Harmon, Mary R.

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

English

Mary R. Harmon

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Broadening Horizons by Expanding the Canon: Two for Teachers' Bookshelves

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Language Arts Journal of MichiganVolume 12Issue 1 The Multicultural Classroom Article 151-1-1996Broadening Horizons by Expanding the Canon:Two for Teachers' BookshelvesMary R. HarmonFollow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/lajmThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Language Arts Journal ofMichigan by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact scholarworks@gvsu.edu.Recommended CitationHarmon, Mary R. (1996) "Broadening Horizons by Expanding the Canon: Two for Teachers' Bookshelves," Language Arts Journal ofMichigan: Vol. 12: Iss. 1, Article 15.Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.1511Professional Book Reviews Mary R. Harmon Broadening Horizons by Expanding the Canon: Two for Teachers' Bookshelves Five years ago during my daughter's sophomore year in high school, her English teacher handed out a list of books. Studentswere to choose books from this list to read for the four prescribed book reports due periodically throughout the remainder ofthe school year. On the list appeared noworks bywomen, save Harper Lee's To KiU a Mocldngbird, no other works written after 1955, and no other works by authors other than white males. Despite the mixed reactions of my daughter, I visited her teacher, a man who I liked a great deal and whose teaching to this point I'd admired, and asked him about the exclusive nature ofhis book list. He agreed that the list was a pretty narrow one and added, "I choose the books 1know. What can I add? How can 1change things?" Although 1made several suggestions ofworks and gave sound reasons for their use, 1must not have beenpersuasive enough, for I sawno change in the book list that year. Looking back, I wish I had been able to hand my daughter's teacher a copyofLizWhaleyand LizDodge's Weaving InTIle Women and one of Eileen Iscoff Oliver's Crossing the Mainstream: Multicultural Perspectives in the Teaching ofLiterature. These two books not only offer sixth to twelfth grade teachers a myriad of drama, short story. essay. novel, and poetry titles and authors, they also, in a lively and down-to-earth fashion, offer teachers a rationale for more inclusive, gender­balanced literature classes. They suggest and detail methods-the nuts and bolts of Single-day lessons and entire units-forweaving inworks by women and multicultural writers based on their own classroom experiences and those of other teachers. Doing so, they contend, will expand students' knowledge and appreciation of them­selves, literature, diverse peoples and stories, and the world beyond their communities and beyond the worlds constructed in traditional lit­eraryworks. Crossing the Mainstreamwill trans­form literature curricula and the English class­room as the inclusion of diverse works by previ­ously marginalized and often alienated peoples and cultures enlarges students' awareness and appreciation of the diversity around them. Whaleyand Dodge provide a convincing ratio­nale for including women writers and other un­der-represented writers which will greatly assist those teachers eager to engage in gender-bal­anced literature teaching but who meet resis­tance from colleagues and administrators.Whaley and Dodge label their approach to the teaching of literature "feminist," and state, "Feminists be­lieve that social. economic. and cultural barriers exist for women.... [they] work in both the public and the private sphere to break down those barriers.... [they] look over their shoulders to see what they can do for the young people. especially the young women, coming behind them" (2). Teachers already constructing inclusive class­rooms will fmd support and encouragement, an abundance of teaching ideas and strategies. and book annotations and suggestions for works to use in student-centered classrooms. Preservice teacherswill love the book's enthusiastic tone, its practical content, and its theory-based host of 70 Language Arts Journal of Michigan teachingsuggestions. MyseniorMethods ofTeach­ing English students tell me that this is a book they'll not sell back to the bookstore, even when strapped for cash; this is a book they know they will use anduseagain as theybegin their teaching careers. Teachers already constructing inclusive classrooms will find support and encouragement, an abundance of teaching ideas and strategies, and book annotations and suggestions for works to use in student-centered classrooms. Fully aware that many teachers are tied by their school curricula to current and/or outdated literature anthologies, Whaley and Dodge help teachers use these anthologies in ways which promotegreatergender balance, despite themale­heavy list of selections most of these anthologies contain. And they advocate using the Xerox ma­chine, sharingcopies. and readingaloudasmeans ofweaving in women writers. Each chapter con­tains many specific suggestions of authors and titles; eachendswith further suggestions ofworks, often brtefly annotated. In addition. teachers are urged to help their students become aware ofand query the ways women are depicted in selections by male and female writers. After the two introductory chapters, the next seven follow the curricular sequence still found in many high schools as they cover gender-balanc­ing in ninth and tenth grade literature classes, then move to Amertcan literature, divided into three eras, and finally to Brttish literature, di­vided at 1850. In each of these chapters, Whaley and Dodge provide means for introducingwomen writers and women's perspectives, even in eras in which they have not been able to locate many titles by women such as the Medieval pertod in Brttish literature. One thing Whaley and Dodge might do more of is brtdge time by suggesting contemporary points of view by women or works bywomen which comment on or parallel