Research Journal #5

As I've been drafting my rough draft, I have been wondering how appropriate discussing a eulogy / allowing a student to choose it for their UGP would be in a classroom. I found this article by Gregory Shafer, Dealing with and Writing about Death from ncte.org. This article made me think a lot about the topic, and honestly makes me think that eulogy is a valid genre to teach in classrooms. Shafer describes how the loss of his sister impacted his classroom, as students began to share their stories of loss, and transformed into a writing project. Students were given the task of writing about their loss in the form of a eulogy, poem, or some sort of remembrance format. As students never wrote on the topic in school before, they were a little stumped, but their teacher wanted them to realize that it was okay to write with emotion. Even more, from this project, they learned that "it can help students to see the writing class as a place where their lives are important, where their loss has a place, and where expressivists and social constructivism can coalesce and serve both as a moment of discovery and a window into genuine, reallife problems" (Shafer 40). Eulogy can be a genre useful to students' expression. Even if the topic isn't necessarily loss of a person, it could be loss of a concept (like my education), loss of a pet, loss of an object. I feel like eulogy can provide a lot as far as considering a student's expression and discovery.

Now that we understand how valid a genre eulogy is, I want to delve into more examples. Particularly non-traditional examples. First things first, The Fault in Our Stars. There are two eulogies in the book/movie, and they are both nontraditional in the sense that Hazel wrote Gus's while he was still alive, and Gus gave Hazel hers after he died.

Beware, these videos are a little dramatic, but they are good examples of what a eulogy entails. They both remember the best qualities of the person they are eulogizing, and enhance their existing connections, focusing on the appreciation of that person.

Another nontraditional eulogy is A Eulogy For My Love For You. Instead of eulogizing a person, the author is eulogizing her relationship. This is a great example to look at, as it is more a eulogy of a concept, as mine will be as well. The author talks about the good times in her relationship, however, there are more negative aspects in this eulogy. Instead of talking only good of the deceased (i.e. her love), she talks about the positive of letting go of that love.

Should I lean more towards the approach of looking at the positives of education (like Fault in Our Stars) or should I focus more on the good of moving away from the education we have now (like A Eulogy For My Love For You)? I may write a bit of both and see how it turns out.