SparkNotes, PinkMonkey and CliffsNotesOh My Critiquing and Evaluating Online Study Guides

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SparkNotes, PinkMonkey and CliffsNotesOh My!
Critiquing and Evaluating Online Study Guides
By L. Nicosia
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Who is this entry is referring to?

• Narrator and main character of the novel.
  CliffsNotes.com

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And this one?

• The protagonist of the novel and the child of
  the town drunk. XXX is about 12 years
  old. PinkMonkey.com

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In a recent poll of 25,000 high school students
in California, nearly half agreed with the
following statement

• A person has to lie or cheat sometimes in order
  to succeed.

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What would your students say about that statement?
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What do YOU say about it?
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Our students

• Are technology savvy
• Have never NOT known the internet
• Are known as digital natives, the net
  generation and millenials
• Know faculty as digital immigrants

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Whether purchased legitimately or accessed for
free, todays shrewd and practical students will
use

• SparkNotes
• PinkMonkey
• CliffsNotes
• Barrons Notes
• Masterplots

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Use of these sources

• Is inappropriate by our standards, if used to
  excess or as a substitute text.
• Is efficient by their standards, in any
  context.

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Heres what SparkNotes says

• At SparkNotes, we never include disclaimers in
  our books because we trust that students who care
  enough about school to use SparkNotes value their
  education and therefore wont cheat themselves by
  plagiarizing our study guides.

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What do YOU think about that statement?
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This begs two questions

• When does the use of published study guides
  become inappropriate?

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And

• With such ubiquitous sources and tempting
  references available 24/7, how can English
  teachers dispel the aura of the forbidden and
  declassify these texts?

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How have you handled the SparkNotes Syndrome
while still encouraging

• Internet literacy?
• Scholarly curiosity?
• Library research?

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Anecdotally, just a few weeks ago

• While my class was engaged in a group task to
  critique reliable and unreliable narrators, I
  noticed a student casually using his laptop to
  access SparkNotes. When I asked what he was
  doing, he said he wanted a little help.

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My immediate instincts were to

• Reprimand him for cheating and fail him for the
  assignment.
• Make light of the situation by saying, Dont be
  a slacker. Do the work yourself!
• Tell him to put the laptop away and work with his
  group members.
• Praise him for his initiative.

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How should I have handled it?

• Is this a teachable moment?

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What I did

• I asked the class to stop what they were doing,
  and
• Asked the young man to plug his laptop into the
  projection device and share what he learned so
  far.

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What happened next was exciting

• After several class discussions regarding the
  readerly responsibility to question the
  reliability of any first person narrator,
  students recognized that this website praises
  Nick Carraway as tolerant and open-minded.

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• Several students asked, Why dont they talk
  about his biases and his own secrets?

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Lets look at what SparkNotes does say about Nick

• Note While the print format is available for
  purchase online and at retail outlets such as
  Barnes and Noble, most students access the study
  guide onlinefor free!

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Its YOUR turn

• In what ways are these study guides different?
  Alike?
• Try to find and note any contradictory statements
  and/or content.
• Do any of the guides discuss issues of race?
  Gender? Socio-cultural differences?

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I gave you two sample assignments

• The study guide comparison task using data from
  SparkNotes, CliffsNotes, and PinkMonkey.

• The class task based on the new No Fear
  Shakespeare entries from SparkNotes.

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Selected sites your students use

• www.pinkmonkey.com
• www.sparknotes.com
• www.novelguide.com
• www.givemenotes.com
• www.schoolpaper.com

• www.cheathouse.com
• www.lazystudents.com
• www.geniuspapers.com
• www.researchcentral.com
• www.NetCheats.com

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Final thoughts

• Mastering our content areas is no longer
  sufficient. An additional burden to remain
  technologically current merely to keep up with
  our students has now been placed upon our
  shoulders.

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By interrogating these study guides

• Our students learn that we are familiar with some
  of their secrets
• We encourage critical thinking and questioning
• We expand classroom dialog rather than shutting
  the door on topics that touch our students lives

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Finally

• When we dispel the aura of the forbidden, our
  students can create new mental structures which
  organize and synthesize disparate data.
• By critiquing online study guides, we broaden
  information literacy skills and empower students
  to be more discerning with the undigested
  information they encounter while surfing.

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Thank you!

• -L. Nicosia
• Nicosiala_at_mail.montclair.edu
• 5/06