.

Rushe, Dominic. “Disney Hits High Note with the Tweenagers.” Times Online. 4 June 2006. 12 March 2008.

Educational Context: This is the text from the assignment description sheet in case you need to put the essay in context.

Surprising Reversal Essay (Informative)

We have had some practice with closed-form writing (five-paragraph essays). This essay will build on that in some ways (mostly by being thesis-based) and move away from it in others (mostly by moving the thesis away from the beginning of the paper and by using literary elements).

What topic do you know more about than most people know? This assignment will ask you to use your own personal experiences, observation, or research to enlarge your reader’s view of that topic in a surprising/interesting way. Imagine an audience of general readers who hold a common view. In a general way, this assignment requires you to pose a question about your topic, provide the commonly accepted answer to the question, and then give your own surprising answer. The actual paper will be more subtle than that, but that should give you the basic idea.

Although this assignment looks like it might be trying to change the reader’s mind, your writing will actually be informative rather than persuasive since it both poses a different kind of question and also considers a different reader stance than persuasion does. In this case, your question (or topic) should not be controversial, as is typical with persuasive writing, with its strong rational arguments for all sides. Also, in persuasive writing, we imagine a resistant reader who may argue back; however, in informative prose, we can imagine a more trusting reader willing to learn from your experiences or research.

In this paper, you should have an introduction that engages the reader and provides necessary background or context. Do not put your thesis early in the paper; instead, delay it until after you have explained the common, expected understanding of your topic. This delay in presenting the thesis creates a slightly open form, and the structure of the paper overall helps add tension to your thesis.

Carrie Underwood’s “Think Before he Cheats”

T-Shirt Alert

Context: Some of my classmates in English teaching classes have some interesting t-shirts that have caught my eye recently.

Descriptions: The first t-shirt I noticed was an unremarkable beige-ish color, but on the front in fancy letters were the words, “Shakespeare Hates Your Emo Poems.” The other shirt was a white, self-created, iron-on t-shirt sporting the heading “A Tribute to America’s Great Women.” Underneath the heading were black and white sketch-effect head-and-shoulders shots of Paris Hilton, Brittney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and other American female celebrities who are constantly making the top headlines.

Analysis: First, the Shakespeare shirt. For one thing, the shirt can make the wearer seem like a poetry elitist. It can send the message that Shakespeare is far superior to anything that can be written by angsty teenagers. However, in my opinion, several of Shakespeare’s poems are just as “emo” as today’s angsty teenage love poems. To be fair, in Shakespeare’s day the language was different, and I’m not trying to undermine his poetical genius. I’m just saying that “emo” is short for “emotional” and to be perfectly honest, Shakespeare’s poetry is about as emotional as poetry can be. So really, the shirt is kind of a contradiction by nature. As for the other t-shirt, the most interesting thing about this t-shirt to me is the fact that it was created by a 15-year-old. This girl clearly has a sense of humor and a cynical view of America’s priorities. She saw what the media portrays as America’s most interesting, noteworthy women, and she chose to point out her skepticism about these choices on a t-shirt with the label “A Tribute to America’s Great Women.” She’s reflecting on the fact that instead of choosing great female scientists, philosophers, or contributors to world peace, America idolizes celebrities.

Educational Context: First of all, t-shirts as media is an interesting concept that could lead to a great discussion about how what we wear and the messages we choose to advertise on our clothing help people determine who we are. We could guess the personality traits of the people who wore the t-shirts and then compare our guesses to the actual personality traits of those people. This could lead to a great evaluation of how the messages we advertise reflect on who we are.

Scary Mary: Re-cut Fun!

People Magazine: Hooray for Pretty Pictures!

Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend”: A Peek into Punk Popularity

Jumper: If Hayden Christensen Could Only Act…

Midsummer Night’s Dream: Pretty, Creepy, Funny…What a Combination!

Context: I’m an English major. I like plays. I like Shakespeare. So, it made sense for me to get tickets to BYU’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. I heard it was pretty good, so I was excited to see it.

Description: I’m not going to go into a detailed summary of the plot of Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’m hoping/assuming that most are familiar with the basics of the story. I’m thinking I’ll just mention the two things that stuck out to me about this particular production of the play: first, the playbill introduced the director’s concept of using the play as a demonstration of the flow of colonization, and second, the Brazilian martial arts that inspired the movements of the fairy world.

