Using Little Red Riding Hood to Teach Gender in the English Classroom
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Göteborgs universitets publikationer - e-publicering och e-arkiv USING LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD TO TEACH GENDER IN THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM Gothenburg University Dept of Languages and Literatures/English Helena Melin, 880914 C-level paper, 15 hec Interdisciplinary Degree Project Teacher Education Program LP01 Supervisor: Ron Paul Examiner: Fereshteh Zangenehpour Grade: Date/Signature: ABSTRACT Title: Using Little Red Riding Hood to teach gender in the English classroom Author: Helena Melin Term and year: Fall 2012 Institution: Department of Languages and Literature Supervisor: Ron Paul Key words: Literature, pedagogy, Upper Secondary School, language, gender, Little Red Riding Hood In this essay I explore ideas about how to work with fairy tales and gender, but also discuss the potentials and problems with the approach. Gender roles can often be cemented and maintained in Upper Secondary School, which is the reason why I want to highlight and discuss the matter with students. The questions I seek to investigate in the essay are: Which teaching methods can be used when working with gender stereotypes in the fairy tale, in the English classroom? In what way is Little Red Riding Hood suitable to work with in class? The main goal with this classroom project, which can extend over a period of five weeks, is to give students in Upper Secondary School tools to problematize, analyze, and discuss the idea of gender stereotypes in one of the world’s most well-known fairy tales: Little Red Riding Hood. Another aim is for the students to be critical and aware of what they read so that they can see hidden meanings in a text. Ideas of exercises, inspired by Collie & Slater and Josephson, to work with in a classroom context are presented. These are used as tools in order to problematize gender in fairy tales. The exercises cover comparing beginnings, dramatizing a part of a story, writing the inner dialogue of a character or tale, and finally the hot seat. TABLE OF CONTENT 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Thesis ................................................................................................................................ 2 1.3 Pedagogical aspects .......................................................................................................... 4 1.3.1 Using literature in language teaching ......................................................................... 4 1.3.2 Little Red Riding Hood in the language classroom .................................................... 9 2 Versions and aspects of Little Red Riding Hood to work with ............................................. 11 3 The process of working with Little Red Riding Hood ........................................................... 20 3.2 Comparing beginnings .................................................................................................... 20 3.3 Trailers ............................................................................................................................ 23 3.4 Writing the inner dialogue of a character........................................................................ 24 3.5 The hot seat ..................................................................................................................... 24 4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 26 References ................................................................................................................................ 27 Appendix I ................................................................................................................................ 29 1 1 INTRODUCTION A basic value in Upper Secondary School is equality between women and men (The National Agency for Education, 2011 b). There is also emphasis on teaching from a gender equality perspective as an overall goal to strive for. In support of these core values of Upper Secondary School, I have chosen to work with gender in literature, or fairy tales to be more exact. I believe that working with literary texts in the English language classroom is a natural part of teaching today. In this essay I will not only explore some ideas about how to work with literature, but also discuss the potentials and problems with this approach. The timetable which will be presented is preliminary and can be modified to suit different conditions for the teacher and the classroom. The main aim with this classroom project, which can extend over a period of five weeks, is to give students in Upper Secondary School tools to problematize, analyze and discuss the idea of gender stereotypes in one of the world’s most well-known fairy tales: Little Red Riding Hood. The reason I have chosen this aspect of working with the fairy tale is to challenge the students on something they, in most cases, have an opinion about and are familiar with. I want the students to advance in the reading process rather than simply seeing the words and the story the words form; the goal is to reveal the hidden meanings behind the fairy tale. Proceeding with the discussion of what affects a possible underlying meaning might have on readers can be the next step in the project process. All students are probably not at the same language level which means that the teacher will need to bring up, and support, those who need it. The core aim of the project is therefore for students to become critical and aware of what they read. According to The National Agency for Education, schools should make every endeavor to encourage and help students develop critical thinking (2011 b). A critical 2 approach is not only useful in English 6 and 7, it is a goal to aim for (The National Agency for Education, 2011 a). The student skills the teacher should aim to improve are, as Hedge notes, reading, listening, writing and speaking. In addition, the aim is to encourage students to improve their skill in interpreting a chosen text. Collie & Slater describe several methods to use in the language classroom when including literature in teaching. Not all suggestions by Collie & Slater are feasible in all groups of students however, due to different needs of the students. Part of the teacher’s role will therefore be to choose between the methods in order to pinpoint the teaching practice in a specific group or class. I find the methods I choose to present as functional tools in the process of problematizing gender. Another aim in the syllabus for English in Upper Secondary School is “through teaching students should also be given the opportunity to develop correctness in their use of language in speech and writing, and also the ability to express themselves with variation and complexity”, which I hope these tools will encourage and develop (The National Agency for Education, 2011 a). 1.2 THESIS Do fairy tales stereotype gender roles? The purpose of this project is to explore ideas about how to work with literature and gender in an English classroom in Upper Secondary School. Since I want to start a discussion about and encourage awareness of gender roles amongst students, I have chosen to work with the fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood. According to The National Agency for Education “teaching should encourage students' curiosity in language and culture …”, which is a point I find very important when working in Upper Secondary School (2011 a). In this literary project the class will work with several versions of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood in order to problematize, analyze and discuss how gender stereotypes are 3 portrayed in the different versions. Thus, students can choose a version to analyze from a gender perspective of their choice: masculinity, femininity, seduction, etc. Since Little Red Riding Hood is well-known, and read all around the world, the tale can function a a common denominator for the class. According to Lundahl, this could be an advantage in the sense that most of the students will have read the tale in their mother tongue and therefore are already acquainted with the story (Lundahl, 23). This can be beneficial both for themselves and the group members who have not read it. Students who are unfamiliar with the tale have the opportunity of hearing a classmate’s version and memories of it and those who are familiar with it get to refresh their memories by retelling it. The many versions of the tale give the teacher an even better range of material to discuss and analyze. The tale is relevant today since it is still rewritten and used both in books and in the film industry such as the TV-series Once upon a time, and several movies: Little Red Riding Hood from -03, -05, -07, and -11. The different versions of Little Red Riding Hood should be used as tools in this discussion. First of all they give an overview of the development of the tale. Moreover, the tales provide clear contrasts and issues to work with gender stereotypes. During students’ time at Upper Secondary School, gender roles can be cemented and maintained, something which is important to bring to light and question. I believe that working with gender in Little Red Riding Hood is a way to be up to date with the present gender discussion and bring it into the classroom context where it is needed the most. The main aim of this essay is to give teachers a clear idea of