those of men in past times. For example, Cotton Mather's chronicle of the witch trtals in early Massachu­setts might be paired with the much later The Devil in Massachusetts by Mirtam Starkey, or James Joyce's "The Dead" might be paralleled with Joyce Carol Oates' "The Dead." Students mightalso find itenlighteningto readAlice Walker's comments on Phillis Wheatley as they read her eighteenth centuryworks. However, in light ofthe numberofsuggestedworks and authors included in their book, to make much of this omission seems a bit over-demanding. The book ends with chapters on teaching novels, teaching a women's literature course, and evaluating student learning in gender-balanced, student-centered classrooms. As has been the case in previous chapters, readers will find many annotated works and detailed ideas for their use. Throughout the book. Whaley and Dodge stress that they do not prescribe teacher mandates; rather, they describe works their students have read. classes they have taught. and strategies they have used successfully in the hopes that teacherswill fmd them useful andwill adapt them to their own classrooms and teaching situations. She speaks of the need to educate the "illiterate intellectual," one who is unaware of or scoffs at multicultural texts or who maintains narrow definitions of literature and art. Oliver's Crossing theMainstream also adopts a non-prescrtptive tone evenwhile it convincingly argues for the inclusion and integration in litera­ture classes ofworks by "non-mainstream" writ­ers. that is, writers who have not until recently, and. in many schools. still do not make frequent appearances inEnglish languagearts classrooms. Oliver contends that all students should readand discuss a wide diversity of texts. both those considered "canonical" and those "outside the canonical mainstream." Any majortty culture which fails to include the works of mtnortty cultures. she insists is "culturally deprtved." She backs her views with evidence from current and Sprtng 1996 71 future demographics. current dropout rates in high schools. and statistics which clearly reveal the inequality of education and living situations in the United States. Teachers can make a differ­ence, she states. By diversi(ying literature offer­ings, by integratingworks by authors from many cultures, teachers can expand students' worlds, assist students in identifYing with literature's stories, make education far more democratic. help eliminate myths ofhate, and aid students in discovering people's sameness. even while they come to understand and appreCiate their differ­ences. Oliver's stance on diversity calls for the inclusion ofnot only texts by minoritywriters and women, but also for texts which treat "ableism, ageism, sexism, and homophobia." She speaks of the need to educate the "illiterate intellectual." one who is unaware of or scoffs at multicultural texts or who maintains narrow definitions of literature and art. For Oliver, clearly the class­room is an arena in which to move students well beyond Eurocentric and ethnocentric values. Oliver details two classes she taught in which she worked to do just that and narrates both her greater and her lesser successes as she shares the books she used, her students' reactions to them. and a semester-long project in which her students researched. read.wrote, and spokeabout non-mainstream authors. She offers nine inte­grated, thematic units; assists those teachers who prefer genre approaches to literature; com­ments on culturally-based, diverse learningstyles; anddiscusses the implicationsofthemulticultural classroom for the teaching of composition. In addition, she gives advice on dealingwith censor­ship, which she sees as being, too often. racist in nature. The midsection of her book, the very long Chapter Eight. may be the one most useful to teachers already committed to integrated. multicultural teaching who desire to know more about "what's out there and where can I fmd it." Here she lists and briefly comments on works by African-American (where is Rita Dove, current U.S. poet laureate?), Asian-American (which she helpfully divides into Chinese, Japanese, Fili­pino, Hmong, Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese). Jewish (where is Grace Paley?J, Latino (Cuban, Mexican American, Puerto Rican-her categories unfortunatelycauseher to leave out Isabel Allende and Julia Alverez, both writers well worth read­ing). and Native American authors. In addition. she includes cross-cultural literature as well as literature which features disabilities, the home­less. homosexuality, Vietnam veterans, teenage suicide. and older adults. Sometimes. as indi­cated above, omissions might be questioned, although to do so may seem to be quibbling in light of the extensive and broad-based nature of the listings present. Thisvaluable listing can only seIVe as a major assist to teachers and librarians eager to widen their classroom and school hold­ings and to all persons interested in more widely diversifYing their readings and outlooks. Both ofthese books should sit prominently on teachers' and preservice teachers' bookshelves. Readers w1lllikely come away from them not only with their heads full of new ideas and new works to read and teach but also with hearts full of confidence that we, as English Language Arts teachers, can make a difference in our students' lives and in their worlds. Works Cited Lee, Harper. To KUl a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1960. Oliver, Eileen Iscoff. Crossing the Mainstream: Multicultural Perspectives in the Teaching of Literature. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1994. Whaley. Liz, and LizDodge. Weaving in theWornelL Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann/BoyntonCook, 1993. 72 Language Arts Journal of Michigan 

Broadening Horizons by Expanding the Canon: Two for Teachers\u27 Bookshelves

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Broadening Horizons by Expanding the Canon: Two for Teachers\u27 Bookshelves

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