An HGSE cross-media project based on a Langston Hughes short story
By A'Kena LongBenton, Emporia State University
Stories that deal with ethical issues are always important because at the heart of who we are lies our ethical and moral beings. We do not operate in this world as immoral beings, for the most part, so ethical issues will always exist for us as we navigate our unjust society.
Cross-media Design and Ethics
As I reflect on my final project for Harvard University Graduate School of Education (HGSE), I readily notice how a single word was taken out of the original storyline of Thank You M’am by Langston Hughes. The original line is "Instead, as they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel beauty-shop that stayed open late, what the work was like, and how all kinds of women came in and out, blondes, red-heads, and Spanish." Spanish was later changed to brunettes. This change is striking to me because it took out the racial component of Spanish women—the type of women that Luella Bates Washington Jones, a Black woman, serviced at the beauty salon.
Brunettes, of course, better fit the parallel structure of the sentence, but it also removes a certain reference to the storyline. This word replacement, I am sure was intentional by the author and/or publisher. It begs the question, "Why was Spanish considered offensive enough to remove?" I guess in 1933, publishers were not ready to tackle racial issues head-on in mainstream short stories.
Also, this dilution makes me think of the short story, Words by Heart, by Ouida Sebestyen. The storyline initially deals with a scripture memorization contest. Yet, in order to include the text in mainstream public libraries and schools, then the concept had to be changed to a spelling bee. The scripture contest was critical to the storyline, however, especially since Lena, a young Black girl, had to forgive a White family for the seemingly unforgivable. This White family was responsible for killing her Black father in the 1960s—when racial and ethical issues were at an all-time high in America.
I remember my sister and brother-in-law sending my niece and nephew to a private school, which was predominantly White— 25+ minutes from their home. My Muslim brother-in-law prescribed to the philosophy, "If they can't use our comb, then don't bring them home"—a racist ideology for not mixing bloodlines. Clearly, my nephew "did not get the memo" and took a White girl to homecoming, a dressy fall school dance.
Further, my sister described the girl to me and kept saying that she reminds her of the famed singer, Faith. I was thinking of Faith Evans, the R&B singer, and my sister was referring to Faith Hills, the country singer. In hindsight, I think the omitted descriptor was by design until I saw her for myself. Again, folk can be interesting when dealing with racial issues.
I would only avoid The Hate U Give story in settings where people are not professionally mature enough to manage sensitive subject matters.
As a former PK-5 school principal, I tackled racial issues with my faculty and staff with ease because I first built a relationship with them when I was first hired. My staff was predominantly White, but the student population was predominantly Black.
My 6-8 school principal counterpart, however, did not have the same experience, however. He struggled connecting with his staff so sensitive issues always were blown out of proportion with a lot of unnecessary backlash.
Cross-media stories like The Hate U Give and To Be Popular or Smart (by Jawanza Kunjufu) can facilitate ethical discussion and reflection because they both deal with preteens' issues of navigating the dynamics of hood life complexities amongst smart Black kids.
THEN I have them read a summary/commentary: http://www.americanliterature.com/Hughes/SS/ThankYouMam.html.
Then, they ULTIMATELY read the short story, Thank You M'am by Langston Hughes: https://www.chino.k12.ca.us/cms/lib/ca01902308/centricity/domain/1689/thank%20you%20%20ma%20am.pdf . This order works nicely because it gives the reader a form of context before delving completely into the storyline.
Once they have read the text, I address short story elements, vocabulary activities, written prompts, creative/ symbolic representation of storyline, etc.
After viewing the video, reading the summary / commentary, and reading the story, I ask my students to apply short story elements and draw an image that represents each of the following short story elements:
Rationale: I chose this activity because students are not simply writing a definition for the elements, but they apply meaning from the text. For example, if a student's image is noon (daylight depiction), then I will know that they have not mastered the concept of setting just yet. Also, if the character images drawn are a young man and a girl, which is incorrect (the actual characters are an older lady and a little boy), then again, I would know that they were not paying attention during the video and/or did not read the story.
