Note: This lesson was originally published on an older version of The Learning Network; the link to the related Times article will take you to a page on the old site.
Teaching ideas based on New York Times content.
Overview of Lesson Plan: In this lesson, students consider how the insertion of today’s technology would change literary classics and how technology challenges contemporary writers. They then create a Web page, blog, video or text message transcription for a literary character.
Shannon Doyne, The New York Times Learning Network
Suggested Time Allowance: one or two class periods.
Activities and Procedures:
Have the class informally vote to choose a familiar story or fairy tale, like “Cinderella.” Elicit the story’s plot and jot the main points on the board as the students talk. Then ask how each major event would be different if the characters had access to today’s communications technology like the Internet, cellphones, text messaging and so on. Also ask how the characters might think and act differently if they had modern technology.
For example, if Cinderella had a cellphone, she could have called or texted the fairy godmother to say she would be late because she was with the prince, asking to extend the spell past midnight. Or, if the characters had access to Facebook, the prince may have been able to find Cinderella online without counting on her trying on the glass slipper. And if Cinderella had Internet access, she may have found comfort and support in online friendships — she could have opted to spend the night of the ball writing or using Skype to talk to friends instead of going to the ball.
Alternatively or additionally, if students have read or are familiar with “Romeo and Juliet,” show them the illustration that appears with today’s article, “If Only Literature Could Be a Cellphone-Free Zone.” Students will recognize that, had Romeo and Juliet had the ability to send text messages without their families knowing, the central conflict of the play would be quite different. Would they have averted the final outcome had Juliet simply texted her plans to Romeo? On the other hand, had they communicated more, perhaps they would have found they didn’t have much in common and weren’t such a perfect match after all.
Ask: As our lives become more and more “connected,” do you think readers will be turned off by literature that has now-obsolete conflicts about communicating? What, if any, sorts of plot points might start to seem silly or quaint? How can today’s writers keep stories interesting given all that technology makes possible? What will happen to classic story plot points involving people getting lost, out of touch or unaware of information anyone could find instantly online?
Tell students that the article they will read today considers situations like this.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS:
As a class, read and discuss the article “If Only Literature Could Be a Cellphone-Free Zone,” focusing on the following questions:
a. Why do many writers today have what Matt Richtel characterizes as “a brewing antagonism for today’s communication gadgets”?
b. How have some writers mentioned in Mr. Richtel’s article gotten around the problem of having to make a current-day character incommunicado?
c. What literary works, films or television shows would be ruined by characters having cellphones and Internet access?
d. What are some works whose use of technology is so well-done, crucial to the story, etc., that without it, the works would not succeed?
Explain to students that they will “update” a literary work (or film, if you wish) with the inclusion of today’s technology. Options: have students work alone or in small groups; have the whole class use the same work or allow them to choose; allow all characters to have access to all of today’s technology; set rules like “there is Internet access but no cellphones” (or vice versa) or “one character can use any and all available technology but other characters cannot.”
Distribute copies of the handout “The Plot Thickens?” Tell students that in introducing technology elements from “the future” into a work that is set in the past, they will create a mash-up of the original genre and science fiction. In so doing, they will create a fictional world that has the potential to be quite different from the one the original author intended. Remind students that as in any plot, one event can lead to not just one, but a series of events that can change a character’s life in small or drastic ways — a whole new story can result. Encourage them to go into the story as deeply as they can, and to look for as many alternate plot possibilities as they can.
For instance, with today’s technology Victor Frankenstein could have videotaped himself bringing life to his creature, and in posting the footage on YouTube, he may have inspired would-be scientists to make multitudes of creatures — or the authorities would see the video, raid his laboratory, arrest him and take custody of the creature — leading both their lives, and possibly the world, to be quite different. His creature could have used sites like Facebook and Twitter to find sympathetic friends and, in feeling accepted, he might not have had to spend his life roaming and hiding (and ultimately killing). How would “Frankenstein” turn out in this alternate universe? Have students share their ideas in a discussion at the end of class.
4. FOR HOMEWORK OR FUTURE CLASSES:
Individually, students choose one character (main or secondary) from the literary work they used to complete their handout. Then have students choose a communication tool like Facebook, Twitter or a blog to write about the events in the story from his or her point of view; make short “mockumentary” videos that give the character’s take on events and other characters; or write transcripts or Instant Messages or text “conversations” between two characters; to create mock Web sites; etc. For more information about blogs, wikis and podcasts, you may want to consult our Teaching With The Times page on Technology Tools: Web 2.0 in the Classroom.
