My students just finished learning about Realism and reading Huckleberry Finn, so I asked them to write short stories in dialect that reflect the language and places that they know best. Boy, did I open a can of worms!!
First of all, I told them the stories needed to be five pages long. Normally, when I give a page requirement, the kids barely manage to eek out the minimum. If they do the paper, that is. Not this time! No, I'm getting nine, ten, eleven pages per kid. And they're ALL doing it! Which is fabulous, of course, but it makes for a LOT of reading. That, and I promised to give them feedback and a chance to revise, which means I get to read them all AGAIN.
Then there's the content. So far tonight, I have an HIV-positive teen mom, a boy who died of an alcohol overdose, a boy who ODd on cocaine, a girl whose father beats her, and some sort of diva who gets in fights at school and gets suspended (that one's still not finished). All of this is just a little more disturbing since I never know which aspects of the story are based in reality. Regardless, it's pretty darn depressing to think that this is how they see their world.
On the other hand, I'm reading some of the best writing they've ever done. I guess I have to pick my poison: be depressed over bad writing or be depressed over depressing subject matter.
Given those choices, I think I'll go read about the girl who convinces her boyfriend to quit banging but is secretly dying of AIDS.
2 comments:
They're creative! And dramatic! Also maybe they watch too much TV. (Just trying to spin it for you so it doesn't feel so depressing.)
And if the more-depressing elements are based in reality, well, aren't you glad you found a way to give them a voice?
Ah - now I know what you're doing and thinking about at night when I look across our yards and see a single light aglow in your home!! Maybe we'd better lock the doors . . . =)
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