The case of Rufina Cambaceres: an appealing urban legend to succeed in English classroom.

Author: Marisa Gallardo

Dying of love could be a great topic for a romantic story, but waking up in a coffin and dying of panic could be a great condiment for a horror story. It is known that stories are connected with imagination and personal experiences, which could be shared in a group with different purposes (Gail de Vos, 2003). Schools could be a perfect place where stories could be useful tools to work with groups. However, incorporating stories in classrooms could be a challenge for teachers. They have to deal with the possibility that adolescents may not feel attracted by the select story and as a consequence the possibility of failing on the proposal activities.

Selecting a correct story implies to bear in mind some important aspects such as young adult literature’s features (Herz & Gallo, 1993) and adolescents’ preferences (Gail de Vos, 2003), among others.  The case of Rufina Cambaceres, an Argentinean urban legend, portrays some important aspects, which may encourage adolescents to read.

This paper will explore the possibility that "The case of Rufina Cambaceres", would be an appealing story that aloud teachers to work with different   activities, in English classrooms.

It is important to take into account urban legends’ definition. In David Emery’s view (1997), “an urban legend is an apocryphal, second hand story, alleged to be true and just plausible enough to be believed, about some horrific, embarrassing, ironic, or exasperating series of events, which supposedly happened to a real person.”

There are some relevant situations to take into consideration to select an appropriate story. One of them is literature for adolescents or Young Adult Literature (YAL). Herz & Gallo (1996) acknowledges that YAL contains essential themes such as, love, death and family conflicts, among others, that are issues and topics that all students can benefit from reading and discussing.

The search for identity could be also another situation that adolescents want to explore, and a story that provides the possibility to probe various situations roles and values without suffering consequences (Gail de Vos, 2003), could also encourage adolescents to read.

Listening to adolescents' preferences may also help in the duty of selecting an appealing story. Attending the results of different surveys, it is important to mention that one of the most selected genres was horror stories. Last year, a group of teacher's trainees carried on different surveys. One of them, situated horror’s stories in the second place with 22% of the total (Barroca, Nieto, Olazabal, 2012) another one showed that 30,19 % of students preferred horror stories as their first option ( Gonzalez, Moreschi, 2011) and my own experience on a recent survey, also coincide on, that a 25% of students prefer horror stories.

Relying on the previous concepts, the case of Rufina Cambaceres seems to be a story that makes adolescents feel eager to read. First of all, the story is considered an urban legend, and according to Gail de Vos (2003), is better to start with a ghost story or an urban legend, to attract adolescents’ interest. One of the reason of this suggestion, is that “these stories have been polished and shaped throughout the time, and only the best, the most relevant, and often the most appropriate have been passed down through the ages and set in print.”

The story happened many years ago, in 1902, to be precise, and it is about Rufina, a nineteen-year-old girl. The girl belonged to an upper class, and she was known as a great beauty in her time. One day, after noticing that her fiancée was her mother's lover, she suffered from a sudden and fatal heart attack. But the reports said that in fact she suffered from catalepsy and she was buried alive. Since that, many witnesses have claimed to see Rufina's ghost walking around Recoleta cemetery, and its nearest.

Secondly, essential themes such as love, death and family conflicts are present in the story. The case of Rufina Cambaceres not only relates a love story and a family conflict but also relates Rufina’s death. Rufina is an adolescent and she lived a sweet love story up to the moment that she noticed the deceit that her fiancée and her mother had done. In that moment, a family conflict started, her mother, the person who supposedly should guide Rufina's life, broke her heart. Regarding an essential theme like death, some years ago, Rufina had to experiment her father's death and she also had to face her own death. She was thought died by her mother and doctors and then buried, but in fact she was alive and she died of panic inside a coffin. This part of the story, also presents an excellent opportunity for adolescents to experiment or probe death without suffering consequences.

