Inviting Other Theoretical Perspectives

Texts: 
Theory Overview- Feminism and Marxism 
Analyzing Text through Different Lenses 
A lens of of One's Own: Of Yellow Wallpaper and Beautiful Little Fools - Appleman 
Of Grave Diggers and Kings: Reading Literature through the Marxist Lens, or What's Class Got to Do with It? - Appleman
The Case for Critical Theory in the Classroom - Appleman 
Bridging English- Milner and Milner 


Say:

Appleman's, The Case for Critical Theory in a Classroom, begins talking about importance and issues surrounding multiple perspectives. As English teachers, we have such a wide variety of what we can teach and how we teach those texts are important for fostering those kinds of multiple perspectives. Appleman points out that many high school teachers are more removed from modern critical theory, therefore they do not know exactly how to implement it in the classroom. I think I this was my high school experience because we never talked about critical theory; however, we only brought up different lenses or multiple perspectives if someone was brave enough to say something in class or the book actually revolved around Feminist/Marxist theory. As a future teacher, one of my main goals is to have my students reflect on their expanding views and analyze how not only what they think, but how their thinking how their perspective and meaning is constructed based on a larger context. Milner and Milner also state that "critical perspectives produces very different approaches and generate different questions about them"(154). I think bringing in different critical perspectives is very important for high schoolers because it opens up the cannon as well as their thinking into multiple perspectives. 

Introducing all of these critical perspectives can be very daunting for both the teacher and students; however, I think it is important for teachers to show some critical theory in their classroom. No matter what theory a teacher wants to bring into the classroom, I think it is important to introduce it by giving them the background/definitions. Whether a teacher decides to do this with activities, a handout, or lecture notes, students need to have a clear understanding of what we are trying to get them thinking about. Especially for the Marxist and Feminist view because I don't want my students thinking that the Feminist perspective is only for the females of the class and that I am trying to push communism on them. In A Lens of One's Own: Of Yellow Wallpaper and Beautiful Little Fools, she gave a few ways to introduce the feminist lens which I liked because would like to do some activities that allows me to understand what they already know about these theories or at least what they immediately think of on hearing it. These critical theories all have multiple perspectives within them and I think it's important for a teacher to help students navigate all those different perspectives or definitions. These critical theories also help re-imagine older texts such as Shakespeare and Fitzgerald. This brings new perspectives for different characters and I think can help engage more students with these older texts. These new perspectives can be used in a variety of activities such as creating voices for the voiceless by looking at those different lenses. 

Similar to A Lense of One's own and the Feminist perspective, the Marxist perspective allows for students to see the text and literary cannon by looking through the Marxist lens. In Of Grave Diggers and Kings: Reading Literature through the Marxist Lens, or What's Class Got to Do With It?, the article refers to the importance of distinguishing between Marxist Literary theory and Marxism/Communism which is important for students to understand. I also like this perspective because it opens up the students thinking in the context of the socio-political world that they live in. I want my students to question the forces that dictate their lives and critical think about how their perspective is constructed by those forces. This kind of questioning also lends itself to analyzing the cannon and the works that they are reading. The English major in me is worried about these types of questions because we love the classics and trust the cannon; however, I do acknowledge that it is important to question the forces that affected how the cannon was constructed. All of the critical theories and lenses help develop multiple perspectives for our students while they are also becoming critical thinkers about the text they are reading as well as the world that shapes the texts, their lives, and meaning making. 


Do:
I always liked the Jigsaw Group activity from Milner and Milner for critical synthesis. I think it works well for initiating thoughts or perspectives on a particular text from looking at multiple angles. I also think this could be a great way for students to teach other students about the different perspectives, instead of a teacher having a handout with a powerpoint and notes. Each group could be responsible for a different critical theory and then teach what they learned to the other students. If we are focusing on one text, I think that jigsaw could work for one text because they could look at the text through different lenses. My students will eventually read Hamlet and The Great Gatsby so I would like to have a few activities similar to the ones given in the article Of Grave Diggers and Kings. I especially liked the idea of visualizing the order of the political society/power dynamics as well as going into the feminist perspective with the female characters.