Connecting Literature to World Issues

In Gallagher’s chapter eight I found that the “Meaningful Reflection” activities that stood out the most to me were the ones that connected literature to today’s issues. I found that these activity examples were quite valuable. I particularly like the “the most valuable Idea” activity found on (page 159-160). Here there is the goal to connect valuable ideas from the literature to an example in the “real world” that illustrates the same idea, then to explain this connection. This activity can be inquiry based in the sense that student will search for a news paper articles that appropriately connects to their chosen theme.

My concern with these valuable activities is, are teenagers up to date with current issues? Do our students have previous experiences with drawing from the news in meaningful ways? I have never grown up with a newspaper being delivered to my house daily, nor did I watch the news as a teenager. What I learned about local issues was primarily from short passages and discussions on the radio. I feel that teenagers are somewhat knowledgeable and perhaps even passionate about broad issues and extremely local issues, such as gender issues and if the drinking age in Saskatoon will be changed. However, I feel that many teenagers do not keep up to date with the current news that includes current issues on many different levels. This lack of awareness might make these activities more difficult, however I believe that is all the more reason to do them. By assigning students activities such as “the most valuable Idea” we are not only challenging them to connect literature to world issues, but we are also familiarising them with the issues that are present.

Gallagher suggests that by asking yourself, “what do I hope my students will take from this book?” before you begin teaching helps to “tease out the real issues - those universal concerns found in any great book that mean a great deal to teenagers” (p.154). I think it is then important to also ask “what do I hope my students will take out of this activity?” In this case I would hope that my students would be building their skills to navigate and understand the news better in addition to the goal of having them connect valuable ideas from the literature to an example in the “real world.”