Teaching American Literature at Mountain View High School: Technology Integration
Mark Twain’s Huck Finn is a classic American novel, Written in 1885, it is a book that students have read year in and year out in high school literature classes. The language used in the book, especially when the slave Jim is involved has become a contentious issue both in the past and now when communities have called for the banning of the book (see here). Issues of whether to use the N-word have arisen repeatedly. And it is so now as Kristen Krauss, an 11th grade English teacher goes over the initial chapters of the book in a 45-minute lesson I observed on October 10, 2016.
Krauss is a veteran teacher who has taught in elementary and middle schools before coming to Mountain View High School* in 2000. The room she teaches in has benefited from a grant to replace usual pods of three-four desks where students sit to high colorful tables with chairs on rollers and a small sofa in the rear of the room.
At 7:15AM, there are 14 students. Before the chime sounds to begin class, Krauss asks students to take out their tablets and laptops—the school implemented a Bring-Your-Own-Device policy a few years ago—and tells them to review Teaching American Literature at Mountain View High School: Technology Integration | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:
