HOW TO TEACH FANTASY FICTION?

Today, computers and media have practically invaded our lives, so, it is vital to bear this in mind when teaching our students. Fantasy is closely linked with high technology and it can restore reading to its proper place among teen-agers and the youth, addicted to computer games, the internet and movies. Fantasy has generated a fashion and boosted the book sales making people read again, due to the massive promotion of movies, computer games, soundtracks, DVD’s, blogs (personal public journals), blooks: serialized books on weblogs, literary and movie sites on the internet, the MOO (Multi-Object Oriented) on-line chat rooms that stimulate discussion among book and film fans worldwide in the common language which is mainly English. Although, fantasy has been labeled as escapist literature it has, nevertheless, deep roots in reality, offering archetypal, everlasting vistas of the human experience, giving the modern man, a chance to keep his humanity, to reflect upon the past and hopefully learn his lesson in building his future.

Fantasy fiction is a captivating, fun, motivating, rewarding, encouraging language acquisition, shaping and stirring both emotions and the intellect. It stimulates shaping of opinions through speaking, effective reading and creative writing and expands the interest in the specific target culture being a valuable authentic educational resource. Literature helps improve students’ abilities to interpret situations and characters, to shape a modus operandi, to develop a critical, independent, creative thinking.

The difficult texts can be adapted for younger learners, generating a variety of student-centered tasks in: Pre-reading, While reading And Post-Reading Activities. The teacher is a guide and resource provider who stimulates the pupils to actively involve themselves into reading and discover their own responses to the text, providing only the basic principles of interpretation. The students’ aesthetic and educational growth proves the value of literature which also stimulates the learners’ initiative and awareness to studying.

Teachers could start teaching of fantasy literature by presenting:

A. Fantasy features: hard core characteristics to help students recognize it.

B. Major writers: J.R.R. TOLKIEN, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, J.K. Rowling.

C. Sub-genres: high/epic fantasy, humorous, sword & sorcery, children’s fantasy etc, illustrating each sub-genre with a fragment.

Tolkien the father of modern epic or high fantasy, created a believable ‘secondary universe’ of his own, in his masterpiece ‘The Lord of the Rings’. He said that fantasy appeals to all minds and it is a path to knowledge. Tolkien brilliantly mixed various elements from myths, legends and fairy tales in his trilogy.

WHAT BASIC SKILLS SHOULD WE TEACH OUR STUDENTS?

The Development of the literary competence. An effective reader masters certain skills and converts the literary text into literary meaning. Conventions: are the product of the reader’s exposure to literary texts they lead to interpretation on the basis of a set of expectations. The teacher initiates the student on various aspects of the literary work: text structure (surface/deep content structure), the author and the reader (implied or real). Students are trained to recognize the distinctive features of a fantasy fiction and develop literary competence skills: a) The plot. b) The setting. c) The characters. d) The narrator’s point of view. e) The language. f) The theme.

PRE-READING ACTIVITIES

The pre-reading activities stir the students’ interest, help them relax, get them into the fantasy mood in order to approach the sample text. The teacher tries to: access the students’ prior knowledge; build students’ content knowledge; set a purpose for reading and motivate learners. Some activities can also be done as post-reading activities.

- Brainstorm/Cluster map - warm up exercise related tot the topic of the story, students review the typical characteristics of fantasy fiction, specifying and speculating on their expectations about it.

- Photo – Problem Solving- the teacher divides the class into groups and lets each group choose a photo or drawing related to the story then asks them to write a speech, set up a story line, make predictions as to what they think is going on in that particular scene of the story. Activities: 1. write a speech for the character, present it to the class; 2. If you made a play about the situation your character is in, what would your first scene be?

- Archaic versus Modern Matching Vocabulary Activity: a pre-reading activity, the language used is Middle/Old English or academic style that is less accessible to students. The students have to match the archaic with the modern word, guess meaning etc.

- Word Webs, Star Diagrams or Cluster maps bubbles – other types of pre-reading activities that focus students’ attention while they brainstorm the major characteristics of fantasy literature.