Analysis: If not for the playbill, I wouldn’t have necessarily understood the message the director was trying to convey about colonization. Perhaps this is a reflection of lack of theater experience on my part, but I consider myself more literate in the theater world than your average person, so I don’t think we can entirely blame lack of theater training. Besides, this blog is about my views anyway. I understood the contrast between the fairy world and the Athenian world, but I didn’t connect that with colonization at all until I read the playbill during intermission. I think it was a worthy effort, but the colonization commentary was a bit of a stretch—the methods they used to communicate it just blended with the story for me so much that they didn’t even really stand out enough to communicate the message effectively. The Brazilian dancing and sounds were fun and pretty. They added a pretty cool effect to the fairy world. I actually liked the creepy, eerie feeling—it was a good reflection of the danger of the fairy world in my opinion. The only thing that really got to me is that everything was pretty, the delivery was funny, but the acting wasn’t fabulous. I was never really pulled into the Shakespeare world. I never forgot it was a play. I can’t really pin down what made the acting mediocre in particular, I just felt like it didn’t pull me in like it could have.

Educational Context: I think this production was a great example of using movements to communicate themes and messages. The visualization of a make-believe world like the world of the fairies is a huge challenge, and I think it was done well here with the Brazilian Capoeira-inspired movements. Perhaps I could take another novel, play, etc. that juxtaposes two worlds and have my students demonstrate how they would show the difference between the two worlds using movement.

Zel: Somewhat Intense in Present Tense

Context: I found this book at the BYU bookstore’s book fair. My rule for myself as I stepped into the book fair was that I could not buy any book that cost more than $4. Zel was on sale for $3.50. Re-writings of fairy tales intrigue me and I’d never heard of the book, so I took a chance and spent the $3.50.

Summary: Zel is the re-telling of the classic fairytale Rapunzel. The story begins with a little girl and her mother making a special trip to town. You quickly find out that Zel doesn’t get to go to town very often. In fact, she doesn’t spend time away from her mother very often…or ever. She does really like animals and a special lettuce called rapunzel though. On this fateful trip to town she meets a boy. The boy plays the role of “prince” and proceeds to obsess over her for the remainder of the book. Eventually, you find out that Zel’s mother isn’t really her mother. Because the “mother” can’t stand to think that Zel could get married and leave her, she ends up locking Zel away in a tower using magical abilities for which she traded her soul to the devil. Zel spends months/years in the tower believing her “mother’s” story that she must stay in the tower because something terrible is out to get her. Eventually, she starts to go mad, which is really interesting since pieces of the tale are told from her point of view.

Analysis: The whole thing is very dramatic, especially since it’s entirely written in first person present tense. So, the story unfolds as if it’s actually happening. The disadvantage to this is that you really almost have to read it in one sitting. If you get out of the flow, it’s hard to get back in. She also switches narrators from character to character. Sometimes it’s the prince, sometimes it’s Zel, sometimes it’s the “mother.” Again, this makes it a little difficult to follow at times, but it also makes it very interesting because it’s almost like several re-tellings of the story in one. This re-telling really plays on mental and emotional energy. It’s almost depressing at points (i.e. when Zel goes psycho in the tower), but I wouldn’t label it as disturbing. However, I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone under the age of thirteen.

Educational Context: Several interesting concepts bounce around the novel. The idea of different points of view would be an interesting one to explore with a class. Also, the first person tense could be fun to experiment with in story telling. As far as media literacy discussions, I think it would be a good demonstration of the choices that are made when telling a story. Because it’s a book, this shows examples of how an author chose to tell a story in a novel, but you could also look at a song, a poem, a children’s book, a movie, a cartoon—other mediums in which stories are told and discuss the choices their creators made and how they effect the telling of the stories.

The Book Thief: Not Your Typical Holocaust Novel

Context: When I was doing a practicum at Mountain Ridge Junior High last fall, one of the teachers I worked with liked to recommend her latest good reads to her students. One of the books she recommended while I was in her classroom was The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. A good friend of mine who shares my love for Young Adult fiction also recommended the book to me, so I decided to put it on my Christmas list. My grandma picked it out after discussing my book list with a bookstore clerk (who highly recommended that she buy the book for me), and so I ended up with my very own copy.

Summary: I’m not altogether sure how to summarize the book best. I think I’ll start by sharing what I saw when I opened to the first page of the rather unconventional novel. The first text in the book looks something like this:

“First the colors.

Then the humans.

That’s usually how I see things.

Or at least, how I try.

* * * HERE IS A SMALL FACT * * *

You are going to die

I am in all truthfulness attempting to be cheerful about this whole topic, though most people find themselves hindered in believing me, no matter my protestations…Just don’t ask me to be nice. Nice has nothing to do with me.

* * * REACTION TO THE * * *

AFOREMENTIONED FACT

Does this worry you?

I urge you—don’t be afraid

I’m nothing if not fair.”

