Literature continues to
be a significant part of English language arts classrooms! Guest blogger Brandy shares her
understanding of an approach to teaching literature presented in Bridging English.
But literature breathes and murmurs, cajoles and
lambasts, laments and rejoices only when the reader makes it do so. – Sheridan Blau
This
chapter of our text focused primarily on answering the tricky questions of how to use literature in a classroom, what we (both students and teachers) can
learn from literature, and why
literature remains a central component in classroom curricula. As future English
teachers, we have an established, cultivated passion for English literature and
language, something that our students may lack. In order to communicate,
inspire, and shape this same appreciation in future generations, we need a
solid understanding of the foundations of teaching with literature.
Enter, Explore,
and Extend
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| photo by Brandy |
Enter
In
this phase, students are introduced to the text. Prewriting and other
introductory activities such as free writing, KWL charts, and anticipatory sets
are most useful here. Additionally, this is where any necessary scaffolding or
frontloading should be done to prepare the student to further engage with the
text.
Explore
It
is in this stage that students are actively working with and exploring the text
and where the four additional stages of reading literature are found (I will
discuss those later). This phase is also where most of the classroom activities
will take place and will generally be the longest of the process, though not
necessarily the most important.
Extend
Following
student interaction with the text, the Extend phase is where meaning beyond the
text is examined. Students should be considering the broader implications of a
text and their own social, political, and global understanding of their world.
The
Explore
phase of this cycle is further divided into four phases: Reader Response, Interpretive
Community, Formal Analysis, and Critical Synthesis. The text suggests
several strategies for each of these components. I will highlight the ones that
I found the most interesting, and please share your own favorites in the
comment section below!
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| photo by Brandy |
Reader Response
Reader Response
capitalizes on the reader’s personal and emotional reactions to the text. It
asks that students reflect on what they are reading and to make connections
with their own experiences. This stage should remove the divide between
students and literature.
I particularly
liked the following strategies: Imagine
This, Character Continuum, Focal Judgments, Character Maps, and Jump Starts. These struck me as
innovative ways to help students dive deeper into the text.
Interpretive Community
This
stage involves the larger classroom as a whole. It traffics students from
solitary engagement with the text to sharing their thoughts and opinion with a
group. The purpose of this phase is to hone interpretations and assertions into
“final draft” speaking. Interpretive Community also allows students to
facilitate the transmission of information; sharing ideas with others will
foster further investigation into the themes and purpose of a text.
Jump-In
Reading
was my favorite strategy from this section. I think a collection of statements
that are most “alive” for each reader would be an effective way to fully
involve each individual.
Formal
Analysis
This
stage mirrors classic literature analysis. There is emphasis here on literary
theory presented at a communicable level. Equipping students with the correct
concept terminology to discuss their understanding of the text is essential.
Elements of literature, including plot, character, setting, theme, symbolism,
and point of view, are central for formal analysis. It is meant to act as
supplementary to Reader Response, revealing the way literature works to produce
responses and effects on the reader.
Students Write and Teachers Read are my preferred
strategies for this phase.
Critical
Synthesis
Where
Formal
Analysis focuses on the different literary terms and the ways to
talk about literature, Critical Synthesis focuses on the different literary
theories and the ways to interpret literature.
It
is important to note as well that neither of these processes (Enter, Explore,
Extend and the four-stages to reading literature) are absolute; each phase is
recursive and can occur along a continuum of understanding.
Personally,
that is something that I find very comforting and a critical point to make to
students and to recognize as teachers. Understanding of and facility with
literature will come to each student eventually, it may just be a matter of
strategy (this almost makes it sound like orchestrating an attack on a text).
What do YOU Think?
Instead
of delving into the myriad of theories, I’d like to end this post by asking
readers what their preferred literary theories are (do not forget the why!) and
discussing whether or not critical theory has a place in a secondary (or middle
school) English classroom.
My
View
I
think that it does, despite my own contentions with learning literary theory. It
adds a layer of complexity to literature that enables continuous discovery each
time a reader looks at it. The quote included in the text by Henry Louis Gates,
Jr. speaks to this as well: “Literary theory functioned in my life as a prism,
which I could turn to refract different spectral patterns of language use in a
text, as one does daylight. Turn the prison this way, and one pattern emerges;
turn it that way and another pattern configures” (p. 154).
