Abstract

This learning module aims to bring high school ELA students into a community of practice that seeks to adapt and update the literary canon taught in high schools. It seeks to legitimize the reluctance students have had finding relevance in assigned texts and acknowledge their place in the continuous conversation that is updating the canon. The module makes use of Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner’s work in communities of practice, making the end product, a canon proposal, a social process from beginning to end. The module also embraces Vygotsky’s argument that learners cannot detach emotions from learning, and thus seeks to provide positive reading experiences to learners, many of whom may have more negative opinions of reading in school and even reading in general.