I’ve cut some out where I put the ellipsis, but basically that’s it. Interesting effect, huh? The novel tells the story of a girl who finds herself collecting books in the middle of WWII Nazi Germany. You find that you can measure important parts of her life by the books she collects. She is a blonde, blue-eyed German so she’s safe from the fate of most holocaust novel heriones, but her adopted father doesn’t agree with all the Nazi practices. In fact, at one point in the novel they harbor a Jew in their basement. The book includes the theft of a book meant to be burned in one of the infamous Nazi book-burnings, the exploits of a neighborhood boy who idolizes Jesse Owens (not a popular guy with the Nazis…), and the bombing of the little girl’s town. In my opinion, the book doesn’t lend itself well to summary.

Analysis: The most intriguing part of this book for me is the narrator. It takes you a few chapters to figure it out (if you haven’t been informed) that the narrator is death. It’s a very interesting personification. Most authors use an omniscient narrator, a first-person narrator, or at least another character acts as the narrator, but because death is a character in every life, Zusak presumes that death will work well as a narrator. His presumption isn’t always correct. Parts of the book are confusing. Death gives away the end of the story way before the end comes. But in the end you get the feeling that Zusak wanted it to be a little confusing. Holocaust Germany was confusing. So, while the narrator may not work the best as far as telling the story goes, it definitely works the best as far as telling the message of the story, giving the Holocaust atmosphere, and capturing the reader go. He’s taken a fairly set genre—the novel in prose—and blown it to pieces. He breaks almost every rule there is to telling a story, using proper punctuation and grammar, writing in paragraph format, etc. but all that breaking of convention really aides in the story-telling somehow. I can count on one hand the times a book has made me cry. This book made me cry at the end even though I already knew what was going to happen and how it was going to end. The narrator gave away the ending a fourth of the way through the book, and I still cried when I read that ending. Now that is good story-telling!

Educational Context: This is a great text for showing the unconventional things you can do to create effects in writing. Bold letters, asterisks, headings, points of view, order of events, etc. are all elements of the writing in this novel. Marcus Zusak really breaks the norm. I think this is also a good example of how genres are changing. A novel doesn’t have to be page after page of solid paragraphs any more. This could start a good discussion about how media develops.

Arby’s $5 Buck Roundup: Hot Deals or Money Steals

Context: Every week, we get piles and piles of advertisements in our tiny college mailboxes. Do we ever really look at them? No. When I went to check the mail a few days ago, one of the annoying ads fell out of the pile and started to blow away. Lest I be labeled a litterer, I chased after the offending paper, though I wasn’t thrilled to be doing so.

Summary: When I picked it up, I noticed it was another one of those Arby’s ads with coupons boasting 2 Fish Sandwiches for $5, 3 Beef ‘n Cheddar Sandwiches for $5, or 4 Regular Roast Beef Sandwiches for $5. The title of the obnoxious ad: “Arby’s $5 Buck Roundup.” If you turn over the ad, the back has several coupons with the five-dollar deals printed on them.

Analysis: Honestly, there’s not a whole lot you can buy with $5 anymore. Five dollars will barely even get you a McDonalds value meal. So this is a pretty good deal right? I mean, say you’re a married couple in college, tired of cooking your meals—Arby’s is a great place to go and get three beef ‘n cheddar sandwiches for five dollars. Voila! There’s dinner for two. But wait a second…what about the fact that once you get there, you’re going to realize just how little food three beef ‘n cheddar sandwiches constitutes. Besides, once you’re there, you’ll want some Arby’s curly fries…and some drinks…and that new chocolate turnover thing looks pretty good…and BAM! All the sudden you’ve spent ten dollars on top of the five dollars you spent on your beef ‘n cheddar sandwiches. Precisely what Arby’s wants you to do. You poor college students—roped into the “$5 buck roundup!” And, to add to the irony, you didn’t even have to bring in your carefully cut coupon. Arby’s deals are open to anyone, regardless of whether or not they are in possession of a coupon, the ad just includes coupons to make you feel special.

Educational Context: This is a perfect example of deceptive, yet effective advertising. Arby’s may eat some money on the production costs of the three beef ‘n cheddars you can get for $5 (although that’s doubtful), but in the end, they get plenty of money out of their customers because they know that 3 beef ‘n cheddars just won’t cut it once you enter the actual establishment. Helping students understand the language of advertising is helping them understand a part of the media world they will constantly deal with. If that theoretical college couple had asked themselves questions about the ad and really thought it through, or if their teachers had taught them about advertising schemes, perhaps they would have stayed home and made their own beef ‘n cheddar sandwiches for a much better price.

