Literature in the 21st Century

Question: Why read [the classics of] literature?

Answer: “I do not believe that teaching literature should be about dragging students kicking and screaming through works they hate and poems they find opaque. It should be about nurturing the next generation of readers—readers who one day may choose to buy a ticket for a performance of Macbeth, who will excitedly order the latest Cormac McCarthy for their Kindles and Nooks, who can find solace in poetry during times of trouble. Much is made of the economic impact of education, but I’m more concerned about preparing students’ hearts and minds for whatever the future may hold. Writers from George Orwell to Kazuo Ishiguro have warned us, but unless students read and heed their warnings we may be heading for not the best of all possible worlds but the worst.” Carol Jago, P. 14.

Comment: I met a representative of the X-Generation (born in the 1960s). He was a graduate of a leading university, majoring in English. I never forgot what he said to me. “No one reads Henry James anymore.” Henry James, for him, was a generic author who represented the classics of literature. What he was saying was that nobody reads the classics of literature anymore. I wanted to say to that young man that he was missing the intricate thought and feeling and expanding of the mind that Henry James offers to readers.

I think that all of the generations, from “X” to the present, are helping to create this “worst of all possible worlds.” From texting to tweeting to gabbing on cell phones, watching TV’s 230 channels, playing computer games, etc. no time is left for the intellectual and emotional challenges of classic literature or any literature for that matter. Throw in the need to expand literary offerings to choices of nonfiction and literature of other countries and deciding what to teach in literature in the 21st century is bewildering.

The essential problem with teaching the classics seems to be how to teach them without “dragging students kicking and screaming through works they hate and poems they find opaque.” I would welcome my readers’ suggested solutions to this problem. RayS.

Title: “To Cherish the Interests of Literature. Carol Jago (past President of the NCTE). Council Chronicle: The National Council of Teachers of English (March 2011), p. 14.

"Writing on the Cheap"

Question: What is one reason for students in college not writing very well?

Answer/Quote: “Brigham University English professor Kristine Hansen met two colleagues recently, one from the history department, the other from biology. Both had the same question for her—a question she says she and other composition instructors nationwide hear repeatedly. ‘Why don’t our students write very well?’ ” P. 11.

“Hansen believes one reason is the increasing trend among today’s college students to bypass traditional first-year composition courses. Instead students earn credit while still in high school via Advanced Placement Tests, International baccalaureate degrees, or dual-enrollment programs—and then never set foot in an English classroom again.” P. 11.

“Writing is something we’ve tried to do in this country on the cheap.”

One Solution to the Problem: “Students who have taken the equivalent of first-year composition could be asked to take a more challenging course, where they’d write in different genres and writing about different subjects, so they could get better in writing and broaden their repertoires.” P. 13.

Comment: The AP Examination in writing is challenging. I find it hard to believe that students who pass it can’t write very well. Of course, what does “not write very well” really mean? Different teachers at both high school and college levels and in different disciplines can have different standards. But, as the author suggests, some sort of challenging carry-over writing course should be mandatory at the college level. RayS.

Title: “College Credit for Writing in High School.” Lorna Collier.  Council Chronicle: The National Council of Teachers of English (March 2011), pp. 11-13.

Reflective Teaching

Question: How can pre-service teachers be trained to be problem-solvers?

Answer/Quote: “Fiene says students are taught to think like ‘reflective practitioners.’ In one pre-student-teaching course, students come in and ponder questions in the same way teachers do. ‘How do I handle a child like this?’ ‘What do I do when I have this type of issue?’ ” p. 8.

Comment: Training in problem solving could begin with the many problems introduced in articles in professional education journals. Another idea to consider: After students read articles related to the topic of the course, the students should both summarize and reflect on them. Too often students stop with the summarizing and do not reflect on the ideas expressed in the articles. RayS.

“Successes in English Teacher Preparation: Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers—What are the Best Practices?” Lorna Collier. Council Chronicle: The National Council of Teachers of English (March 2011), pp. 6-9, 19.

Problem Solving for Teachers

Question: How can teacher education programs continue to help teachers with problems—after they have graduated?

Answer/Quote: :”The six-year-old in Jennifer Rieck’ first-grade class at Field Park Elementary School in Western Springs, Illinois, was having a hard time dealing with his parents’ divorce. His reading suffered , and he talked frequently about his father leaving, which frightened the other children.

“It was a situation Rieck, a fourth-year teacher, hadn’t learned how to handle in her education courses at Elmhurst College [Illinois]—but she was still able to turn to her alma mater for support, the school’s monthly alumni mentor group, comprising fellow teachers and faculty. Rieck took the group’s suggestion and began having the child write letters to his father as a way both to boost his literacy skills and work through the emotions surrounding the divorce.” P. 6.

