Great Expectations

[freespirit]

I have to teach Great Expectations to 9th graders. I've done it before and it's "fun." Any ideas on how to make it new, interactive, and outrageously exciting? Okay, I'll settle for any creative ideas out there

[lavendar1]

I have to teach Great Expectations to 9th graders. I've done it before and it's "fun."

So do I, and you're right. Since I teach Brit 'classics,' I'm ever on the look out for good books and strategies. I stumbled onto a great book called From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges Between Young Adult Literature and the Classics, by Sarah Herz and Don Gallo (who has edited some wonderful short story collections for teens). I don't know how "carved in stone" your school's curriculum is, but this book gives ideas about YAL that you can use before reading the classics -- I tried some of the ideas before I taught Ivanhoe (now that's a killer), and they helped. I'm not sure if there are suggestions for teaching GE.

Last year, I tried something a bit bizarre when I taught GE: We turned it into a soap opera. What I mean is that students read the text, and we 'tweaked' the characters a bit to make them fit into a soap opera. Hey, you've got to admit - Miss Havisham is one eccentric lady! It was fun; the students got 'engaged,' to use a politically-correct term in education, and I tried to end each day with them anxious to read on so they could figure out how to make their renditions 'melodramatic.'

Was it all a wonderful experience? Hardly. I combined film, study questions, along with it...some days were better than others. If you teach several different levels like I do, you learn to modify depending on who's in the class. I remember focusing on Dickens' character descriptions (they're so good!), and we had some great discussions about what it means to be a true friend, and how sometimes when we get what we think we want, it turns out not to be so hot (no, not HOTTT) after all.

Good luck!

[Inez]

I have to teach Great Expectations to 9th graders. I've done it before and it's "fun." Any ideas on how to make it new, interactive, and outrageously exciting? Okay, I'll settle for any creative ideas out there

Hi. I am a teacher from the UK so I don't know what age ninth graders are.

I have enjoyed teaching Great Expectations to a group of 14-15 year olds but we have a very prescriptive marking criteria and a lot of what we do ends up being 'cramming', so I don't know if my ideas would help you. I can offer a few if the age group is about right. Are they examined on the text, or is it for coursework, or is it a text for class study?

Do you have to read the entire text or can you select parts? I have taught extracts to much younger students.

[freespirit]

Thank you!

[imthefoolonthehill]

our teacher had us cut and paste (or draw) pictures of what we thought the characters would look like.

This was fun, and got us to reflect on what we knew about each of the characters (which are notably the story's strong point)

[brainstrain]

Well, both I, my two sisters, and all my friends have had to survive 9th grade Great Expectations, and i am the only one who enjoyed it. Most of these above people believe we overanalyzed it, and that the plot (though strange and twisted) does not deserve the scorn we give to it.

I, however, realized that they use this book to introduce many literary concepts, and see how all that new material can overwhelm many people. I have no idea how to remedy this, but it cant hurt to let you know.

Both me and my sisters, however, loved A Tale of Two Cities, and as i am reading it right now, i cant wait to see how it ends...

[Jade444]

Inez, You mentioned teaching excerpts to younger students. I would like to do this for the group of 13 year olds I teach. Which excerpts do you use?

Lauren