I think that many students dislike English growing up because there is so much room for interpretation. Ironically this is just one of the reasons I enjoy English, and writing in general. The idea that typically there is not a right or wrong answer, and there is always room for new ideas, and that the same question can be asked to a class, and 30 different responses may be given- to me is awesome. At the same time, writing in a high school setting, specifically when being tested needs some structure in order to provide successful responses. I hate that I keep bashing my high school teachers, but now as I continue on in my education, I recognize the difference between skating by, and going above and beyond in the classroom.
For instance, speaking as someone that is a horrible test taker I always look forward to letting myself shine in the writing sections of the exams, specifically when I reflect on what I know about literature. I feel that this chapter did an excellent job of presenting ways for students to think criticially about literature and write about it. For example, I think the reflection chart on page 75 would be very useful to prepare for a written exam. I think that this chart would be a great way for organizing thoughts in such a way that would be useful for examination, or future essays. I think that its important that this chart not only leaves room for what the student believes is the author’s message, but their own personal beliefs as well.
Likewise, one concept that was always given to me in high school was that as long as you could support your opinion/argument with evidence from the text, that you were in good shape. I think many students get nervous about using quotations, or finding ones that they feel match what they believe. With this in mind, I thought that the worksheet developed by Meredith Louria about “Five Things To Do With A Quotation” would be an excellent tool to use in the classroom. I think often times students find a quote without much thought, and these questions do a wonderful job about thinking critically about the text. By applying these ideas, I feel that students could find support that was more relevant and interesting in their essays about literature. I think it would also create more confident and well written responses.
1 comment:
I love the idea that as long as a student had an appropriate argument and supported it well with a variety of evidence, their paper is in good shape. I think this is ideally what we aim to teach; how to formulate an argument, researching evidence to support it, and then composing the written analysis. It's really a simple formula that takes a lot of practice to acquire.
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