Next, I would like to enrich my students' vocabulary and continue with the visual literacy principle and have them practice with six vocabulary words:
Finally, to culminate the lesson unit, I would introduce a two-part multi-modal learning assignment where students can include an image or symbol to reflect the story. Also, they would include a written response to justify why they chose that image. This section will address connotative meaning that will differ from learner-to-learner. I look forward to their own personal interpretations of the storyline. Students are especially encouraged to be creative with this section of the assignment because their image can be from the following options:
Below is my final HGSE project: Thank you, M’am. It is an online language arts curriculum that I updated, from over 10 years ago, for the short story, Thank You M'am, by Langston Hughes. Further, I added the lenses, aesthetics, ethics, and academics, as discussed in HGSE's CMTE program, to apply what I have learned from our time together.
Teaching for Lifelong Change
https://akenalong.weebly.com/thank-you-mam-unit.html
Teaching for Lifelong Change – Vocabulary
https://akenalong.weebly.com/thank-you-mam-p2.html
I created a video to draw the reader into the storyline, offered an online summary/commentary, then had students read the short story. Again, this order is unique because it draws the reader into the storyline without directly making them read the short story first.
She primarily works with undergraduate and graduate college students, but on occasion with Metro Detroit / Atlanta area actors. They are either on the road to attaining a bachelor's/ master's degree in education/ IDT or have a general interest in developing their craft as actors/ actresses.
As she learns further about cross-media storytelling, she is motivated to share the best practices with her college students, colleagues, and film partner.
As she reflects on her teaching experience of incorporating films into literature units, a few films readily come to mind: Of Mice and Men; The Color Purple; To Kill a Mockingbird; and The Tell-Tale Heart.
Cross-media Design and Ethics
As I reflect on my final project for Harvard University Graduate School of Education (HGSE), I readily notice how a single word was taken out of the original storyline of Thank You M’am by Langston Hughes. The original line is "Instead, as they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel beauty-shop that stayed open late, what the work was like, and how all kinds of women came in and out, blondes, red-heads, and Spanish." Spanish was later changed to brunettes. This change is striking to me because it took out the racial component of Spanish women—the type of women that Luella Bates Washington Jones, a Black woman, serviced at the beauty salon.
Brunettes, of course, better fit the parallel structure of the sentence, but it also removes a certain reference to the storyline. This word replacement, I am sure was intentional by the author and/or publisher. It begs the question, "Why was Spanish considered offensive enough to remove?" I guess in 1933, publishers were not ready to tackle racial issues head-on in mainstream short stories.
Also, this dilution makes me think of the short story, Words by Heart, by Ouida Sebestyen. The storyline initially deals with a scripture memorization contest. Yet, in order to include the text in mainstream public libraries and schools, then the concept had to be changed to a spelling bee. The scripture contest was critical to the storyline, however, especially since Lena, a young Black girl, had to forgive a White family for the seemingly unforgivable. This White family was responsible for killing her Black father in the 1960s—when racial and ethical issues were at an all-time high in America.
Ethics of Cross-media Stories
I would use the story, The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, in a unique way, to discuss the complexity of interracial dating. The fact that the mom and uncle know that Starr is dating a White boy, and her father does not know is quite interesting.
Further, my sister described the girl to me and kept saying that she reminds her of the famed singer, Faith. I was thinking of Faith Evans, the R&B singer, and my sister was referring to Faith Hills, the country singer. In hindsight, I think the omitted descriptor was by design until I saw her for myself. Again, folk can be interesting when dealing with racial issues.
I would only avoid The Hate U Give story in settings where people are not professionally mature enough to manage sensitive subject matters.
As a former PK-5 school principal, I tackled racial issues with my faculty and staff with ease because I first built a relationship with them when I was first hired. My staff was predominantly White, but the student population was predominantly Black.
My 6-8 school principal counterpart, however, did not have the same experience, however. He struggled connecting with his staff so sensitive issues always were blown out of proportion with a lot of unnecessary backlash.
