In the Classroom: To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a staple of our 8th grade English curriculum. In an effort to breathe new life into teaching this classic of modern American literature, Faculty Fellow Angela Hagans guided students (and faculty) through the process of using Prezi to demonstrate what they had learned about a character or theme from the story. Angela and her teaching colleague Candice Baumann crafted their reflections and graciously agreed to share their experience with a wider audience. Enjoy!
Angela: Inspiration, Adaptation, and Being Intentional
Candice sent me the materials she had previously used for TKM. In several email attachments I found vocabulary words, reading notes, a multi-genre project, and a variety of miscellaneous files. The mutli-genre project caught my eye, instantly I had an idea to both revamp the project and introduce students (and incidentally Candice herself) to the Prezi.
In the upper school I’d seen teachers use the Prezi in the place of PowerPoint and other presentation editors, but I had not seen students introduced and asked to create something with the technology. The idea of allowing them to take charge and create something new based on TKM was too good to pass up.
I spent the following weekend brainstorming and adapting the multi-genre project for the Prezi. The original project consisted of three parts: a creative writing piece, a visual arts piece, and a technological piece. From the materials given to me by Candice it was clear that students had to add another layer to the book outside of what is presented by Scout’s (the narrator) point of view. It seemed to me that the Prezi would provide an interesting medium to bring all three components of the project to one place.
Before presenting the idea to Candice I showed her previous Prezi’s I had created.
With Candice’s support I immediately started work on a TKM Prezi to introduce students to both the technology as well as how TKM could be transformed. I began by playing around with images (both contemporary and historic) to represent the varying aspects of Scout and Maycomb. I decided to focus on the first half of the book based on Scout’s viewpoint. My first crack at creating a Prezi for TKM left me feeling as if I was not quite expressing what I needed. I was not being intentional enough. I had to sit down and rethink how to arrange the Prezi to show students the capabilities of a Prezi (the cool zooming effects and hidden images within larger words and images) while having an invisible path that made sense to 8th graders. Furthermore, I had to be more intentional about content. If I was going to ask 8th grade students to not only tackle a new technology but to complete an assignment worth a significant part of their grade I had to be intentional about showing them new aspects of the book not presented directly in the text.
I presented my rather lengthy and content heavy Prezi to students. We discussed how I had given my Prezi its path, why I had chosen to visually present it the way I did, and why I chose the images I used. Students understood that while my path was invisible there was indeed a method to my madness. I chose to path my Prezi based on the chronology of the book, introducing characters as they were introduced by Scout. I used quotes from Scout to give a snapshot view of the characters personality. For example “Jem was born hero” and “Dill Harris could tell the biggest one’s I’d ever heard”. Furthermore, family members were placed together in frames to represent kinship, something highly important to the older citizens of Maycomb. A map of Maycomb, drawn by a child, was used as the centerpiece of my Prezi. Students were asked why this was appropriate – the narrator Scout is a young girl.
Through Scout readers are introduced to the geography of Maycomb as well as the underlining themes of race, class, and gender. Using Scout I introduced students to the conflict between Scout’s tomboyish ways and the sweet young lady Jean Louise (Scout’s birth name) is supposed to be according to the matriarch of the family (Aunt Alexandra). To introduce the theme of racism, students were shown a series of quotes from Scout about her caretaker Calpurnia and the mistreatment of the Robinson family compared to the much despised Ewells. Lastly, Scout’s encounters with the Cunninghams and Ewells gave the perfect opportunity to introduce students to the underlying theme of classism.
After presenting, I informed students that they would soon be given the opportunity to create their own Prezis. They were instructed to begin thinking about what they would like to do – they were not allowed to use Scout. They were told that they needed to choose a character or a theme based on TKM and add another layer based on their own understanding.
Lessons Learned
While hindsight is a blessing, it means nothing if it does not lead to reflection and lessons learned. In designing and implementing this project I learned quite a bit:
- Eighth grade students for the most part may be easily overwhelmed and/or will do the least amount of work when introduced to new technology.
- While some projects were brilliant, far too many were subpar and showed little understanding for the intended goal of the project. Learning how to create a Prezi was secondary goal and due to its status as new technology for these students became the focal point instead of the book.
- More class time is needed to discuss the capabilities of the Prezi as an English tool
- In my view, the Prezi is a much needed complement to the study of classic literature. In a one-to-one school such as MICDS often students fail to see the value of classic texts, with computers always at arm’s length there is always a video or pre-packaged tool to use. With the Prezi students are pushed to evaluate the book and incorporate visual support for the themes found in literature. Imagine a student giving a presentation on symbolism and using images to present to his or her peers. Or a student wanting to delve deeper into the use of juxtaposition as a literary tool and using the technology of the Prezi to give a visual representation of its usage in a novel. Using the Prezi students are able to create a marriage between the never ending resources they have access to via the web and stylistic elements of classroom literature.
- In teaching the Prezi to students, Candice also became a student.
Similar to any other student presentation, a Prezi must be graded not only on the visual aspect, but on what is added. Students own perspectives and interpretations of the novel must shine through creating a second layer to the story.
Candice: Becoming the Student
Angela sat next to me one day and said, “Hey. Have you ever seen a Prezi?”
“No,” I replied, “I’ve never even heard of one.”
“Here, let me show you one I made.”
And she did. I was amazed at what Angela had accomplished with this application and asked if she thought it would work as a tool for my students to use for a project for To Kill a Mockingbird. We commiserated on the objectives of the lesson, but I settled back and for the next couple of classes, while Angela taught, and became a student myself.
This is what I learned:
- It is not easy to learn a new application. It takes time and practice and repetition.
- It is not easy to put all the steps together. Lessons need to be broken into chunks.
- Students need to see the objective of the project clearly before they undertake putting the project together.
- It would be a great idea to talk through ideas before allowing students to pull information together from the internet.
- Students need to create a Prezi file!
- Putting in the pathways could drive a person crazy! (Until they discover this sweet shortcut!!! Which now that Angela showed me, I can explain it to students myself ahead of time).
- Teachers should create their own projects because then we can troubleshoot better! (Having been through the process ourselves)
- The Prezi can help enhance presentations that start out with a broad idea and focus into a main idea, Prezis are good for comparing and contrasting, and Prezis do not take the place of an oral presentation but rather enhance the oral presentation.
- It is a good idea for the student to write the presentation first…then create the Prezi around it.
- Prezis are a good tool for a creative and more informal presentation…the PowerPoint is better for a formal and more direct presentation.
To experience Prezi for yourself, create a free account and then visit the Prezi Academy for Basic, Advanced, and Expert lessons that will guide you through the creation process. As Angela, Candice, and the students will attest, Prezi can be a very powerful tool for teaching and learning…even when applied to a modern classic.
