Before Draco Meets Harry -- Fanfiction Blog

** For my fanfiction piece, I have decided to add on to the beginning of the scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone where Draco Malfoy meets Harry Potter on the train to Hogwarts. I chose this scene, first of all, because I enjoyed reading Harry Potter much more than the other two novels that were a part of this project list; and also because I have read all of the Harry Potter books and am, therefore, quite familiar with the characters. I have never been interested in fan fiction, so this was quite a strange exercise for me to participate in. I am also not (and never have been) a good creative writer, so even thinking about doing this assignment was daunting. It honestly made me think about how some of my students feel when I give them a writing assignment that "scares" them, haha! Nevertheless, here is what I came up with (DON'T LAUGH! :-D)....... **

The train continued on its way from London to Hogwarts as all of the passengers mingled about. Some were chatting with old pals about their summer adventures, while others were making new friends as they shared their giddiness and fears about their upcoming first year at Hogwarts. Draco sat sulking in his train compartment with his bookend pals, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabb, who were arguing over who would get the extra piece of neon green candy from the Every Flavored Jelly Beans box. Even though they both knew the jelly bean was a horridly disgusting snot flavor, they argued just the same. Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy, had told him over and over again how important it was that he stand out at Hogwarts and live up to the family name. Draco knew that his knowledge of wizarding skills was nowhere near what his father's was when he had first started at Hogwarts. "How am I supposed to stand out if there are so many students that are much smarter than I?" Draco thought to himself. As he sat immersed in thought, he overheard several passengers in the halls of the train murmuring about the "celebrity" on board: the famous Harry Potter. Draco instantly had an idea-- if he could befriend Potter, he would instantly become popular with instructors and students by being friends with such a famous young wizard. He remembered their brief encounter at Madam Malkin's a few weeks prior as they were being fitted for robes. At the time, Draco had no idea who this new boy was, but was later informed by Madam Malkin just who he had been speaking to. Draco knew that befriending Harry would not be an easy thing for him to do. Harry was obviously close with Hagrid and the Weasley family, all of whom Draco's family despised. Holding his tongue would be quite a challenge, but he must do what he could. Determined, Draco rose from his seat and hushed Crabb and Goyle who were still in the middle of their argument, both with a hand on the box of jelly beans. With a wave of his hand, the two immediately followed Draco down the train halls as if they were hypnotized by Draco's presence alone.

Twilight and The Students' Right to Read

Ok, I have to be honest-- I did not enjoy reading Twilight one bit. I continually had to force myself to keep reading. I found it to be tripe nonsense with simple vocabulary and boring plot lines. Now, does that mean that I would discourage my adolescent students from reading it? No, of course not... unless I knew that my student was a voracious reader with an excellent vocabulary... then I might encourage them to read something a little bit more challenging. My theory is that as long as a student is reading something then I am happy, but it would be difficult to be "thrilled" to see my students reading this. I would never (I know, "never say never", but I think I mean it this time) use this book in my adolescent literature curriculum. I don't even think it would be a book that I would include in my classroom library. In short-- NOT A FAN!

I did, however, thoroughly enjoy reading the NCTE Guideline on The Students' Right to Read. This is an issue that I am quite passionate about, so I was quite happy to see the NCTE's stance on the matter of censorship. The article did an excellent job of summing up my thoughts on the matter, but I think that Justice William Douglas from the Supreme Court said it best in the case of Adler v. Board of Education in 1951:

"Where suspicion fills the air and holds scholars in line for fear of their jobs, there can be no exercise of the free intellect... A problem can no longer be pursued with impunity to its edges. Fear stalks the classroom. The teacher is no longer a stimulant to adventurous thinking; she becomes instead a pipe line for safe and sound information. A deadening dogma takes the place of free inquiry. Instruction tends to become sterile; pursuit of knowledge is discouraged; discussion often leaves off where it should begin."

I couldn't have said it better myself....

