Beartown is a powerful book that challenges and explores sports culture within a small town. During the creation of this multigenre project I was prompted to explore how sports can influence individual identity within the context of Beartown and contemporary society and reflect on my own athletic experiences as well. Personally, I owe a large part of my life to sports and the success that it has brought me. Without Track and Field, I would not have attended Wake Forest and certainly would not have pursued education. However, with the help of sports to motivate and help me stay invested in school, many opportunities have been made available to me. Sports can function in a positive way to influence and motivate adolescent athlete’s like myself, but Beartown and this multigenre project expose the negatives that sports can have on identity. While completing this project I was able to reflect on my own sports career and realized that there have been a large amount of negative effects and afflictions caused within my own life because of athletics. For example, within my multigenre project I created a trophy filled with negative words that are in the shape of a trophy. The “win at all cost” mentality is established in our own society and explored in the context of Beartown.
Beartown explores athletic identity and the many ways that sports are able to influence adolescent athletes. Far too often the negative impacts of sports and sports culture are overlooked because of the success and attention that athletics bring to the individual. It is much easier to focus on the positives that sports can bring to a community or individual and to ignore the negatives that can manifest within the athlete’s identity. How often do you read about the athletes who become burnt out or suffered from mental issues? More often than not, most people focus on the success that sports bring rather than seek to help those who fall through the cracks. This project allowed me to dig deeper to understand how powerful sports can be and how they impact everyone, not just the athletes. In my own experience as an athlete at many different levels of competition, the coaches and sponsors care more about the results of the competition than the well-being of the athletes. What happens when an athlete gets injured or does something wrong? Find a new athlete who can produce similar results.
This project was informative from a student perspective because it allowed me to experience how to use different genres in creative ways to explore a question in new ways. This project challenged me to think beyond the text and make connections with my own life and experiences. I think that a project like this is important for students because it is more than just doing an essay or another type of project. A multigenre project is helpful because it requires students to explore the book and topics within the book in unorthodox ways that can yield revealing results. When I teach Beartown, I think that I will want to use multiple genres in order to explore the different concepts that are presented in the novel. I may not use ten genres like we did, but I think that a multigenre project is important because it allows students to be creative and use their strengths in understanding and creation in order to explore these questions. This project allowed me to create genres that appealed to my strengths as an artistic hands on learner and visual learner.
This project has allowed me to have a greater understanding on how sports can influence identity. There is no complete answer to this question, but this project along with my own experiences argues that sports function as a powerful force on individual identity, positive or negative. I think that the influence that sports have vary case to case, but I can confidently say that sports are a driving force in young athletes’ lives. Moving forward I am going to use this project and book in order to show the power that sports have and to help my future students understand how they can navigate the way in which sports are relevant within their own lives.
Beartown explores athletic identity and the many ways that sports are able to influence adolescent athletes. Far too often the negative impacts of sports and sports culture are overlooked because of the success and attention that athletics bring to the individual. It is much easier to focus on the positives that sports can bring to a community or individual and to ignore the negatives that can manifest within the athlete’s identity. How often do you read about the athletes who become burnt out or suffered from mental issues? More often than not, most people focus on the success that sports bring rather than seek to help those who fall through the cracks. This project allowed me to dig deeper to understand how powerful sports can be and how they impact everyone, not just the athletes. In my own experience as an athlete at many different levels of competition, the coaches and sponsors care more about the results of the competition than the well-being of the athletes. What happens when an athlete gets injured or does something wrong? Find a new athlete who can produce similar results.
This project was informative from a student perspective because it allowed me to experience how to use different genres in creative ways to explore a question in new ways. This project challenged me to think beyond the text and make connections with my own life and experiences. I think that a project like this is important for students because it is more than just doing an essay or another type of project. A multigenre project is helpful because it requires students to explore the book and topics within the book in unorthodox ways that can yield revealing results. When I teach Beartown, I think that I will want to use multiple genres in order to explore the different concepts that are presented in the novel. I may not use ten genres like we did, but I think that a multigenre project is important because it allows students to be creative and use their strengths in understanding and creation in order to explore these questions. This project allowed me to create genres that appealed to my strengths as an artistic hands on learner and visual learner.
This project has allowed me to have a greater understanding on how sports can influence identity. There is no complete answer to this question, but this project along with my own experiences argues that sports function as a powerful force on individual identity, positive or negative. I think that the influence that sports have vary case to case, but I can confidently say that sports are a driving force in young athletes’ lives. Moving forward I am going to use this project and book in order to show the power that sports have and to help my future students understand how they can navigate the way in which sports are relevant within their own lives.