Cross-media stories like The Hate U Give and To Be Popular or Smart (by Jawanza Kunjufu) can facilitate ethical discussion and reflection because they both deal with preteens' issues of navigating the dynamics of hood life complexities amongst smart Black kids.
Cross-media Design with a Popular Langston Hughes’ Story
I actually have my students FIRST watch a short-movie trailer:
https://animoto.com/play/734tO0DmtU11Dh0bs7eLHw to stimulate learners’ attention,
Once they have read the text, I address short story elements, vocabulary activities, written prompts, creative/ symbolic representation of storyline, etc.
After viewing the video, reading the summary / commentary, and reading the story, I ask my students to apply short story elements and draw an image that represents each of the following short story elements:
- setting: time/place of the story
- character: people/ things involved in the story
- conflict: problem of the story
- resolution: how the problem is solved
- theme: presumed message that the author is trying to send
Rationale: I chose this activity because students are not simply writing a definition for the elements, but they apply meaning from the text. For example, if a student's image is noon (daylight depiction), then I will know that they have not mastered the concept of setting just yet. Also, if the character images drawn are a young man and a girl, which is incorrect (the actual characters are an older lady and a little boy), then again, I would know that they were not paying attention during the video and/or did not read the story.
Next, I would like to enrich my students' vocabulary and continue with the visual literacy principle and have them practice with six vocabulary words:
- blue-jeaned sitter
- kitchenette
- roomers
- presentable
- devilish
- barren
What image will my students draw to depict the above vocabulary words? Again, it is a check on comprehension. I do not care if they draw stick figures. The goal is to assess whether they can apply the newly introduced vocabulary term to the storyline content.
Finally, to culminate the lesson unit, I would introduce a two-part multi-modal learning assignment where students can include an image or symbol to reflect the story. Also, they would include a written response to justify why they chose that image. This section will address connotative meaning that will differ from learner-to-learner. I look forward to their own personal interpretations of the storyline. Students are especially encouraged to be creative with this section of the assignment because their image can be from the following options:
- a comic
- hand-drawn
- magazine clip
- camera-generated
- video (They can use Animoto.com to create their video for extra credit points).
Below is my final HGSE project: Thank you, M’am. It is an online language arts curriculum that I updated, from over 10 years ago, for the short story, Thank You M'am, by Langston Hughes. Further, I added the lenses, aesthetics, ethics, and academics, as discussed in HGSE's CMTE program, to apply what I have learned from our time together.
Teaching for Lifelong Change
https://akenalong.weebly.com/thank-you-mam-unit.html
Teaching for Lifelong Change – Vocabulary
https://akenalong.weebly.com/thank-you-mam-p2.html
I created a video to draw the reader into the storyline, offered an online summary/commentary, then had students read the short story. Again, this order is unique because it draws the reader into the storyline without directly making them read the short story first.
About the Author
A'Kena LongBenton, Ed.S., is an instructor / graduate career advisor / IDT program coordinator for teacher prep at Emporia State University in Emporia, KS. She has also executive produced stage plays (Vagina Monologues) and a full-feature length film (Broken Covenant: The Movie) along with others.
She primarily works with undergraduate and graduate college students, but on occasion with Metro Detroit / Atlanta area actors. They are either on the road to attaining a bachelor's/ master's degree in education/ IDT or have a general interest in developing their craft as actors/ actresses.
As she learns further about cross-media storytelling, she is motivated to share the best practices with her college students, colleagues, and film partner.
As she reflects on her teaching experience of incorporating films into literature units, a few films readily come to mind: Of Mice and Men; The Color Purple; To Kill a Mockingbird; and The Tell-Tale Heart.
Her learners were always READY for the film to be played, but not as excited about delving into the text EXCEPT for when she taught Chinese professors in Beijing, China. They fully watched Of Mice and Men at least THREE TIMES. She personally grew tired of it, but knew that she had to "take one for the team” and continually indulge them.
Her email is along11@emporia.edu.
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