Ready, Fight: Teaching English Literature

by EuphoricEnnui on December 16, 2010 at 09:27 AM
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This is a pretty long post, but if you're interested in reading how I intend to teach a high school English literature course, please check it out and tell me what you think. I know this is straying from what is usually found on this site, but I'm greatly interested in finding out what high school students specifically think of my approach. Everyone else is also welcomed to share their ideas. But please be constructive in your criticisms. Keep in mind that I'm looking for comments related to how I want to teach the course and not necessarily how I wrote the paper. Enjoy! (And don't worry...I'll put up some gaming related posts later :P)

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Picture the scene: There is a battle-scarred land, cluttered with the casualties of a war long since begun and nowhere near finished. A lone warrior stands upon a clearing in the field, his face hardened, bold, and courageous. He can see the goal at the end of the field. But standing before it is a massive army, whose sole purpose is to thwart any of the warrior’s attempts.

As dramatic as this might seem, this illustration perfectly depicts what it is like to be a teacher. Educators need to be strong and brave to constantly have to work with students, their parents, and even fellow faculty. Like the warrior, teachers are trying to reach a very specific goal, that being to enlighten their students and further their growth into upstanding members of society. However, also like the warrior, there are enormous obstacles in the way, and with innovations in technology, sometimes it seems the obstacles are just becoming more and more.

These technological advancements sometimes have proven to be a double-edged sword, especially when it comes to the innovations in communication and entertainment. Teachers today are constantly competing for their students’ attention. They are competing with instant messaging, text messaging, hand- held video games, tweeting, facebook, and numerous other things that vie for the students’ attention. Thankfully, like any warrior, teachers aren’t without their own arsenal which I will get too later. First, it would be appropriate to explain what exactly the goal is.

As an aspiring English teacher, it will be my duty to instruct my students on subjects like grammar, creative writing, and above all, literature. It goes without saying that teaching such things can prove to be difficult in an age when it is the norm to “wryt lyq dis.” Now, as “old-fashioned” as it might seem, I have always felt that the best approach to literature is an active one. Shocking. That sarcasm is not without its justification. My previous experience with English teachers in high-school and below has more-often-than-not been a disheartening one. You cannot encourage a student to be interested in the current class novel if you cannot at least fake interest yourself. You certainly cannot expect that of them either.

First things first, as much as whatever mandatory curriculum I might have to deal with will allow, I intend to choose books that I myself also have an interest in. Of course, given my broad taste for books, that will be the least of my problems. The real problem is actually in choosing a book that will appeal to the students. They need to be able to relate to what is happening.

A perfect example of such a book would be George Orwell’s 1984. I know, I know. I am obsessed with that book. My entire presentation revolved around it. Nevertheless, 1984 is often a staple of high school literature classes and many of the topics discussed students can easily relate to, as long as the teacher takes the time to show them. Oppression versus freedom, individualism versus the whole, and secret romances are but a few of the themes in the novel and each and every one of them are things teenagers often contend with.

So, now I have the book. My goal is to get those students invested in the novel, to really analyze what is going on, to feel how the characters feel. If you will excuse the return to my warrior analogy, what exactly will I be fighting against to get such results? I already touched on the difficulty of teaching in the age of Twitter, but there are also two other enemies. They’re brothers, infamous among the entire field of education (though math teachers know them especially well). And their names are Boredom and Apathy.

Students today are bored with reading and often fail to see the relevance in being taught about books on people who died long before they were born. As one young man from my 11th grade English class claimed “Why the heck are we reading about some dead guy anyway?” As an English teacher, it is especially important to keep the students’ interest and cater your lesson plans to them. They need to be drawn out and placed into the confines of the book being taught. That is the only way to teach a subject such as English. How do I intend to do that?

A warrior is nothing without a well-stocked armory. You need to be prepared for anything. The same goes for teachers. My personal armory consists of three main weapons, carefully crafted so that I might handle any task. First up, inside that small, almost irrelevant plastic casing to your left, you will see my graded assessments. They are essentially composed of basic comprehension questions, designed specifically for those students more inclined on focusing on “getting the grade.” It is not the kind of attitude I particularly want to instill in my students, but it is necessary. They will be given out weekly and focus on what is going on in the story at the moment.

Next to that, in the far grander looking oak trunk, are the essay prompts. These contain both short essay and extended essay questions. They have a very intricate design like the runes of Celtic broadsword, specifically purposed to draw out the students’ own interpretations. For 1984, students are going to be tasked with answering questions that call for personal opinions on character motives and what might they have done differently. Asking for a person’s opinion, regardless of what it is for, is a great way to get that person emotionally invested in the topic. As Vygotsky’s studies suggest, learning is a very social activity, and there is nothing more social than sharing your opinion with others.