Haiku to a Cow: An Indian Missionary’s Poem to Home

Context: When we talked about haikus in class a few weeks ago, I immediately thought of this missionary haiku. My brother had been in India for about five months when my cousin wrote to him requesting a tidbit for the family newsletter. Lincoln, a naturally clever and witty young fellow wrote back with his “Haiku to a Cow”

The Poem:

Haiku to a Cow

Sagging skin, so slim

Eating trash by the roadside

I do not miss beef

Analysis: Lincoln really was a very clever missionary. He took a concept associated with India—the custom to revere the cow as sacred—and completely humanized it. This cow is not white, flower-covered, or sacred. This is a scrawny, wiry cow he saw eating trash by the road one day, which made him glad that Indians don’t eat much beef. Really, I think this haiku says a lot about my brother’s experience as a missionary in India. The misconceptions and glorifications of all kinds of aspects of his life including religion, humanity, and Indian culture were proven to be unrealistic. The realities were just skinny old cows eating trash on the road.

Educational Context: Using this and some haikus we talked about in class as models, I could have my students pick a misconception in their worlds and write a haiku about their true feelings after some inquiry into the truth behind the belief. I think this could be a good exercise in inquiry (I would encourage them to use several sources including books, internet, interviews, opinions, news articles, etc.) as well as an exercise in looking beyond commonly held beliefs. Perhaps I could even have them pick a misconception presented by the media, then we could have a conversation about the untrue views the media often presents.

The Eyre Affair: Nothing’s More Fun than Re-writing Endings!

Context: When my little sister informed me that my brother Lincoln had drawn my name for Christmas, I have to admit I was a little worried. After all, Lincoln and I are not the most compatible siblings you’ve ever met (probably because we’re only about a year and a half apart, so we had classes together in church and school all growing up—there was bound to be some sort of rivalry). I wasn’t surprised to see the book-shaped package under the Christmas tree when I got home, the question was, what book(s)? Answer: two Jasper Fforde novels (sequels). I hadn’t ever heard of the novels, but I was intrigued by the title of the first—The Eyre Affair—not to mention the quotes on the back cover.

"Jasper Fforde's fascinating first novel reads like a Jules Verne story told by Lewis Carroll." - Susanna Yager, Daily Telegraph

"What Fforde is pulling, of course, is a variation on a classic Monty Python gambit: the incongruous juxtaposition of low comedy and high erudition. Though not wholly original -- these days, what is ? -- this scam hasn't been pulled off with such off-hand finesse and manic verve since the Pythons shut up shop. The Eyre Affair is a silly book for smart people: postmodernism played as raw, howling farce." - Charles Shaar Murray, The Independent

Naturally I was surprisingly pleased with Lincoln’s choice and more than a little bit intrigued. With back-cover quotes like those, can you blame me?

Summary: The book is remarkably hard to explain without going into a pretty extensive summary, so I’m just going to include Penguin Publisher’s marketing blurb about the novel which is about as good as you can get for a short summary:

“In Jasper Fforde's Great Britain, circa 1985, time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection. But when someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature and plucks Jane Eyre from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday is faced with the challenge of her career. Fforde's ingenious fantasy—enhanced by a Web site that re-creates the world of the novel—unites intrigue with English literature in a delightfully witty mix.”

Analysis: I absolutely loved Jasper Fforde’s carefree parody and commentary on British socio-political policy. A particular favorite premise of mine was the ridiculous Crimean War. Having just written a term paper on Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” I had polished up on my Crimean War history enough to appreciate the sheer ridiculousness of Fforde’s scenario. There’s nothing like re-writing history to provide some fun social commentary. Also, as a pretty big fan of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, I was tickled with the whole concept of jumping into a novel, kidnapping characters, and changing endings. Another bright moment was the slightly-crazy aunt getting caught in the Wordsworth Poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and getting hit on by the poet in a field of his own imagined daffodils. I also thought it was great that the British people in the novel are so obsessed with their own literature that they consider it a federal crime to try to pass off one of your own poems as Byron or Keats or to stage a bad performance of a Shakespeare play. The novel was slow at times, and I wouldn’t have understood half the references and allusions if I hadn’t just finished a British Literature class before reading it, but it made me feel really smart because I did catch most of the humor, and it was extremely clever.

Educational Context: This would be an excellent novel for teaching historical parody. I could ask my students to pick an historical event to parody themselves using Jasper Fforde as a model. I probably wouldn’t use it with anyone below the eleventh or twelfth grade level, but it would be fun in a European History or British History class. The concept of books within books could be pretty interesting to delve into with advanced students as well. Fforde uses some pretty intense sentence structure with lots of appositives and participial phrases—some good sentence examples for teaching grammar could come out of this book for sure. This could also be a good premise for a discussion about the popularity of print media. I think most of my students would agree that our world today is digital, and the book, magazine, and newspaper mediums are kind of out of style. However, in the world Fforde has created, nothing is more important that books, manuscripts, papers, etc. So much so that it’s a federal crime to burn a book. Print media in this novel and print media in today’s society fulfill very different roles.

