Fandom: Secretly Thinking Critically?

Critical thinking is an emphasis of the Ontario Curriculum with the aim of having  students “use… higher-level thinking skills, including critical literacy skills, to enable [them] not only to understand, appreciate, and evaluate what they read and view at a deeper level, but also to help them become reflective, critical, and independent learners and, eventually, responsible citizens” (1). While I know not everyone reading this blog is an Ontario teacher or parent, I do know that Ontario is seen as a global centre for education and our curriculum has been adopted by many other countries, so chances are a lot of other countries have this central focus on critical thinking. Critical Thinking is viewed as a vital skill for living in the 21^st century (2). 

In my opinion, Kerri Mathew and Devon Adams perfectly articulate fandom’s natural and sophisticated use of critical thinking:

“Finding a way to get students to enjoy reading and to respond to literature spontaneously and personally is the holy grail of the language arts educator. Fan Fiction provides evidence that young people can not only read and respond to literature, and do so voluntarily, but can also craft their responses in sophisticated, polished writing. These young adult writers create a subjective, fluid interpretation of the readings and subsequently write at the highest cognitive levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Their writing exhibits complex interactions with text and the ability to judge, predict, and apply their understandings. In addition to exhibiting in-depth literary analysis, these authors are also engaging in the creation of extensive written works and incorporating the writing process through the use of critique and revision(3)."

In order to write fanfiction, a child needs to continually reread a text. Through re-reading they become more than just passive readers; they begin paying attention to how things in the book happened, looking at the character's relationships and interactions, looking for themes and references. Does this kind of work sound familiar to you? If you were thinking that this sounds a lot like what you had to do in a high school english course or University English course - you're right! Preparing to write fanfiction you act like an english critique! These questions and literary tropes are not only the language of literary critics, they are the kinds of analytical tasks that students groan about doing in English class… and yet here they are being done out of the love of a book and a desire to know as much about the world of the story as possible. Now nuts is that?

Fandom creates a safe space where authors can explore alternative solutions to conflicts or moments in the books, for the sake of humour or for new insights into the characters they love (5). This questioning and exploring is the higher-level thinking we teachers look to tease out of our students (6). Other skills that can be sharpened through fandom are evaluation and reliably: consumers of fandom inherently ask questions like “Did this fan-author capture the character? Does this story seem believable from what I know from the canon?” These questions demonstrate a skill which will help them select quality resources during later research projects, and approach their daily reading with a critical eye... and also can help lend themselves into the vital practice of media literacy.

Online communities are places where students might see the relevance of what they’re studying in class. Unfortunately it may be difficult for teachers to facilitate these ah-ha moments because their impact is dependent on a student’s engagement with a literary work, but the possibility that those moments could come should be a beacon of hope for English teachers everywhere.

Being a fan and being so familiar with a world makes it easier for students to write. One element of critical thinking is synthesizing, which could also be described as the act of borrowing and adding to. Fanfiction is “a massive endeavour in borrowing” (7). This borrowing can create a sense of freedom. A writer does not have to create a backstory before getting to the story they want to tell; they can pick up the characters and immediately begin to play. While some may view this as plagiarism, borrowing is an essential part of fandom, creating both the motivation and social glue holding the community together. 

Laura, a student who I think I've mentioned in a post of two before, hit the nail on the head when she said: “One of the main appeals of fanfiction is that the story doesn’t have to end so if you’re really passionate about it, or you just really enjoyed it, then it can go on for you” (7). And that, simply put, is why I read Harry Potter fanfiction non-stop from grade six until my second year university. I did not want the ride to end. 

When looking at the work of Donald Graves, at first one might assume that he would disapprove of fanfiction. He notably went back on his personal mandate that teachers should let students pick their own topics because “they tend[ed] to latch on to stale TV plots, violent action scenarios, or insipid sentiments involving Care Bears” (8). (Having recently completed a narrative writing unit with a class of grade fours, I can understand his complaints. The number of stories I got about characters named Bob that involved venturing into toilets was eyerollingly frequent.)Instead, Graces wanted them to explore what they knew from daily life. He wanted to tap into students cognitive emphatic abilities, having them “begin to understand what it means to know in an unusual way (writing as Joan of Arc instead of about Joan of Arc, for example) (8). This is another aspect of critical thinking that fandom plays on -- making personal connections and relating the occurrences in the text with personal experiences. A key connection between motivation for literacy and students' self-expression is this: In using literacy activities for self-expression, students experience a direct connection between their learning activities and who they are, how they think, and what they care about. These expressive activities are, therefore, powerfully motivating experiences (9).

As you can see, the natural act of contributing to fandom involves much sophisticated, high level, critical thinking. Without even being cognizant of it, adolescents may exhibit and practice the skills that teachers struggle to implement in their classrooms. Look at that - they're being engaged little nerds and they don't even know it! 

Dag, yo.

So how can teachers hone this powerful literary weapon? Strategies coming soon.

Sources:
(1) Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006
(2) Case, 2005; Ontario Ministry of Education, 2006
(3) Mathew & Adams, 2009, p. 36
(4) Abrahamson, 2013, p. 146
(5) Alverman & Haygood as cited in Aberhamson, 2013, p. 143
(6) Abrahamson, 2013, p. 143
(7) Lammers & Marsh, 2015, p. 282
(8) Graves, 2004, p. 89
(9) Oldfather, 1993 p.12