Research Project

Teacher Inquiry Topic
Preparing elementary students to successfully read classical literature

Research Questions
1- Are students prepared at an elementary level to effectively read classical literature once they reach secondary school?
2- What are students expected to read immediately following elementary education?
3- Are there basal series that incorporate classical literature (even excerpts)?
4- As an elementary educator, am I preparing my students to be successful in an adolescent literature classroom?

Sources
So far I have collected the Language Arts basal curriculums from each elementary grade in my school (this consists of grades K-5 Houghton Mifflin Reading series: http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/index.jsp). I plan on researching scholarly articles this upcoming week, but a good portion of my research paper will be "action research" so I was mostly interested in obtaining the necessary information for that first! I also plan on contacting a middle school in the district to get copies of their curriculum to see which texts students are required to read as soon as they enter 6th grade.

Findings/Progress
My main goal this past week has been to visit a teacher from each grade level (excluding my own) in my building (K-5), chat with them about the literature that is offered to their students throughout the year and to obtain copies of the basal curriculums that they use. I have brought these home and have started leafing through them searching for any classical literature that is included (nothing so far... but I'm only about 3/4 of the way through the 1st grade curriculum). I know that many teachers in my building do not only use the basals, but incorporate a good amount of supplemental reading materials, so I am thinking about creating a survey for my project to pass out to teachers in my building requesting information about supplemental reading materials and/or topics that are discussed in the classroom throughout the school year (I am lucky to have a building that is very collegial; I know that all teachers would willingly participate). I suppose I could extend this survey to the middle school as well, asking 6th/7th grade teachers if they feel that their students are prepared to read the materials that they are given in the beginning of the year.

Persepolis and "Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School"

I was introduced to Persepolis by my husband earlier this year, and quickly devoured both books. I found them to be extremely informative about a subject that I knew close to nothing about. This was the first graphic novel that I (consciously) read and I can honestly say that it changed my mind about the way these books can be used, especially in a classroom. This text would absolutely be one that I would place into an adolescent literature curriculum! Ideally, I would like to work with a Social Studies teacher to make this a cross-curricular unit-- obviously someone in that field would (should) have more knowledge about the issues that Persepolis discusses. Being able to see the crisis in Iran through the eyes of a teenager would only heighten the interest and comprehension of the material in a classroom setting.

The article Using Graphic Novels... was interesting, although, because of my research background, I would have preferred to have a bit more of a solid conclusion than this offered. I see that the instructors using the writing activities along with a graphic novel felt that their assignments/unit plans were successful, but I personally saw no concrete evidence of the fact. My concerns with this article were the fact that the teachers were very focused on these urban students being able to read "illustrated stories;" however, I am not sure how practical this actually is. Does using graphic novels help these students to read non-fiction texts or any other genre? Realistically, what types of texts are the students going to be reading later in their lives? I did like how this article related the usefulness of graphic novels to ELL students... this, obviously, is very practical if for no other reason than to help to learn the language.

On p. 20, Frey and Fisher say that they used Will Eisner's novels because "his subject matter was primarily about urban life and therefore addressed topics familiar to the students..." As a Reading Specialist, I know that any time a reader can connect to a text, their comprehension of that text automatically (in the majority of cases) increases. So, this makes me wonder if the reason the use of graphic novels was effective in enhancing writing in these students was ONLY because of the genre, or if it had more to do with the fact that the novels they were reading discussed topics of great interest to the students!

Despite my criticism, I was able to find useful techniques for the use of graphic novels in a classroom in this article. For example, I particularly like the "shades of meaning" metaphor on p. 21. This is something that I could use in my 5th grade class as an excellent vocabulary activity, which could assist them in their writing. I also liked the idea of giving students disposable cameras to use "illustrate" their stories. This is also something that I could do in my classroom. I am interested to see if there are graphic novels that are suitable for use in an elementary classroom. Persepolis is a text that I could use (maybe) with my highest reading group, but definitely not the majority of my class. Does anyone know of a particular text that would work? Please share!