Mr. Wyview: A Brilliant Publicity Scheme

Context: Part of my job with the BYU Residence Halls Association (RHA) is to train the three area councils (one student council-type organization for each of the three areas: Helaman Halls, Heritage Halls, and Wyview Park). In January, we took the councils up to Spring Haven (a BYU-owned facility in Hobble Creek Canyon) for a winter training retreat, and I got to teach them about effectively publicizing their programs. During the Fall semester, the councils had put up some pretty pathetic publicity (some flyers didn’t even include times and locations), so it was my assignment to give the training necessary to avoid pathetic publicity this winter semester. I must have done a pretty good job because Wyview Park put on a mock-pageant entitled Mr. Wyview: Is it in You? And they did a pretty darn good job if I do say so myself.

Summary: The first round of publicity came out two weeks before the program. It included a date, time, and place, and included a parody of the well-known Gatorade slogan: “Is it In You?” They used an orange lightening bolt similar (but not the exact same—wouldn’t want to break copyright laws) as a kind of logo for the flyer. On the flyers they tacked in front of each girls’ apartment in Wyview, they included a line about encouraging their guy friends to fill out a pageant application. On the boys apartments, they tacked a paper application along with the flyer. Their next round of publicity came out a week before the Mr. Wyview Pageant. For this publicity blitz they used donated Burger King Crowns with quarter-sized flyers showing the date, time, and slogan of the program. They stapled the crowns to the stair-railings of every stairwell in Wyview. The third publicity round was the t-shirts they designed. The t-shirts showed the orange lightening bolt on the front with the words “Mr. Wyview: Is it in You?,” and on the back the name, date, time, and location of the event. They gave the t-shirts to every RA in Wyview, each Wyview council member, and then each council member gave away three t-shirts to students living in Wyview. Everyone who was given a shirt was asked to wear it twice during the week leading up to the event so people would see the shirts and the program would be publicized. The event was jam-packed full of people. In fact, there weren’t nearly enough seats, and for the first time in RHA history, they ran out of refreshments.

Analysis: The Wyview council did several notable things with this publicity scheme. First, they chose a well-known slogan and logo. Normally, when people see those words they think, Gatorade. In my mind, I also see the Gatorade commercials with athletes sweating Gatorade. So, when paired with a mens’ mock beauty pageant, the slogan implies a competition (perhaps athletic) for the status of Mr. Wyview. Slogans and logos taken out of context are also eye-catching and curiosity-piquing. Second, they used Burger King Crowns, which have happy food connotations for many, to publicize an event in which the winner would be crowned. When somebody sees a Burger King Crown stapled to their stairwell, they stop and look…after all, it could be Burger King coupons or something associated with free food—always a good angle to take with college students. Third, the t-shirt publicity. Let’s face it: everybody loves a free t-shirt, and what better publicity is there than t-shirt-wearing, living, walking, talking people? Besides, the giving of free t-shirts before an event implies that perhaps more free things will be given at the event itself—again, always a good angle to take with college students.

Educational Context: If, for some strange reason, I were to discuss this publicity scheme with my students some day (…I guess it’s plausible that I could be teaching a publicity workshop again at some point, so I suppose I could use this as an example), we could talk about the different mediums this council used to publicize. They took objects (Burger King Crowns) and took them out of their contexts to grab the attention of passers-by. They used well-known objects and slogans to publicize a little known event—but they also took a chance that some people might not recognize the significance of those objects and slogans. Why was this worth the risk? Could they have picked a more universal slogan? What does this say about how media-savvy the residents of Wyview Park are (we’re assuming, based on the high attendance, that most of them recognized the slogan)? Perhaps I would even create a make believe event for which my students would be assigned to design a publicity scheme. I could probably even modify this for my students to publicize an event from a novel or short story. Hmm…I bet they could come up with some pretty interesting ideas for publicizing “the lottery” from Shirley Jackson’s short story…

Onward Alone: A Dance Concert with Emphasis on the…Speaking Parts?

Context: Last year, I decided to go to the Dance in Concert. It was a last-minute decision and I have to admit the main reason I went was the free tickets I got from a friend. I expected it to be somewhat neat, but I was knocked off my feet. I absolutely loved it! So, this year, I waited anxiously for the poster-ads to go up. When I saw the kind of corny-looking posed poster with the girl in the pioneer dress, I wasn’t daunted. I assured my roommates the whole pioneer thing was probably only for one number and they’d have other cool dance numbers too. My roommates were doubtful but they bought tickets after hearing my glowing, enthusiastic assurance. Unfortunately, we were all a little disappointed.

