I recently had the wonderful opportunity to attend BYU's English symposium a place were English majors come together to share ideas and learn from one another. There were many different panels going on throughout the days of Thursday and Friday and I was able to attend both the in the classroom panel and the criterion two panel. I found them both to be very well done and I learned a lot from all of the presenters it was a very worthwhile experience.
The in the classroom panel was very interesting as I aspire to be a high school teacher one day, all of the presenters had a focus on broadening our horizons on what should be offered to children in schools and how we can better offer them a good education. Mariah Pilcher gave a very interesting presentation on graphic novels and how we view them. Her point was that although many in society, perhaps particularity the older generation, look down on graphic novels and write them off, they are actually quite beautiful and should be appreciated as literature. It was very eye opening and fascinating to me to consider the quality of a graphic novel and the ability they have to tell stories in a different way than we are used to. This mode of story telling is great for children as they are able to see the story unfolding in the art work and it can even act as a springboard into reading for those that perhaps dont enjoy reading as much. It really just encouraged me to keep an open mind about what types of literature are powerful and being open to exploring what types of books will help kids the most.
Another interesting presentation was given by Morgan Klatskin on the subject of rap and hip hop music as a type of oral literature. This was another opportunity to keep your mind open to the different forms that writing can take. One does not necessarily need to write a sort story or a novel to express what they feel some choose to write these poems put to music to tell a story and we should not discredit this type of literature. These song can be important pieces that help us feel the way that the author feels and take a look from a new perspective.
Overall this was a great experience and really helped me to open my mind a little bit and think about some new ideas. I was grateful to all the presenters for their preparation and hard work in order to help give me some new concepts to think about and look into more deeply myself.
I would have really loved to have gone to the classroom panel. I unfortunately had work. But I loved what you mentioned about discovering new kinds of literature to add to the classroom. I think sometimes too many classics can cause students to hate literature. I feel that having a good range of literature allows students to enjoy it.
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