Inquiry Proposal

EDUC 450  Inquiry Proposal 

What is your question, and how did it arise for you?

How does the assignment of canonical literature still affect modern classrooms, and are there modern pieces of literature that can deliver the same content while being more relevant to a student's individual experience? 

After viewing the video The Art of Asking Questions, the idea is that absurd questions are usually the simplest ones that people are too scared to ask because they fear admitting that they don’t know. But these questions are critical and lead to the next great thing. This thus brought up my inquiry question: Are there modern pieces of literature that can deliver the same content as canonical texts while being more relevant to a student's individual experience? Using the example of the cliches and tropes that Shakespeare originated, since there have been so many retellings of his works, can we eliminate his job and work with only the retellings in a classroom setting? Or is there an inherent value to the original works necessary for students' literature comprehension?  

Why is your question significant (to you and or to others)?

There was always a question in my high school English classes: Why do we need to learn a Shakespeare play every year? It’s boring, they sound like they’re speaking gibberish, not essential, etc. This is the rhetoric that students perpetuated when it came time to start the unit on Shakespeare. However, there has to be a reason beyond the curriculum why it’s still required to read these texts. This question spurred me to pursue English in my undergraduate studies, and yes, there is a reason why these texts are still studied to this day, Shakespeare in particular. Shakespeare’s plays provide so much groundwork for modern-day media concepts. Cliches such as star-crossed lovers or having a disarming gentleman tame a shrew is seen consistently through modern literary pieces and media. A fair chunk of early 2000s rom-com movies can be traced back to retellings of Shakespeare’s plays.

What resources will you draw on to explore your question? (e.g. journal, reading, curriculum/policy documents/academic papers) How many annotated bibliographies of varied, relevant resources will you use?

Using both original Shakespeare plays, such as Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Taming of the Shrew, etc. as well as modern retellings of these stories, such as These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong (2020), Ten Things I Hate About You (1999), and The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson (2016) etc. I would create a parallel between the original text and the retelling and compare and contrast the elements of each narrative, as well as how effectively they deliver the content to a modern audience. Using supporting research articles and scholarly journals, I aim to have at least three articles/journals/research papers/etc. Resources per literary piece to help support or disagree with the conclusions drawn from my comparison.

How will you showcase your inquiry proposal (e.g. essay, PowerPoint, Google sites, Youtube, Powtoon, UBC blog, and more)?

I would present my inquiry as a blog post, as my question asks for an answer that includes personal opinion (supported by academic research and evidence). A blog post would allow me to explore my research and reflect on my findings in a more natural/personable way than an essay or PowerPoint would. 

What do you expect to find out?

My goal is to find out if I can still effectively teach traditional themes from canonical texts (in this example, Shakespeare’s plays) using modern retellings/interpretations. I expect the answer will be yes, but I want to determine to what degree it is effective and if it is on par with or beyond what the canonical text can teach students.