So I have decided to post my work here in addition to handing it in to my instructor so that I can come back to it later. my response largely focused on the question "Why teach literature?" and is based on a blog entry by Dr. Crazy and John Green's video that we watched in class.
Response #1 Over the last few days many questions have been whirling around in my mind. Why teach literature? What is YA literature? Should we teach contemporary young adult literature or should we should rely on the "canon"? What is good literature?
I was interested to see what an associate professor (therefor more of an expert that either I, a mere middle school teacher, or John Green, a mere author, would answer). I was therefore somewhat surprised that about the way that the author challenged the lofty 'big picture' establishment view of reasons for teaching literature, "wanting students to be more engaged in the world around them and to go deeper in the ways that they consider their position within that world" or to give students "a vocabulary for discussing things that are complex...that allow them to be upwardly mobile." seem common reasons for teaching literature, but what surprised me was his suggestion that literature could be taught to encourage curiosity, or to resist the idea that education is something you get merely to ensure financial success, or in order to provide students with break from the "other demands on their lives." They seem like things we would not expect an academic to say about their discipline. I really was struck by Dr. Crazy's final reason to teach literature to give students a break from their rigorous academic schedule. I'd love to think that in language arts class kids can enjoy that pleasure and escape from their academic demands that many really only get from going to PE class!
Overall, however, I think I preferred the way John Green puts his reasons to read critically in "How and why we read: Crash Course English Literature #1": first "to have a fuller understanding of lives other that your own", second "to help you to be more empathetic, " and after the comedy "to give you the linguistic tools to share your own story with more precision." He's speaking more to why individuals should read (possibly directing that statement to a more adult audience?). We teach literature therefore to enable young people to learn to read thoughtfully, for as John Green says, "reading thoughtfully gives us better tools to explain corporate profits and broken hearts and it also connects us to each other". I am realizing that close reading is something that can actually bring pleasure and is something that an adult might still be interested in doing. The web series of Crash Course videos about literature are getting 300 to 500,000 views each! (I'm going to assume that many of these people watched it of their own free will rather than being assigned it to by a high school teacher or university professor).
I think in order to be successful in teaching literature you do have to have your own reasons made clear in your mind. One of my own personal reasons to teach literature is to help students do what John Green in many of his blogs encourages- "Imagine other people complexly" for, as he says, "the truth resists simplicity". I think using literature with social studies, is a great way to help students gain empathy, be able to put themselves in the shoes of other people, for books by Deborah Ellis to go along with the grade 6 global citizens type curriculum or a literature circle unit with a variety of historical novels set in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, to complement the grade 8 social studies curriculum. I'm a big fan of integrating Language Arts and Social Studies together which in many schools in Coquitlam is done, especially at the grade 8 level. I would love to work more on finding more ways to include fiction and nonfiction literature across the curriculum especially in Math and Science.
