Recently, I had a startling learning experience. With my grade 11 classes for the last month I've been going through Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I previously read this book 2 years ago, and I thought it was decent enough back then. However, now that I've read it again from a teaching standpoint, I've been learning so much about the nature of metaphor and the human condition. I must say that the title has never meant so much to me; the meaning could really be "Life of Life".We started this unit with an in-depth look at an excerpt from Northrop Frye's The Educated Imagination, getting the students to start recognizing metaphorical thought in their daily lives through the "Motive for Metaphor" chapter. I wasn't sure how that was going to go over with the students, but to their credit they stuck with it and I think it benefitted them in understanding the novel and themselves.
Once we'd really dug into "Pi" we watched a film by Ron Fricke entitled Baraka that takes the viewer through an "epic non-verbal... journey of the earth's evolution." We took a long look at our interconnectedness in relation to one another and our impact on the earth.
The students were blown away by the scope of the film. On that note, the students were able to see this novel study as something all-together different from what it started out.I have to show Kirsten and Justin when we're together over Christmas.
Do each of us have a Richard Parker in our lives in one form or another?
2 comments:
Good to have you back posting!
It's good to be back. I'd forgotten how cathartic it can be.
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