Zombie Haiku

The next text I would like to look at is entitled Zombie Haiku, written by Ryan Mecum.

• What is it about?
• This is a novel written in the perspective of those bitten by, and becoming Zombies. It describes the changes that occur to one's body and mind during the change from human to the flesh eating undead.
• Why would this be a good addition to a High School classroom?
• This text is a quick read, which always helps the motivation of students to actually read the assigned material. Also, this text is written entirely in the poetic form of Haiku. For those who are unfamiliar with this style; a Haiku is a poem written in three lines. The first line has three syllables, the second has seven syllables, and the last line has five syllables.   This would be an excellent way to introduce this section of poetry into a classroom, while giving students fun and interesting examples of this form. This is a very creative text, which would give the teacher a wide range of activities that the students could preform that were also creative and edcational.
• Example: "Little old ladies/ speed away in their wheelchairs,/frigtened meals on wheels" (Mecum, pg 47).
• A teacher could give this example, or any other from this novel, and then discuss it with the students. Showing them the five/seven/five format, and then having the students create their own unique Haiku. 
• How does this novel relate to the students?
• During High School students are going through a lot of changes. There are physical changes, emotional changes, the relationship with their parents are beginning to change, the are gaining new friends, and also losing the old friends from middle school. This novel is a connection to the constant changes that are going on in these students lives. This novel shows the concern for change, the overwhelming feeling that change is bad and unnecessary, and how change is inevitable. Students can relate to this book, even though they are not trying to eat the flesh of those who are surrounding them.
• For my next post I will be discussing how Zombie Haiku relates to classical literature, which we know is a very necessary aspect of our future education.

Looking For Alaska

One good example of Young Adult Literature in the classroom could be the novel entitled, Looking for Alaska.  We could use this novel to teach critical thinking skills in the classroom, and use it to teach students how to find the "true meaning" through close reading. This story connects to students. It is about being a young adult, peer pressure, friendship, and suicide. Real issues that teens may have to deal with in their lives. This will gain student's interest, and help them stay motivate to read the novel. This novel could be used to find Archetypes in literature. An Archetype is a recurrent image, symbol, character or even situation that is an instinctual expression of man's nature and experiences that are universal in nature. An example of this could be  teaching the Archetypal numbers in this novel. It is known that the number three represents the holy trinity, spiritual awareness, and light. The number four represents the life circle, four seasons, the four elements, and change. The number seven is most potent of all symbolic numbers, because it signifies the union of three and four; represents the perfect number. By taking this information and putting it toward the text we begin to use critical thinking skills. Realizing that the number three is relevant to the novel due to the fact that it represents the character Alaska, Pudge, and the colonel. The number four is used after the death of the character Alaska. The number four is represented by the characters Pudge, the Colonel, Laura, and Takumi. The change of events after the death of Alaska's character, and those four friends having to work together to find out what had happened. The number seven is reflected in the story by Pudge and the Colonel's room number. Their room was number forty-three. Four plus three equals seven; the perfect situation. This is a very brief critical thinking example, but there is so much more we could do with this story. This is the type of thinking teachers want their students to begin to be able to accomplish. By first teaching through stories students can relate to, we can begin to teach them the skills they need while actually having students accomplish their reading goals.