Given that the essay prompts call for an opinion, it goes without saying that students will be required to write persuasive papers. But it is hard to sound persuasive when you are not all that interested in the subject-matter, so my students will be more than welcomed to propose their own prompts to me, provided that it is well thought through and not overly simplistic. In fact, I’d actually prefer them to come up with their own essay questions over just using my own. It is perfectly within reason to expect this from high-school students, at least according to Piaget, because it is at this point that their cognitive skills are developing to include reasoning and hypo-deductive thinking.

Moving towards the very end of the armory, you will notice a very large wood cabinet, ornate in design with beautiful, shiny, glass paneling. Here I keep my most prized weapon, always kept razor sharp and well oiled. It will be the backbone of my classroom. It is the class discussions.

Far too often in schools today, English teachers are neglecting the power of class discussions. It was not until entering college that I realized how deprived I had been back in my high school. All the class hours wasted on playing cards during useless Power Points that regurgitated the plot and character profiles in a fashion so mundane, so unappealing, that I was absolutely convinced it had been directly pulled from the teacher’s guide. She certainly did not have time to make her own. Shopping from dresses online is quite time-consuming, after all. First of all, and I think few would argue with me on this (at least I hope), that is NOT how you teach, especially when it comes to English literature.

Therefore, I intend to use a much more Vygotskian approach, which I feel is the absolute best way to handle teaching English literature. Books might have been written to be read in solitude, but they were also written to inspire verbal intercourse with the world after their completion. As a regularly recurring homework assignment, students will be tasked with writing down two or three discussion questions based on the assigned reading for that day. At the beginning of the following class, they will turn them in and I will handpick questions that I feel bring up key points in the literature. These questions will be the basis of that day’s discussion.

Just imagine what this could accomplish! It might seem simple, but just think of how encouraged a student might feel to hear their question asked. Picture how much more engaged the students are likely to be when discussing points that they are personally interested in! And they most certainly will be encouraged to create questions based on what interests them in the first place. It isn’t necessary that they know the exact answer, because oftentimes there might be multiple “right” answers and interpretations, but they will be required to explain why they came up with the question if they are asked.

Of course, not every student is comfortable with speaking out loud. I know I am not comfortable doing that even today (though I would like to think I can hide it well). A student should not be penalized just because they are shy. Doing so would merely result in further discomfort for them. To alleviate such a situation, I will give out extra credit for extra effort to counter their lack of participation in the discussions. Students can receive it by writing a page or two more than required on their papers and by constantly providing more than just three questions.

However, the extra credit is not without its stipulations. Yet another concern present in the classroom is how some teachers often do not even read what their students write. I am sure you have heard how students have written nonsense or nothing at all and still receive high marks for their work, merely due to a teacher’s laziness. There are absolutely no excuses for skimming over your student’s work. If you cannot read their essays all in time to hand them back that Friday, use the weekend and turn it in the Monday. Otherwise, you’re short-changing both yourself and the students. Students will not receive extra credit for tacking “fluff” onto their papers. They will not receive credit for rewording questions or writing superfluous ones in an effort to have more than three. I have often noticed, even among peers, that students can have a tendency to write in circular, repetitive language merely in an effort to take up space and if my students think they will be able to get away with that, they are more likely to lose points than gain any.

With all that said, there is but one last thing that needs to be mentioned. One thing both a warrior and a teacher cannot do without is passion. Passion blocks out everything in its path like a hundred foot shield. It crushes Boredom, makes Apathy cry for mercy, and brings texting to its knees. No student, no matter how much they hate books, students cannot resist when they come across a teacher who is both enthusiastic and inviting. I love literature. I love language. I love discussions. It is my desire to impart that same love into at least some, if not all, of my students.

But I cannot expect that of them if I do not show it myself. These class discussions, papers, everything that my students will be doing in my class I will be doing as well. I will express my enthusiasm, my thoughts, and slip in a few corny jokes when appropriate. I do not think there is a better way of demonstrating my passion than by doing that. At the very least, when I get up in years, it will be a great way to combat my Alzheimer’s. Now there is a fight I am not looking forward to. Oh dear… what were we talking about again?

source: http://www.gameinformer.com/blogs/members/b/euphoricennui_blog/archive/2010/12/16/ready-fight-teaching-english-literature.aspx