In every class room I have been in, in my entire life, teachers always taught me about the "classics" of literature. I was one of the bright ones. I would read through books as easily as a thirsty man drinks a glass of water. My friends thought that I was crazy, and too smart for my own good, but even the classics hold something dear to my imagination. While reading this chapter, that was what was going through my mind. I think it is very important for students to read the classics. The push by teachers to be able to teach more mainstream literature is founded in good faith, but writing has changed over the years. It we give students easier books to read, they will never experience the classics and gain vast amounts of knowledge, which this book has pointed out.
One of the really good things I liked about this chapter was under number 5 "Reading Literature Builds Background Knowledge." Mrs. Jago explains how she got the students to gain little bits of the background to "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." She shows the first few minutes of the 1939 film version of the book. The reason why I liked this so much is the fact that it is multimodal teaching. Not only was she using the book, but also using the movie to help the students understand the book. I also liked that she didn't have them watch the whole movie. I think that a lot of teachers, not only in the Language Arts department but elsewhere abuse the use of movies in the classroom. Reading the book helps build their literacy and vocabulary, while watching the movie doesn't. I think it is also effective to get students thinking. I think showing the first few minutes of the movie intrigued the students towards the book. I know that when I see a movie trailer, I instantly can't wait to see the movie, and make up all these scenarios about how it will play out. Though most students may find this to be teasing them of some sort it also helps students to visualize setting and the time period the book was written in.
One of the key things in this chapter that Jago did mention was evoking students' imagination and until reading this chapter, I did not really understand how reading classics could evoke someone's imagination. It is very vital that we teach classics in the classroom because students are able to broaden their perception of what literature actually represents and stands for. The idea of mainly focusing on classics is something that bothers me. While I do think it is important, I do not believe that it should rule out the importance of young adult literature. There are also lessons that can be learned through those books and vocabulary can also be expanded. My question is what can classics actually teach that young adult literature can not?
ReplyDelete