Summary: Unlike the traditional Dancers' Company Concert, this year’s program was all based on the same story. Instead of several different numbers with different types of choreography, cool lighting changes, interesting use of props, and various styles of music, the company performed a series of pieces telling stories of Mormon pioneer women and their husbands who left them to join the Mormon Battalion. Some pieces used music, some used visual images projected onto the stage, and some used only narration.

Analysis: I thought the mixing of mediums was a neat idea, but perhaps the pioneer theme was not the greatest for this mixture. It came off as a little sappy at several points during the program. I got particularly squirmy when a video of some of the dancers dancing around on a hill came up at the same time as a spoken narration and dancers on the stage. The bizarre juxtaposition of these didn’t fit the seriousness of the story, and it made me want to laugh. I think it was mainly the film. The lighting was bad, the film quality wasn’t great, and it did a real injustice to the dancers and their subject matter. In all fairness, I was expecting something completely different from this program, so part of my disappointment is due to the fact that the program was organized differently when compared to last year’s concert.

Educational Context: If I could have taken a classroom of students to this concert, it would have set up perfectly for a discussion about how different subject matters match up with different mediums of media/technology. I would prompt my students to think about the differences between dancing to music, dancing in silence, and dancing to speaking parts and how those differences communicated the atmosphere and aura the dancers were trying to create.

A True Piece of Satire: Hairspray's "The Nicest Kids in Town"

Context: I first saw the new movie adaption of Hairspray with my little sister last August. As I recall, I couldn’t stop smiling through the entire movie. It made me laugh constantly! When I asked for the DVD for Christmas, my aunt gave me the collector’s edition CD instead…I think she got confused, but I really like it! Listening to the music from the movie/musical has helped me catch irony that I wouldn’t have caught if I hadn’t listened carefully to the words themselves. One of my favorites is the theme song of the all-important “Corny Collins Show,” which is entitled, “The Nicest Kids in Town.” Watch out! You could easily get it stuck in your head!

Lyrics:
The Nicest Kids in Town

CORNY:

Hey there, Teenage Baltimore!

Don't change that channel!

'Cause it's time for the Corny Collins Show!

Brought to you by Ultra Clutch Hairspray!

CORNY (& COUNCIL MEMBERS):

Ev'ry afternoonWhen the clock strikes four

(bop-bee-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba, bee-ba)

A crazy bunch of kids Crash through that door

(bop-bee-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba, bee-ba)

They throw off their coats

And leave the squares behind

And then they shake it, shake it, shake it

Like they're losing their mind

You'll never see them frown

'Cause they're the nicest kids in town

Every afternoon

You turn your T.V. on

(na, na, na, na, na, na-na-na-na)

And we know you turn the sound up

When your parents are gone, yeah

(na, na, na, na, na, na-na-na-na)

And then you twist and shout

For your favorite star

And once you've practiced every step

That's in your repertoire

You better come on down

And meet the nicest kids in town

Nice white kids

Who like to lead the way

And once a month

We have our "negro day!"

And I'm the man who keeps it spinnin' round

Mr. Corny Collins

With the latest, greatest

Baltimore sound!!

So every afternoon

Drop everything

(bop-bee-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba, bee-ba)

Who needs to read and write

When you can dance and sing?

(bop-bee-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba, bee-ba)

Forget about your algebra

And calculus

You can always do your homework

On the morning bus

Can't tell a verb from a noun

They're the nicest kids in town

R-R-R-Roll Call!!

COUNCIL MEMBERS:

I'm Amber!Brad!

Tammy!Fender!Brenda!Sketch!

Shelley!I.Q!Lou Ann!

Joey!Mikey, Vicki, Becky, Bix,

Jessie, Darla, Paulie!

Noreen!Doreen!

And I'm...LINK!

(All of the girls scream.)

CORNY (& COUNCIL MEMBERS):

So, if every night you're shaking

As you lie in bed

(pony-pony, ooh, pony-pony)

And the bass and drums

Are pounding in your head

(mony-mony, ooh, mony-mony)

Who cares about sleep

When you can snooze inSchool?

You'll never get to college

But you sure look cool

Don't need a cap and a gown

'Cause they're the nicest Kids in town

They're the nicest. Nicest

They're the nicest, nicest

They're the sugar 'n' spicest,

The nicest kids in... Kids in town!

Analysis: This song is basically lampooning the stereotypical teenage “celebrity” obsession. The music is upbeat and happy, but the words, sung with such smiley enthusiasm, are pure parody. Statements such as, “who needs to read and write when you can dance and sing?” and “you’ll never get to college but you’ll sure look cool” are direct commentary on stereotypical teenage thought. Do all teenagers think that music, dancing, and TV shows are more important than education? I sure hope not! For the ones who do feel that way, this song is for you! Also embedded in the song is the racist message of the pre-1960’s era, “Nice white kids who like to lead the way, and once a month we have our Negro day!” The song does a great job of making this statement sound suitably ridiculous. In short, these are extremely clever lyrics sung in an over-the-top, ridiculous style that makes the fake messages show their true transparency. But be careful! If you listen to this song too much, you’ll find “[it’s] base and drums [won’t stop] pounding in your head!”

