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Making the Classics Live for Today's Student
It seems to me that the fundamental goal of an English teacher is to nurture in students a love for great literature. However, in our image-dominated culture, such a goal seems almost unattainable. Most students today do not enjoy reading and read only what is forced upon them. Furthermore, they read in a desultory fashion to get the assignment done; almost certainly they would agree with Mark Twain's comment that "a classic is a book everyone wants to have read but no one wants to read." A teacher who is dedicated to the Augean task before him will zealously lecture his class; he will say that literature allows us to better understand other people, that it provides vicarious experience, that it trains us to think more deeply. Most students will be unimpressed. However, there are some techniques teachers can adopt that will significantly increase young people's appreciation for classic literature.
Supplement the basic textbook
Choose your basic literature anthology with care, taking into consideration matters such as primary sources, cogent questions, useful commentary, and artwork, but do not slavishly adhere to any one textbook. The teacher is the curriculum. You are more familiar than anyone else with your students' academic backgrounds, their tastes, personalities, and learning styles; thus, you are the best person to select a literature book for them. There is no such thing as an ideal textbook, however, so whichever book you choose, supplement it with other selections. Survey other anthologies and major works in all the genres so that your class reads, in Matthew Arnold's words, "the best that has been known and thought in the world." You may also want to refer to the study guides published by Veritas, Logos, Progeny Press, and others in order to locate thought-provoking questions and essay topics.
Match students to books
Get to know your students so that you can suggest books they are likely to enjoy. This type of matchmaking takes time and effort. Discover their tastes and hobbies; take them to the school library and help them select books of interest to them; give them book catalogs to leaf through; show them books about books, such as 100 One-Night Reads by David and John Major or David Denby's Great Books. In all these ways, you are whetting their appetite for reading.
Be enthusiastic about books
Share your love for reading with your students. Tell them what books you are currently reading and what books are on your "must read" list. Share with them some of the books that have shaped your worldview and what kind of books you particularly enjoy. Your enthusiasm will be infectious, and, before you know it, your students will catch the disease. By all means, do not assign book reports or tests that make reading intimidating. Your students don't need to prove to you that they understand everything! We never do. When they write about books, grade their work leniently. Your goal is surely to keep them reading, so don't penalize writing deficiencies too severely, or they'll hate the whole enterprise.
Encourage students to talk about books
Schedule class time for your children to explain why they liked a particular book, or why they think others in their class will enjoy it. If you encourage students to talk about book regularly, the atmosphere in your classroom will become electric as they debate the merits of different novels. Step back and enjoy the teachable moment. Ask them to read a favorite passage to the class and discuss its significance. As they are talking, write titles and authors on the board so that other students will remember a book that a classmate enjoyed.
Train students to read with their minds engaged
The more they read, the more proficient readers they'll become, and the more they'll want to read. Train your students to avoid superficial reading and to read reflectively. Tell them that reading is entering into a silent conversation with an author: your mind meets his. Encourage students to think about and evaluate events described, actions taken, personalities involved. The more you can get a child to reflect on his reading, the better reader he will become. Teach your students to read with their minds engaged. Also train them to step back in time in order to enter the world of a particular book. It is inappropriate to judge a story in terms of our own lifestyles and prejudices. Readers must take Coleridge's advice and willingly suspend their disbelief in order to accept the conventions of a particular story. Encourage them to reread great books; they will never mine all the gold to be found in a great classic.
Use audio-visual aids
Look for audio-visual aids that enhance the literature your children read. Music greatly increases the enjoyment of epic or lyric poetry, and audiocassettes and CDs are readily available at bookstores and libraries. Watching an entire video is probably not a good use of class time, but watching carefully selected excerpts can increase a student's understanding of key scenes from plays and novels. Of course, it is wise to preview the movie in order to ensure that it is faithful to the author's intentions and appropriate for the classroom. Artwork can also enhance your children's appreciation for literature. They will enjoy discussing the meaning conveyed in Gustave Dore's engravings of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Paradise Lost, or The Raven.
If you are dedicated to the task of making reading a pleasurable activity, your children will learn to enjoy great literature. They will decide that some of their dearest friends are the books you have introduced them to, and together you will create memories that will last for a lifetime.
Copyright 2004. All Rights Reserved. ElizabethMcCallum.com
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