Deconstructing the Titanic

A Teaching Unit for Middle & Secondary Students

What is it about the ill-fated maiden voyage of the Titanic that has captivated the imaginations of millions of people for over eighty years? In this comprehensive unit, Derek Boles explores how this maritime disaster has evolved to become part of our popular culture.

About the Author

Derek Boles has been teaching media since 1975 and is a founding member of the Association for Media Literacy. He was editor of Medicay from 1992 to 1998 and head of English at Thornlea Secondary School until 2001. He is currently teaching at Markville Secondary School.

Derek became a Titanic enthusiast at the age of eleven after seeing the 1953 Twentieth Century Fox movie Titanic on television. He has been a member of the Titanic Historical Society since 1977 and occasionally writes for their quarterly magazine, The Commutator. He is currently working on a biography of Charles Melville Hays, a Titanic victim from Montreal who was President of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1912.