Finally, the selection of a right story implies to have in mind the genre, and horror is one of the most preferred by adolescents. In the case of Rufina Cambaceres, horror is present not only in the fact that she was buried alive, but also through the paranormal phenomena depicted in the fact that she was watched walking along the cemetery and its nearest after death. 

Understanding adolescent's reading preferences and knowing relevant characteristic of YAL may help teachers, to choose an appealing story which could function as a trigger, in reading activities. The case of Rufina Cambaceres seems to have many features and situations that make adolescents eager to read. It seems to be urgent for teachers to have in mind that when adolescents feel lured by a story, would be a strong possibility to succeed on reading activities in English classroom.


REFERENCES

• De Vos, Gail (2003) Storytelling for Young Adults: A guide to Tales for Teens. Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.
• Emery, David (1997) Urban Legends. http:// urban legends.about.com/bio/David-Emery-1417.htm  Accessed 17/10/2013.

Understanding Teenagers as Readers: Choosing appropriate reading material in the classroom

“Sundiver Day”: A case of Young Adult Literature

By Cruz, F. & Gallardo, M.

Longevity pills and clonation could be, in the near future, commonly used expressions due to the medicine advances. Nowadays, these terms appear, among others, in some pieces of writing, as in the case of “Sundiver day”, a short science fiction story written by Kathleen Ann Goonan. The story takes place in the Florida Keys and tells the life of an adolescent, Eelie, who cannot accept her brother’s death. He has gone missing in a Middle East War. Eelie lives with her mother in a house, near to the beach. She spends her time between the school and the Science Institute; she wins a science prize because of her knowledge about clonation. She was able to clone a parrot and some plants and she is working secretly on cloning her brother. The story depicts a science fictional world where clone people are very common but illegal.

Kathleen Ann Goonan, the author is well known for  winning many awards for her work in “ Queen city jazz” , “The bones of time”, “Mississippi blues” and “In war times”, among others. She also is well known for writing Young Adult Literature (YAL). YAL is characterised by containing certain topics and features that are directly related to adolescents’ life.  “Sundiver Day” seems to be an instance of YAL since most of these topics and characteristics are developed.

Robert C. Small, dean at Radford University, points out some characteristics that help understand when a text can be considered YAL (Herz & Gallo, 1996).  These characteristics expose certain elements that may be present in Young Adult Literature:                                                                                                    

•“the main character is a teenager”,
•“events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers”,
•“the main character is the centre of the plot”,
•“dialogue reflects teenage speech”,
•“the point of view presents an adolescent´s interpretation of events and people”,
•“the teenage main character is usually  perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature and independent”,   
•“the novel is short”,
•“the actions and decisions of the main characters are major factors in the outcome of the conflict”.                                                                                                        

Small, also explains YAL should not avoid certain controversial topics such as sexuality, substance abuse, pregnancy, identity and death.                                         In “From Hinton to Hamlet”, Herz & Gallo, (1996) mention these controversial topics as “universal themes”. The authors explain that universal themes are related to existential questions “Who am I?” and “Where do I fit in?”, and point that these are topics that “all students can benefit from reading and discussing...” Herz & Gallo also explain universal themes as topics that are common in certain group or society.

As regards Small’s characteristics, one of them claims “The main character is a teenager”: Eelie is the main character because the story is based on her life and she is an adolescent because she is sixteen-year-old as she tells the readers in the story “I just turn sixteen”.  According to Erik Erikson (1902-1994), a German-born American psychoanalyst, one of the stages of the life cycle is adolescence and it comprehends the ages 12 to 18.                                          

“Events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers”: The story tells Eelie’s life, an adolescent who has to deal with common issues related to her age such as “school problems”; she neglects the school to go to the Science Institute to find the way to clone her brother, “pregnancy”; she decides to inoculate her brother’s ovum, and “death”; she cannot accept her brother’s death.

