Teenage Alienation in Diary
of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Kinney’s Dairy of a Wimpy Kid had a major impact
on my perspective as a teacher that educates middle school persons with
disabilities. While Kinney’s main character, Greg Heffley, is not a disabled
person, yet his sport-loving father and his classmates alienate him because he
likes computer technology. More so, Greg is a literary example of an alienated
teenager that has alternative skill sets as a “computer geek”, which are often
disrespected in American sporting culture: “Every time Dad kicks me out of the
house to do something sporty, I just go up to Rowley’s and play my video games
there” (Kinney, 2007, p.26). When teaching this type of literature in the
classroom, Kinney’s (2007) own use of real life experiences makes his
characterization of Greg an authentic and often humorous commentary on the
hedonistic use of computer technology for young people: “Greg's faults are my
faults, but he is a fictional character” (Murphy and Glantz, 2012, p.22) This
perspective provides a way to teach tolerance and respect for students with
different talents than what is normally accepted in American culture. In the
classroom, some athletic students can also tend to alienate more artistic or
intellectual types of students because they different than the norm. Kinney’s (2007)
story provides a means in which to encourage tolerance and understanding
through literature and reading comprehension. While some students react with contempt
to others that differ from them, Diary of
a Wimpy Kid accomplishes the goal of encouraging a diversity of differing
personality variables in classroom learning. Kinney, J. (2007). Diary of a wimpy kid. New York: Amulet Books.
Murphy,
B. and Glantz, S. (2012). Author Profile: JEFF KINNEY- The Real-Life Wimpy
Kid?. Library Media Connection, Vol.
30 (Issue 4), p20-23.
Zaheeda, What do you think of the format that Kinney uses in order to get his point across? Do you like the doodling and the very primitive art work that he uses? Does he make his point? Do you think your students would enjoy this format? Why? Or..............do you think that your students would conisder this a "baby" book? What about the humor that is used by Kinney? Do your students get it? Do they laugh? Can your students relate to this particular character? Is there bullying going on in this story? Can your students relate to the way Greg is being treated by his peers? Is Greg a likeable character? In essence, I am asking you to talk more about why your students should read this book. In what ways would they relate to it?
ReplyDeleteAnother question.....................why are you using references below your blog prompts? That is not necessary. These prompts should all be your thoughts and your words.
How would you use this particular novel in your class? Is the vocabulary appropriate for your students? I would like more input from you as to how you would use these novels in class.
Dr. Ries
DeleteThe illustrative format that Jeff Kinney utilizes--doodling and primitive stick figure drawings--is not only a humorous way to show how students drawing habits in the classroom, but it is also an easily comprehendible way for disabled students to better understand the story’s written text. The point that Kinney is making directly relates to the artistic/spatial doodling that students like to do if they happen to become bored with written text (I’ve caught many a “doodler” in class), which satiates their need for visual cues. Since many students are just about equal with Kinney’s artistic abilities, many of them would not see it as a “baby book.” More so, Kinney utilizes the “secret” of Greg’s accidentally walking into a woman’s bathroom over the summer, which many young people have done by accident (213). Unfortunately, disabled students make this mistake more than non-disabled students, so they can certainly relate to the story confusion of written text on bathroom entranceways. Greg is a very likable character in this way in that he endures Rodrick’s attempts to expose the bathroom incident, yet he is clever enough to survive the ordeal. Even though the woman’s bathroom story has evolved (through rumor) to be Greg going into the girls’ locker-room, he is a “good sport” and he keeps his cool even though he is being tormented by his malicious-minded brother. Also, the use of bubble captions in a comic book style helps to guide disabled readers into more complex sentence structures in the book. This formatting technique keeps the vocabulary simple and encourages stage-based reading process through (1) spatial orientation, (2) bubble caption-usage (comic book style), and then a (3) full-text approach to stimulating the student into reading the story.
Zaheeda, You refer to "disabled" students a great deal. what exactly do you mean by "disabled students?" Do you mean "students with special needs?" or are you referring to students who have a physical handicap? I think that you had better research the correct terminology that should be used when referencing your students. I would like to know how your students enjoyed this particular book. Have you used it with them?
DeleteYes, I meant a “special needs” student. When I used this book, many of the special needs students actually enjoyed this book because of the extremely simple drawings of Greg and Rowley as “outcasts” in the school system. This is not to say that special needs students are “outcasts”, but Kinney’s book makes it extremely simple for persons with reading and comprehension barriers to understand the plot and character development. Also, the students liked the hilarious pranks that Greg would impose on Rowley, which allows the student to see the fallible side to characters in the early teenage years. The focus on awkward and vulnerable behavior at this developmental stage is important for students who feel “different”, which helps them to not feel ashamed of acting foolishly in this time of their lives. While Greg appears to be a student without an interest in learning (other than learning video games), I primarily use this book to help student comprehend a simple plot structure, but also to remind them of vulnerability of being a teenager. Also, many young adult books almost always emphasize a heroic main character. In contrast this stereotypical characterization, the example of Greg’s non-heroic personality made the student’s laugh because they had understood his awkward behavior. This comic book/novel is a very good reading tool for students because they can readily understanding Kinney’s simplistic stick-figure drawings and the even simpler writing style. Not only was the book hilarious, but the student’s also had a good laugh as they learned to read through spatial and text-based literary content.
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