Fort Gibson HS , Fort Gibson OK
Explore sites in England and Scotland associated with literary figures and historical events to improve students' ability to visualize and appreciate British literature and literary movements, understand the significance of place in literature, and inspire an interest in reading the classics.
At Stratford-upon-Avon to visit William Shakespeare's birthplace, the timbered building behind us. We learned things about his life that we had never heard before.
Knocking on Tolkien's "door to Moria" at St. Edward's Church in Stow-on-the-Wold, illustrating how authors incorporate what they know into their works.
At Magdalen College in Oxford, note the mythical creatures carved into stone behind me, which we believe inspired Lewis's Narnia.
At Dove Cottage, where William Wordsworth committed to "plain living but high thinking." The countryside there was the most beautiful in all of the UK. We walked away understanding why Wordsworth felt so inspired to write.
At Lud's Church in the lovely Peak District, the legendary site of the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The stones behind me open up to a huge cavern completely covered in moss, the "Green Chapel."
At Tintagel Castle retracing the history of Arthurian legends and the birthplace of magic. The ruins of the Cornish castle overlook the sea, and the beach below holds Merlin's Cave.
In my mind, it took divine inspiration for authors to write something so profound; however, I learned how often they simply wrote about what they knew. So many times we found a link between their works and the people, places, and environments that influenced them. In Oxford, we saw mythical beings carved into Magdalen College and an out-of-place lamppost in an alley–which we believe influenced Lewis in The Chronicles of Narnia. This shows our students that we, too, can write something impactful.
It was scary visiting a country I had never been to before without an experienced guide, especially with so much travel between locations. Everything from getting gas to navigating roundabouts was a learning experience, but I am proud of our resourcefulness and sense of adventure! Professionally, it was incredible to have such an in-depth look at British literature and learn things we had never heard before about Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Scott, and others from people who share their history.
There were locales that we had to cross off our list because of factors like travel taking longer than expected or wanting to spend more time at a site than we had budgeted in our plans. While that was disappointing, we rolled with the setbacks and decided to enjoy every moment regardless because this fellowship was the opportunity of a lifetime. It is easy to feel burnout as a teacher, but this fellowship has reignited in me a passion for literature and for teaching that was unexpected!
We are creating a website incorporating what we learned during our fellowship to make British literature more relevant and engaging to our students. The website will contain our journal entries, supporting pictures, and videos and will be broken up into sections that correlate to the curriculum so that it can be utilized throughout the year for teaching support. We will also ask our students to research one place from our fellowship that they are interested in learning more about.
Just as we modeled in our fellowship, our students will research the effects of time and place. As we celebrate our town’s bicentennial this year, they will select a significant time or place in the town’s history to learn more about. One part of the project involves interviewing elderly citizens to discover the changes they have witnessed. Students will then write a reflection on the importance of time and place in town history, as well as how it relates to them as writers.
The website we are creating will be public and shared with our school and community, especially with our students and their families. We are also relaying what we learned during our fellowship to our language arts colleagues so that they can implement the information into their curriculum immediately. We will be giving a presentation to our entire school district in October to showcase our learning experiences and to encourage fellow teachers to apply.