Given the topics, strategies, and ideas that were shared this semester, which one(s) influenced your practice?
One idea that struck me this semester is how punitive the traditional book report approach to reading a novel is. In school, we often have the students read a book, and then have to write a report on the novel, or build a diorama, or something of that sort. What an awful way to get students to develop a love of reading! Reading should be an enjoyable activity, and the way teachers structure it, it becomes a punishment and completely unenjoyable. When reading at home, how many of us write a report on the symbolism presented in the novel once we are finished with the book? Instead, we talk about it, we discuss it, we want to share ideas that struck us while reading. I think one of the most important things that school should do is to develop a love of learning in a student. Cramming information into a students head and punishing them with low grades if some falls out is very short sighted. We might get the student to memorize a bit of information, at least in the short term, but that student will see learning as something painful and as something to be avoided. Instead, if we can show the students how wondrous the world is, and fulfilling learning and knowledge can be, how it can change a person's whole paradigm and make them view the world in a new light, we can create a person that is learning for the rest of their life.
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Man April! I TOTALLY agree!!! You're right-- when I read a book that I love, I do not want to write about it and pick it apart for symbolism, etc. I want to talk about it, to disucss the characters, to get into the emotion of the story. Symbolism has its place, but I think you can't talk about the symbolism or other literary technique until the students connect with the characters. Granted, it won't work on every book and there are some books that we have to read and the kids are going to hate. But if there is some way to make discussions more lively and interactive, I think more kids would enjoy reading and relating to the characters. I try to tie everything back to their lives. Even if they are reading "The Scarlet Letter" (which my Amer. Lit Honors hated), you can talk about lust and love in a way that they can understand and help them to gain an understanding of a difficult piece of literature.
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