Can old things be made new again within the context of 21st
century cultural norms? A paper by Megan Witzleben with Hilbert College suggests
just that. She writes, "Today, we may not teach Dickensian prose as
superior. However, we do seek to empower students through verbal and cultural
literacy to connect them with influential stories of the past and present. This
paper demonstrates how teaching a little-known Dickens detective story, “Hunted
Down,” in its original serialized context, and then performing a dramatic
reading of that story to a community partner, helps students understand Dickens
in his own time and in ours." What she is suggesting is another way to incorporate
active learning into our classes. She even suggests some service learning opportunities
around the work of Dickens. I encourage you to view the student's personal journals
towards the end of the article.
