Sparknotes: Best Friend or Worst Enemy?

Passing through our school library one day a few years ago I noticed a student of mine from the previous year sitting at a computer looking at the Sparknotes.com pages for Orwell's 1984. I remembered this student as a fairly conscientious kid who always had something to say about the books we read last year. I liked him, sometimes giving him an extra couple of days on essays he didn't submit in time.

I didn't talk to him about what he was doing there violating what many English teachers consider the only commandment that matters ("thou shall not use Sparknotes"), but it got me thinking. Did he Sparknote his way through English 11 last year? Did he Sparknote his way through my class?

And so I began a serious discussion with myself about Sparknotes in the English classroom. I concluded a couple of things. I share a portion of these thoughts now. Feel free to disagree.

It seems to me that when teachers assign a novel as part of their class, what they are really doing is surveying the novel. Yeah, reading the book is part of that survey, but at the end of the day, can a teacher really control whether or not a kid reads? The answer is no. Pop quizzes? That's where Sparknotes came from, for crying out loud. And by the way, how about the kid who reads, but doesn't get what he read? Chances are, he bombs the pop the quiz. Then what have you done? You screwed a kid who did what you wanted him to do.

Another thought is this: when you assign a novel, why are you assigning it.? What are the enduring understandings you want students to take from their survey of the novel? What are those big ideas you want students to think about or remember when they think of the book? Is one of them "reading?" Probably not. Again, you hope the kids read, but you are never really sure, are you?

Teachers think kids use Sparknotes for the following reasons:

1) It's easier than reading the book, and kids today are lazy.

2) It saves time, which allows them more chances to IM, text, play online games, or cruise myspace.

I don't argue with these reasons; I'm the first to admit that kids are lazy. But I think if the book is good, if the student likes it, they will attempt to make the time to read. For me Sparknotes is something I can't control, so I don't try. What I do is make sure that kids are reading books they will enjoy.

When I coached freshman football there were always a few kids who were there not because they enjoyed playing a violent game, but rather because they thought it would be cool, or to satisfy parents, friends, or whatever. Many of these kids did not enjoy the collisions, the brutality of the game. I would say to these kids, usually alone, after practice, " You don't have to like hitting someone, you have to not mind it. Your life would be easier if you liked the contact, but at the very least you have to not mind the violence if you want to play."

This is my approach to assigned reading. Kids don't have to like it, they have to not mind it. What helps with that is accessible literature that kids will like reading.

If I assign a challenging text, I get the Sparknotes issue out in the open. I tell kids to use the Sparknotes to supplement their reading. "Try to read it on your own, but use the Sparknotes when you have trouble." And let's face it, if you don't understand something, you look it up. At the end of the day, that's what Sparknotes is.

I'll be blogging more about this topic in the future. It raises so many issues, it's hard to get to all of them in one post.

Viewing? Presenting?

Evidence that the teaching of Enlgish is changing can be found with this rumor I heard last week. New York State's Ed department intends to add "viewing" and "presenting" to the well established ELA strands of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

If this is true Standard 1 will now read something like this: "Students will read, write, listen, speak, view and present for information and understanding."

Just what "view" and "present" mean and how "presenting" differs from "speaking" are two questions that immedately come to mind. I'm no expert, but clearly, this New York State's way of trying to bring technology into the English classroom. Or, to be more harsh about it, this is New York State's way to bring the 21st Century into the English classroom. My guess is that "viewing" has to do with actively watching non-print texts, and "presenting" probably means the ability of students to seemlessly incorporate technology into speches. Like a PowerPoint, or short film produced with Windows Movie Maker.

My hope is that New York is trying to go where the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has already gone. Take a look at these standards for English, written in 2004.
As one of my students would say, these standards are "off the hook." This is where we need to go as English teachers, in my opinion. Yes, the "sacred texts" are certainly important; I would never advocate doing away with literature, but we do need to think about what our role is in teaching students what Jim Burke and others have called "the world of discourse."