Have students create their mock Web sites as posters or by using software. To inspire them to strive for both humor and close work with the literary work itself, have them read Hamlet’s faux-Facebook news feed on the McSweeney’s Web site. Encourage students to include artwork like digital “self-portraits” taken of them dressed as the character.
Students who opt to make faux documentaries can script and perform them, complete with period-appropriate costumes, scenery and props. Those who write transcripts of I.M.’s or text messages can use them as scripts, to be read aloud by students portraying the characters, pantomiming typing as they speak the words aloud. Videotape the performances for posting on your school’s Web site or on SchoolTube.
Related Times Resources:
- ADDITIONAL TIMES ARTICLES AND MULTIMEDIA:
Article: From Many Tweets, One Loud Voice on the Internet
Blog: Gutenberg Is Dead; Long Live Gutenberg
Review: New Wave of Writers Reinvents Literature
Article: Borges and the Foreseeable Future
- LEARNING NETWORK RESOURCES:
Lesson Plan: Search Me (Not)
Developing Profiles of Literary and Historical Figures by Imagining Their Web Searches
Lesson Plan: The Bard in the Big Apple
Setting Shakespeare in the Modern World
Lesson Plan: Tweet a Little Tweet
Examining the Rise of Twitter and Microblogging and Applying It to the Classroom
Lesson Plan: It’s the Same Old Story
Finding Commonalities Between Classic Literature and Popular Stories
Lesson Plan: 2001 and Beyond
Reading and Updating Science Fiction Classics
Lesson Plan: Radical Reads
Exploring Literature “American Idol” Style
Teaching With The Times: Literature
Student Crossword: Great Books and Authors
- ARCHIVAL TIMES MATERIALS:
“White Noise,” by Don DeLillo
The 1985 review of the modern classic DeLillo novel, which deals with the advent of modern technology and its effect on people and families.
- TIMES TOPICS:
Books and Literature
Writers and Writing
Computers and the Internet
Blogs and Blogging
- OTHER RESOURCES:
TwiTip Blog: How to Start a Twitter Novel
Hamlet’s Facebook Page
1. Use a “Choose Your Own Adventure” approach to rewriting part of a well-known literary work, presenting two or more options when one of the new modes of communication appears. (For instance, when Beowulf’s soldiers use Twitter to brag about Beowulf killing Grendel, one “ending” might be that more people come out to revel with them at Hrothgar Hall, where, because of their number, Grendel’s mother is killed, instead of later. Or, Grendel’s mother reads the tweets and, seeking vengeance, posts her own Twitter updates, which rally her own army and, together, they kill Beowulf and all his men.) Post your story on your school’s Web site, complete with links to the alternate endings.
2. Write personal essays that express the degree to which you rely on technology to attain and share information. Consider issues like texting versus face-to-face communication, the connectedness or disconnectedness of “living” online, your definition of online friendships, how the desire for privacy (or the desire for notoriety) affects what you share publicly, and expectations of how quickly to respond to tweets, texts, e-mails and postings.
3. Interview older friends, family members or teachers about how they acquired information before widespread Internet access and how they communicated before cellphones, e-mail and text messages were common. Have them ask how their lives have changed as a result of these technologies. If possible, interview at least one person who does not own a cellphone, use e-mail, etc. Then write a newspaper feature for submission to your school’s newspaper.
4. Read a contemporary novel or short story in which characters have access to some or all of the technologies mentioned in this lesson. Complete the handout for this lesson again, this time eliminating cellphones, Internet access, etc. Rewrite one or more scenes, substituting handwritten letters, library visits, and the like.
5. Read “I Was a Regency Zombie”. Inspired by current writers who are introducing zombies, aliens and vampires into Jane Austen classics, revisit a short story or novel you have read, adding stock characters from other genres, or well-known characters from a work from a different time period or author, like swashbuckling pirates of yore landing on the shores of Grand Isle in Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” or Holden Caulfield showing up in “My Antonia” by Willa Cather.
Social Studies – Choose a historical event or time period that predates our current Information Age to be the subject of a persuasive essay about how history would have changed had the people had access to one or more of today’s technologies. Back your ideas with historical research. Present your writing to the class in a panel discussion.
Academic Content Standards:
Grades six to 12.
Language Arts Standard 1 – Demonstrates competence in the general skills and strategies of the writing process.
Language Arts Standard 2 – Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing.
Language Arts Standard 3 – Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions.
Language Arts Standard 6 – Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process.
Technology Standard 3 – Understands the relationships among science, technology, society and the individual.
This lesson plan may be used to address the academic standards listed above. These standards are drawn from Content Knowledge: A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education; 3rd and 4th Editions and have been provided courtesy of the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning in Aurora, Colorado.