I've often asked myself what I want to teach when I get a classroom (a science fiction genres course if I could swing it, if you're curious. Read my book reviews, you'll notice a trend in what I read!), but rarely have I asked myself what I should teach. I think ideally what an English teacher should teach can be broken down into a few groups: basics, creativity, and exploration.
The basics are things such as grammar. Knowing how to write and speak correctly is an important skill. I think students should know how the parts of speech operate, how punctuation works, and how everything connects together. Taking a grammar course last year, I liked learning about how English works (sometimes in its own special way). Beyond that, knowing the basics gives students the tools they need to take on bigger and more complex ideas.
Creativity is letting students (as much as you can, anyway) find things that interest them. Reading is a great way to learn more about the world and one's interests, and I think that as English teachers it would be alright to embrace our students' interests and let them find stories and books to read that they'll engage in. I think that would make it all the more likely that a student picks up valuable reading skills. In addition, I think having freedom to write is another great way to shape skills. This is not to say we shouldn't teach some stuff universally (for example, I feel Romeo and Juliet should be taught to everyone. Some stories are so engrained in our cultures, that its important to look at where it originated from. Once could argue that such teachings could be listed under "the basics"), but giving students some control over what they read and write about could have benefits.
And finally exploration. One thing we talked about in class today was the differences in English in different parts of the world and country. I think exploring these differences and looking at how language works around the globe can open up the world of language to a student. Teaching students about regional dialects would also expose them to a kind of diversity that is often overlooked. You can also look at different writing styles and see what the style can tell you about the time and place of the writing. I think its neat to look at how English has changed even from the 1800s (the Journals of Lewis and Clark, for instance) to now.
I concur with your three encompassing points as a general format for what needs to be approached as English teachers.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my one and only critic is your exclusion of literary theory. I realize that this is a more complicated subject that we are still learning, but there is never too early of a time (aka high school or even junior high) to start introducing a foundation for what is going to be so severely ingrained into collegiate level English courses.
:) Carl
That's a good point. As I am just now taking 300, I overlooked it. In 300 today we did talk about how a lot of Lit classes are taught in a formalist view which while simple to teach can make sometimes make literature dry (I remember thinking in my high school classes that if I didn't like a particular work then maybe I was missing something, not getting it and that can be frustrating). I think though that one of the major problems is that of time. You only have so much time to fit all of this in, but it could be possible to look at some basic literary theory, could possibly be added under exploration.
ReplyDeleteLiterary theory is found in everything we do in English and possibly every time we read something to which criticism can be applied. The interaction of the reader, the author, world and the piece concerned will take place in all three of the points presented by AH. It seems that you did present theory and criticism because you suggest equipping students with the fundamentals of reading and writing then let them explore and create. In such activities it would be easy to cover criticism through the actual practice of it. Mentioning the literary ideas of the authors we will be required to teach could be an easy fit in. As said before and something which I also did not mention criticism would be helpful to prepare students for college.
ReplyDeleteI am glad this was mentioned Carl. AH I just read some Lewis and Clark journals and that is a great example of change in written language.
Cody G.
Cody