Educational Value: This song can be used to open class discussions about the value of education. Why is education important? If we all “looked cool” and were the “nicest kids in town” as Corny suggests we should aspire to be, what would our world be like? Also, these lyrics can be used as a perfect example when an English class learns the concept of irony or satire. The racist statement in the song can also open a discussion about equity in America.

"The Golden Compass" turns out to be Not-so-Golden (in the U.S. Box Offices and in My Opinion)

Context: Some good friends of mine recommended Philip Pullman’s book The Golden Compass as a good airplane read for my Christmas trip home. Knowing nothing about the book or its author, I found a cheap paperback copy and decided to take my friends’ advice. After the three hour flight I was about halfway through the book, so I naturally decided to finish it at home. When my sister-in-law saw what I was reading she was surprised and a little upset. She told me she couldn’t believe I was reading the book because it was an atheist devil’s manifesto by an author who claimed he was trying to undo everything C.S. Lewis had done for the Christian world with his Chronicles of Narnia. I have to admit I was surprised at my sister-in-law’s vehement reaction to the book, especially since I was about three-quarters into the book and I had picked up no devilish or atheist connotations whatsoever. At the very end, I started to see how one could read into the ending as a less-than-Protestant take on an imaginary world, but I didn’t think it was grounds enough to refuse to read the book or see the movie. So, when I got back to Provo and saw The Golden Compass was playing in Orem’s dollar theater on MLK Jr. Day with a mere admission price of a non-perishable food item, I dragged my roommates along with me to the movie theater.

Summary: When Lyra Belacqua’s friends start disappearing from her home, she and her daemon, Pantalaimon (in this alternate universe, a daemon is a person’s soul which lives outside his/her body and takes the form of an animal), resolve to travel to the North where the “Gobblers” are rumored to reside with the stolen children. She has the opportunity to do so as the assistant of the deceivingly kind Mrs. Coulter. Eventually, Lyra finds out that Mrs. Coulter is actually the head of the “Gobblers” who have stolen her friends. Lyra teams up with the boat-loving Gyptians, a Texan aeronaut, a powerful witch queen, and an armored bear in order to save her friends. Along the way, she is given a unique golden compass which tells her the truth and aides her in her many adventures. Lyra makes startling discoveries about her parents and their intentions while she fulfills her promise to free her friends.

Analysis: In my opinion, all the hoopla about the movie and book being Atheist is really ungrounded. Apparently the second two books in the trilogy become more and more controversially philosophical, but as far as I’m concerned, The Golden Compass itself was not really a very blatant anti-religoius commentary. After hearing my sister-in-law’s complaint about the story, I read some articles about the movie that told me the film downplays the religious controversy found in the book. After seeing the movie myself, I’ve decided there were more religious undertones in the movie than there were in the book. Also, if I had gone to the movie without reading the book, I think I would have been a little lost in the whirlwind of characters, concepts (i.e. the whole daemon thing), and the unexplained events/appearances (i.e. the witches…where exactly did they come in to the whole thing anyway?). In all fairness, if I sat down and read the book again, I would probably pick out more religious commentary, but isn’t there something to be said for the fact that I didn’t notice much the first time through even though I've been constantly trained to analyze literature for the past three years of my life as an English major? Like so many stories, I think The Golden Compass has fallen victim to overzealous religious enthusiasts who like to condemn any sort of fantasy/adventure story that makes the tiniest commentary about their motives and views (case in point: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The DaVinci Code). Word has it that the film did three times as well in foreign box offices as it did here in the U.S. I whole-heartedly congratulate foreign movie-goers for refusing to be taken in by overzealous critics who know little or nothing about the text/movie they are talking about and probably haven’t even read/seen it. To Americans: will we ever learn to get past the rumor mill and think for ourselves? Overall, I give the movie about two and a half stars (out of five). It was worth it to see, but I’m glad I waited for it to come to the dollar theater.

Educational Value: I’m sure The Golden Compass as a movie and as a book will always be a controversial tool when it comes to educating students in the classroom. Having said that, I think the book/movie can be used as a good example in a discussion about censorship. To me, the whole Golden Compass controversy is a perfect introduction to a discussion about choosing whether to take somebody else’s opinion about a piece of media, or to experience the piece yourself and form your own opinions.

Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" is "Pretty" Amazing

Context: When I did a three-week practicum at Mountain Ridge Junior High last semester, two series of novels were the cool reads according to my students. Unsurprisingly, one of the two was Stephenie Meyers' Twilight series, but the other one was completely new to me. In the words of a ninth grader, "Miss Andreasen, you have not lived until you've read the Uglies books!" I'm not sure if I quite agree with that statement, but I must admit it piqued my curiosity. So, I eventually procured a copy of the first book, and I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of it's themes and it's tense, page-turner quality. Although it is technically a young adult novel, I highly recommend Scott Westerfeld's Uglies to "kids" of all ages.

Summary: Tally Youngblood can’t wait to turn sixteen because then she will get the operation that will turn her from an awkward “Ugly” to a physically and genetically enhanced “Pretty,” and she will join her older friends in “New Pretty Town” where everyone is beautiful and happy. Two weeks before her birthday, Tally becomes friends with Shay, who takes her to the Rusty Ruins and introduces her to life outside the city and the mysterious “Smoke.” The city’s cruel “Specials” want to destroy the rebellious “Smokies,” so they force Tally to journey into the wilderness to find Shay and the “Smoke” so she can give them the location of the evasive community. When Tally finds friends in the “Smoke” and learns that the operation is more than just an innocent cosmetic change, she decides to leave the city behind for good. Unfortunately, she betrays the “Smokies” unwittingly, and decides to sacrifice herself to save the friends she betrayed.

Educational Value: Uglies is an excellent novel for eighth- to tenth-graders because it presents important themes in a way that teenagers can connect to. It is a quick read, but contains some valuable vocabulary for this age level. Themes of acceptance, diversity, betrayal, governmental ethics, and more provide the medium for a plethora of text-to-world, text-to-text, and text-to-self connections to be explored by teenaged students. The futuristic setting invites students to think about how the things we do now will affect the future. Above all, students will enjoy this novel immensely, and it will inspire them to read more and think more about the world’s societal issues.

Wyview Park: Practically Crazy from the Outside In

In my experience, people who live in Wyview Park are practical. Wyview apartments are newly furnished, spacious, and in fabulous condition, and yet the rent at Wyview is cheaper than almost any off-campus housing. However, while they call Wyview Park “On-campus Housing,” by “on-campus” they mean about-as-far-away-from-campus-as-BYU-approved-housing-gets. Another huge defining factor of Wyview is the eighty-five percent freshmen to 15% upper-classmen ratio. Because Wyview-ites are either very practical or they’re freshmen (or both I suppose), and they have to have some way to get themselves to campus every day, bike racks filled with bikes can be found all over the complex even in the snowy winter. Thus, this picture tells the story of the defining factors of Wyview Park.
You may be thinking to yourself, “Wow! That’s got to be one freezing cold bike ride!” You’re right. But, part of the charm of Wyview residents is that they don’t care about a few moments discomfort as long as they have somewhere cheap to sleep at night (…somewhere cheap that isn’t about to fall down or harbor rats and cockroaches along with residents). Wyview residents are tough, like these brave bikes. They can weather the cold, the snow, and whatever else is thrown at them.
I chose to take this photo at night because I think the night mode on my camera gives the light an ethereal, super-human quality. I wanted these bikes to look super-human, because they are symbols of the all-enduring, ever-practical Wyview residents. I took the photo from this angle because I wanted to try to almost super-impose the bikes onto the building in the background. I was trying to create an effect that would suggest that the bikes belong to the buildings. Thus, I was making the statement that the Wyview-ites are an integral part of Wyview. It’s more than just buildings. Although, I purposely chose this angle because of the way the building appears to continue on in an endless diagonal. The bikes (symbolizing the people) and their buildings are solid, enduring, and continuous. I didn’t set up this picture; the subjects were already there in that exact position. However, I carefully considered the angle and lighting to create the effect I wanted.
My photo essay as a whole is supposed to communicate the practicality, and yet craziness of the Wyview world. The people who live in Wyview are undoubtedly practical (as discussed above), but I wanted to portray the unhinged side of Wyview that lies beneath the practicality as well (hence the crazy mail picture, the ninja turtle, the funny freshmen boys in their dirty room, etc.). I wanted to help viewers understand that Wyview has the crazy qualities of a freshmen year of college (the busy midnight Creamery Rush, the ever-open laundry room, the random pirate-costumed people on the random playground, etc.), but it is undeniably a practical place to live (the bikes, the sleeping person, the neat girls’ bedroom). The essay is organized so that viewers start from the outside of Wyview (notice all the available parking spots which show the practicality of not owning an expensive car couple with the crazy pirate people on the random playground) and work their way into the buildings (where crazy things like home-made Ninja Turtle Costumes are still found, but in the end, it’s just a comfortable place to sleep). Hopefully after looking through the photo essay, viewers catch the idea that Wyview-ites are inherently practical, but they know how to be crazy too.