- Knowledge Chart: ‘Know, Want to Know, Learned – the graphic organizer helps students share their information about a story/topic and ask research questions which they will answer during a unit of study. The teacher checks what notions, language structures and vocabulary etc the students already know. Next, students will have to list what they would ‘Want to know’. The last rubric ‘Learned’ is filled in after the unit is finished and the students list what they have found out.

KNOW

WANT TO KNOW

LEARNT

They are trilogies. They have specific characters: elves, wizards, trolls, dragons, spells etc. They have happy endings.

Specific traits in Tolkien’s fantasy: characters – Orcs, Hobbits. Specific influences: fairy tales and Scandinavian myths etc.

- Think – Pair -(Quickwrite) –Share: students think about a topic or theme and tie it to their own experience. A. Think: The teacher invites the students to think of a topic, for example, a time when something miraculous happened to them. B. Pair: Next, students find partners, tell their stories to them. * Quickwrite - Their colleagues take notes to remember details, if they want to. C. Share: the first pair gets together with another pair of students. Each person takes a turn retelling his or her partner’s story. The group can select one or two stories, bits of information to share with the class.

WHILE-READING ACTIVITIES

- a. Jigsaw Reading; b. Reciprocal Reading; c. Echo Reading; d. Popcorn Reading collaborative learning techniques.

- Completion of blank summary – a god memory exercise after the reading of the sample text students can review the main ideas.

- Building sentences/paragraphs – students re-arrange the jumbled elements or key-words to make up sentences; or re-arrange bits of sentences to make up a paragraph related to the sample text: summarizing it, characterizing the protagonists.

- Character development and plot – fragment analysis and predictions check.

Characters

TLOR As they are in the book As you imagined them

Aragorn

Compassionate, brave, smart

Strong, mysterious, tall …

Gandalf

Wise, skilled, kind, brave

Old, Wise, tall, funny…

Frodo

Kind, innocent, brave

Fat, learned, generous…

Pippin

Curious, impatient, brave

Naughty, curious, lazy…

- Photo Speech – students read the fragment, get a photo of the characters in the sample text and try to make up a speech, commenting on their decisions and the situations.

- Thought Tracking – Scenario – is a good theatre/drama/directing activity.

1. The Teacher gives the students sheets of paper with the story/fragment.

2. They lie back with their eyes closed and listen to the scenario. While the teacher tells them the plot, they think of a character they would like to be within the story.

3. The students to take turns and tell their characters’ version/view of what happened.

4. When all the information is gathered the teacher helps students re-create it into scenes.

POST-READING ACTIVITIES

- Jumbled events – students get strips of paper with statements written on or photos of the characters/events in the story and have to re-arrange them in the chronological order or they specify the fantastic elements in the text. Application for ‘Eragon’.

Statements – ‘Eragon’ (by Christopher Paolini )

1. Eragon leaves his home after Garrow, his uncle, is killed by the Ra’zac who are looking for the dragon egg.

2. Arya casts a spell on the blue stone and it lands right in front of Eragon who is hunting in the mountains.

3. The blue dragon hatches. It is called Saphira and Eragon is her Rider. He is marked with the Dragon – Rider’s mark ‘gedway ignasia’ on his right palm.

4. Brom the story teller speaks about the former days and the Dragon Riders saying ‘that one Dragon -Rider’ will return and save the people of Alagesia fighting evil and King Galbatorix – prophecy.

- GRAPHIC ORGANUZERS: 1. Venn Diagram; 2. Character Sociogram; 3. Timeline; 4. Fishbone 5. Story Board; 6. Detail Map.

- The Venn Diagram: a graphic organizer of interlocking circles that helps learners to visually organize the similarities and differences between characters, stories or other elements. The common traits are placed in the middle section.

Application to ‘The Subtle Knife’ Philip Pullman.

- Character Sociogram: students make a graphic, on big chart, reflecting the relationship of a main character with other characters in the story. Students work in groups. 1. Learners write the names of characters in separate boxes. 2. On arrows drawn between the boxes they write a word or two describing the relationship between the 2 characters. 3. They write a question one character can ask another. 4. Students assume the roles of the various characters and answer the questions. 5. Students can add other characters and boxes if appropriate. Application to ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

- The Fishbone: 1. The teacher writes the final outcome of the story on the board, in a box at the top of the Fishbone. 2. Students write the main causes or the outcome on the “fish-bones”. 3. The smaller but significant details should be written in between the “fish-bones”. Application to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ Tolkien.