Comment: The college support system for teachers who have graduated sounds like a good idea. On the other hand, this particular problem is fraught with problems for teachers who are teachers, not psychologists. I would hope some guidelines accompanied the advice on having the son write to his father. RayS.

“Successes in English Teacher Preparation: Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers—What are the Best Practices?” Lorna Collier. Council Chronicle: The National Council of Teachers of English (March 2011), pp. 6-9, 19.

History of the Teaching of English: 1994.  National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. http://historyengtchng-rays.blogspot.com/

Small-Group Work:Assigning Tasks

Question: How can the teacher organize students in a small group to participate actively in completing an assignment?

Problem/Quote: “As an educator, have you ever felt that group work just was not working in your classroom? Observing your students, have you ever been reminded of the times your classmates and you socialized instead of collaborating, when your teachers made similar assignments? Even worse, can you remember doing most of the work while the slackers or less motivated students shared your grade of A?” p., 372.

Problem/Solution/Quote: “One way is to assign students different tasks within the information-collecting process. For example, a group assigned to present the roles of a particular branch of government might divide the task by having a technologically savvy student find a few current pieces of related information on the Internet while others complete complementary tasks, such as researching a primary source document, surveying related literature written at various levels of difficulty, collecting information in a notebook from all who are doing the research, and compiling a PowerPoint presentation of the information which might be shared orally by yet another group member.” P. 373.

Comment: Assigning different tasks in completing research sounds like a good idea. However, how would you assign different tasks in organizing the research for presentation? RayS.

“Designing and Assessing Productive Group work in Secondary Schools.” Javier Vaca, et al. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (February 2011), 372-375.

The Significance of Fluency in Reading

Question: What is the effect of fluency on reading performance?

Answer/Quote: “In reading education circles, fluency (or rate) has historically taken a back seat to word recognition and comprehension…. With the turn of the century, however, things have changed. Today, fluency is viewed as a central component of reading skill—one of the five instructional ‘pillars’ or targets cited in the report of the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000).”

“Experts still disagree about the precise definition of reading fluency; for example, does the construct include word recognition accuracy, rate, prosody [stress, intonation RayS.], comprehension, or some combination of these…? Nonetheless, the practical implications of fluent reading are clear. Above first grade, students need to read text with sufficient speed and rhythm if they are to (a) enjoy reading, (b) concentrated on meaning, and (c) complete reading assignments in a reasonable amount of time.. And it follows that students who process text in a very slow, halting, unconfident manner are at a considerable disadvantage as they advance through the grades.”

“The point is that, for an individual, there must be some minimum reading rate (or processing speed) that encourages independent, self-selected reading. If as teachers we can help students…get to that rate, then the self-improving aspect of reading may take over; that is, the more you read, the better you read. For educators, this may be the most important message….”

The authors describe their methods for helping an eighth-grade student with the fluency of a second-grader improve his fluency.

Comment: I personally welcome this emphasis on reading fluency. The assumption is that if the student learns to read fluently orally, the speed of reading will be applied when reading silently. However, I think that this assumption needs to be tested. RayS.

Title: “Building Reading Fluency in a Learning-Disabled Middle School Reader. Darrell Morris and Meghan Gaffney. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (February 2011), 331-341.

Reviewing This Blog, English Updates

Question: How can I review all of the ideas presented in this blog?

Answer: I began this blog, English Updates in 2006. The format has changed since then, but the purpose has remained consistent. I try to highlight interesting ideas in the teaching of English, K-12, from articles in professional journals, primarily from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the International Reading Association (IRA). Some of the journals that I review are as follows:

From the National Council of Teachers of English: Language Arts (elementary schools) , Voices from the Middle (middle schools), English Journal (secondary schools), College English, College Composition and Communication (emphasis on writing), Teaching English in Two-Year Colleges, Research in the Teaching of English, English Education (English teacher education). From the International Reading Association (IRA): Reading Teacher (elementary and middle schools), Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and Reading Research Quarterly. If the titles of these journals inhibit you, the articles usually do not. They are a valuable source of ideas about teaching English, written by teachers at all levels. Their audience is teachers of English/language arts at all levels.

To review my blogs, from 2006 to the present, click on the Blog Archives on the left of the present article. The archives are listed by year together with the number of blogs published during that year [i.e., 2007 (103) ]. Click on the year (2007), and the months in 2006/2007 will appear with the number of blogs published during those months [October (14);September (10); August (14), etc.] Click on the individual month and the titles of the individual blogs will appear. Click on the individual title and the blog will appear.

I don’t want to waste the reader’s time by manually reviewing ideas that I have already reviewed, which will prevent the reader from learning current updates. RayS.