HOW TO TEACH LITERATURE EFFECTIVELY

DEAR FELLOW TEACHERS,

To be able to teach literature effectively, you should always adhere strictly to the following rules and advises. I do not mean I give ultimate advises but I am certain they can be helpful. There are books that give such methodologies but I think they might not be in your grips. If this is not effective to you, refer to a better one.  

Create Learning Objectives in the beginning of the class as thus.

At the end of this class, my students should be able to:

·       Define literature

·       Know certain figures of speech

• Identify some main characters

• Describe the major events of the work

• Explain the major themes of the play

Note: The objectives of a class depend on the kind of topics treated.

Read the text in advance before coming to the students: This may help you outline and check the meaning of some troublesome vocabularies. If you teach poetry, make sure you read multiple analyses before going to the class, so also the other genres. Make sure that you understand the tone of the poet. This may help you raise your voice fall it where necessary. Without raising and falling of voice, poetry cannot be understood no matter how you analyze it.

Guiding questions: A teacher must make sure that before leaving the class he/she poses a question or questions on what he just taught. Even if the students fail to answers the question, the teacher helps them with the answers. Ask them a kind of question that engages them in evolving a debate.

 Form anticipatory questions for each chapter. What thoughts might help review the previous chapter while cuing the student’s mind for this new chapter? That is the students should be asked a question on places they are not tought yet.

Jot down questions throughout each chapter.  As you read a work, make sure you jot down some questions that may likely make that students ponder.  For example,  ‘why did a particular author kills a particular character?  

 Use of literary devices. Make students find the literary devices from the text by themselves. Help them with the places they may not be correct. Reading for literary terms may be for reading for finding themes. For students, the two cannot be possible simultaneously.

Create an expected and or unexpected question(s). Questions like:

·       What do you think will happen to Mr. John after the hearing in the court?

·       If you are to conclude the writing of the book from here, what conclusion will you arrive at?

·       If you were the protagonist, how will you deal with the antagonist?

Topic:  First and foremost, try to deal with one major aspect of the text you are analyzing. I e. try to locate a problem that you think deserve to be sent across to the students. You must support your ideas with specific details from the work itself. Here, knowing the setting of the work is very important. If you have the setting in mind, research into the culture of the people. Know why such character behaves the way he does. For example, to know why Pokwaa in WOMAN IN HER PRIDE marries three time, you must give the answer that their culture allows woman to divorce her husband. If not, her first husband would not have allowed her to marry another because he loves her. To make the class interesting, you should introduce something new to the students in relation to their society.  For instance, if you are teaching SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER, and you are a male teacher, tell them that Miss Hardcastle accepts Mallow because she hears that he is meant to a good job. So here you may ask, “Does this show how women have interest in rich men”? This may lead to argument and so you should tell them “let us read the play and prove”.  If you are a female teacher, you may ask why Mallow will want to marry Miss Hardcastle despite all the girls in the city. Is it because her father is rich?

Verb (tense) usage

While analyzing a work, whether it is fiction or nonfiction, use the present tense (also called the literary present tense) to discuss the actions and thoughts presented in the work. This is because literature you are reading what is in existence now not considering of the setting of the work.

Example: (from the plot of SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER) The play opens in an Old fashioned house that resembles an inn (a hotel).  Mr. and Mrs. Hard castle are sitting waiting for the arrival of Marlow, son of Sir Charles Marlow, a friend to Mr. Hardscatle. While waiting, Mrs. Hardcastle accuses her husband for not taking his family to cities for leisure. Mr. Hardscatle is proud of his Old fashioned house which resembles an inn. He blames those people who travel to London for bringing back nothing but ‘vanity and affectation’. He says he loves old things: His old house, old friends and old wife. She claims that she is not as old as he takes her. Tony Lumpkin, a son to Mrs. Hardscastle with her first husband before she marries Mr. Hardscastle, proves to be a stubborn child in the house. He wants to go to the three pigeons (an inn) to meet his friends. His mother does not want him to go but Tony insists and goes out to the three pigeon’s inn. 

          Miss Hardscastle, a daughter to Mr. Hardscastle and whom Mr. Hardscastle wants his friend’s son to marry. While waiting for Marlow, Miss Hardscastle comes to her father. Her father praises her but accuses her of dressing too expensively. Mr. Hardscastle tells her that he is expecting the arrival of a young gentleman whom he chooses to be her husband. She doubts if she will love Marlow. Her father tells her that he is the son of his old friend whom she hears him talking about time to time. He tells her that he (Marlow) is a scholar and is designed for employment in the service of his country. In addition, he is handsome, very generous and brave. Upon hearing these, Kate (Miss Hardscastle) feels like she will like him. Her father further tells her that Marlow is one of the most bashful and reserved young fellow in the world which makes Kate feels unhappy. Constance, a niece to Mr. Hardcastle and is under Mrs. Hardcastle care after the death of her father. Mrs. Hardcastle has Constance inheritance with her and she doesn’t wants to give her until she marries. She proposes her to her son, Tony.

Theme of a work.

While reading a work, try to make the students understand that the work teaches one or two theme. The following words are likely to be the theme of a literary work.

Abashment  , Accomplishment , Adventure,  Aging,  Altruism

Angry, Appreciation,  Appreciation, Belief, Brotherhood, Challenge, Change, Choices, Communication, Compassion, compassion, Compromise, Concern, Conflict, Consequences

Consideration, Courage, Culture, Determination, Devotion

Differences, Dignity, Discovery, Escape, Excellence, Facing Fear, Faith, Fear, Forgiveness, Freedom, Friendship, Heroism/bravery , Honesty, Hope, Humility, Humor, Influence, Ingenuity, Innovation, Inspiration, Interdependence, Isolation, Justice, Kindness, Leadership

Loneliness, Loss, Love, Nature, Nature, Opportunity, Optimism, Origins, Partnership, Patience, Patriotism, Peace, Peer Pressure, Perseverance, Perspectives, Possibilities, Power, Prejudice, Pride, Recognition, Reflection, Relationships, Relativity, Religion, Resolution, Respect, Responsibility, Self Discipline, Self, Respect, Structure, Success, Survival, Tolerance, Tradition, Tragedy, Virtue, Wisdom, Work, etc

Character Analysis

To be able to analyze a character, you should follow the following steps. 

a.     How the character is revealed to you? This means how you come across a character. Who introduces him or her in the work? Is it the author or another character?

b.   What is the character's position in the work? Is the character protagonist or antagonist?

c.    Ask why the character behaves that way? In SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER, why Tony lies to Mallow and his friend. The answer to this is, “because the plot of the book will be elongated and the title of the play will be fulfilled. 

d.   Who is the main character and why he/she becomes the main character.

Before Next

Before going to the next topic, a teacher is expected to know the following

1. Is today’s learning easy or no? Why?

2. What made learning difficult for you today? Is it tough vocabulary, contextual understanding, unclear explanation, or strong hatred against the antagonist? It may also be a tragic flaw of a central character.

3. What do you still need to know before we move on?

4. What did you learn today?

5. What should our next steps be?

6. Do you have a question about a particular character?