Another characteristic points out that “the main character is the centre of the plot”; in the story, Eelie, is the centre of the plot since her life is depicted. From the beginning to the end the story is about Eelie’s happiness, concerns and intentions. The following characteristic indicates; “dialogues reflects teenage speech”, in “Sundiver day” Eelie provides  many instances of teenage speech;    “ they used to make fun of me and call me  ‘Miss Smarty’, but I beat up the ringleader of that crowd, Marcy Phipps, when I was fourteen, and after that nobody bothered me.”

Eelie is not only portrayed as mature and independent when she decides to have a baby and to clone a person, but also intelligent and sensitive when she comprehends her mother’s loneliness. These appreciations about Eelie seem to coincide with the Small’s feature that says: “the teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature and independent”.

As regards the size of the story, Small explains that adolescents are reluctant to read a story of more than two hundred pages, so to catch the attention of adolescents the story has to be short. “Sundiver Day” is a story of no more than twenty pages and can be appreciated by adolescents.

In relation to “universal themes”, some examples are present in the story. One of them and apparently the most important is death. The whole story is based on the problem that Eelie has to accept her brother’s death; “no matter what Mom says, I will never say he´s dead until they show me a body. And that might be never”.

Another universal theme is pregnancy, clearly present in the story; Eelie needs a uterus to complete Sam´s clonation but her mother refuses the proposal. Eelie gives a thought about being a mother at her age but finally she decides to inoculate the egg into herself.

The science fictional word and the topics present in the story seem to comprehend adolescents’ expectations. As experts say, YAL has to develop certain features and has not to avoid crucial topics common in adolescents’ life. Considering “Sundiver Day” as an instance of YAL, is appropriated to say that adolescents may feel identified with some situations of the story which make them feel interested in reading it.
           
REFERENCES
-Erikson’s Stages of Development: Learning Theories. Accessed 25/06/2013 http://www.learning-theories.com/eriksons-stages-of-development.html.
-Herz, S. & Gallo, D. (1996) From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature and the Classics. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
-Longman Language Activator: Helps your write and speak natural English. New Edition. Pearson Education Limited 1993, 2002

“I was a soldier”, a mixture of feelings (review)

Award-winning American Poet Brian E. Turner is the author of two poetry collections. As a soldier-poet, who served seven years in the US Army, Turner was selected as one of 50 United States Artists Fellows. Turner lets us to know what happen to a person during the cruelty of a war. “I was a soldier” one of the stories included in his collections depict not only comradeship but duty as the main task of a soldier.

The story takes part during a war. Two soldiers with the same desperate desire of saving their lives meet in a hole accidentally. Although they were enemies, comradeship is shown in two opportunities: at the time in which one of them helps the other who is seriously injured and when the two soldiers share their deepest feelings of being with those who they love most. Despite fellowship, soldiers’ duty is stronger and it gives to this story a tragic and unexpected end.

“I was a soldier” is the kind of story which can make us think about our principles and priorities as human beings. Feelings of comradeship can be overshadowed by duties showing the cruelty of war. The fact that “I was a soldier” is written by an expert on wars makes of this a highly recommended reading.

Mission Accomplished (TV show proposal)

Dear Mr. President,

We are writing this letter to propose you an innovative TV format for your successful network, which consists on a reality show based on sports and survival directed and protagonized by adolescents. The programme will be called “Mission Accomplished”.

The show will take place outdoors in “El Delta”, Buenos Aires. This natural area surrounded by diverse and native vegetation would be perfectly suitable for practising not only exciting but also extreme sports, to be carried out by teenagers.

The idea is that participants will choose allies in order to achieve their goals which will be set by the producers of our show. There are ten different challenges which will require competitors’ skills and abilities to move on to the next aim. As regard the challenges, these can be described as sports games such as swimming in dangerous canals, diving waters with poor visibility, trees climbing and trekking among others.

Throughout this creative programme, adolescents will enjoy our natural areas, increasing their awareness of Argentina wild areas and contributing to their preservation.

Taking into account the style of the programme we suggest your placing this show on prime time due to its successful format.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
“The crazy sisters & co.”