- Story-making using guide-lines: students write a story according to the plan: 1. Main character is positive or negative. 2. He/She has an aim, goes on a quest. 3. He/She passes through several trials/tests/events in order to fulfill her/his task. 4. The last event is the most difficult. 5. Happy ending. Evil is defeated. The dead come back to life. The activity can be done as a contest. The best story is chosen by the students.

- Plot Profile – is a graphic organizer activity that helps the students clarify their perception on the events in the story and the level of involvement/excitement of the characters in these events.

1. Students work in groups and fill in the ‘plot profile’ worksheet. 2. Students write sentences in the first slot from 1 to 12 to summarize the plot. 3. Students draw the graphic in the second slot reflecting the level of involvement of the character(s) their evolution in the story, they use different colours for different protagonists.

- HOT SEAT - Character Analysis: group activity that allows the students to become a character in the text, analyze the hero of a story and answer questions from other colleagues in the group from the protagonist’s point of view. 1. The teacher divides the class into small groups of 3 to 5 students. Each group writes 3 or 4 questions to ask the character, related on his/her motivation for doing something. 2. Each group sends one person to the next table or in front of the room to be in the “Hot Seat”. The “Hot Seat” students answer questions from the other groups.

- Thought Bubbles – is a good post-reading activity during which the students use the sample texts or book quotes and fill in the chart, analyzing what the characters say and think. For instance, ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

Character says

Character thinks

I think

ARAGORN: says his name is Strider and he is a ‘mere Ranger from the north’. He tells Frodo the Nazgul are close and he is not carrying a trinket.

He thinks Fordo and the Hobbits are in terrible danger. He knows Frodo caries ‘The One Ring’ and his destiny is to help all those who oppose the evil Sauron. He fears they will get caught.

I believe that Strider is a hero and his identity and mission/part will be revealed later on in the book. He will manage to help the Hobbit run away form the enemy.

- Story Pyramid – revises the fragment or book and helps students organize the story elements into a pyramid by filling in its 8 sections on a worksheet: 1. The name of the main character(s). 2. Two words describing the main character(s). 3. Three words to describe the setting in the story. 4. Four words to state the problem. 5. Five words describing the first event that caused a problem. 6. Six words to describe the second event which lead to conflict. 7. Seven words describing the 3rd event that lead to the climax of the conflict. 8. Eight words describing the solution, happy ending in the tale.

NON-LITERARY AUTHENTIC FORMATS

Students are shown a model in order to observe: the layout, style, length and register:

1. Guide to a TV or Radio serial: The teacher tells students that the work they are studying is serialized on TV or Radio. They are shown an example of he “TV Guide and Radio Guide” in a newspaper and then they must write a very brief account of a scene of their work as though for that publication.

2. Newspaper Articles: The teacher asks the students to choose a highlight scene from the work they are studying. She shows them examples of genuine newspaper articles. The students write about the events in the literary work, for one of these newspapers. Students can be given a headline for a prompt and a maximum number of words.

3. Missing Person: the format is applicable to many literary works. The teacher shows the students an example of such a missing person poster. She asks them to write one for a character who has gone missing in the story they are reading.

4. Blogs - reflect the transition from the printed page to the electronic format turning diaries into ‘weblogs’ or ‘public diaries’, commentaries originating in the virtual world, becoming blooks printed texts to read. Bloggers make ordinary daily observations on life and using the internet to write blog books or blooks which they pay to have printed. Sometimes, ‘blook’ can refer to a serialized book on a weblog with chapters published one by one on separate ‘blog post’. A good idea would be to have students write and exchange their ‘bolgs’ and make comments on whatever topic is of interest for them during on-line classes. This would stimulate on-line communication, access to information and cultural exchange through dialogue among different communities. Students’ awareness on global concern issues would raise: the relationship between private and public space, respect for authors’ rights, safety of published content and originality and quality of texts.