Due to several thought provoking posts by Siobhan Curious, I've been thinking about ways for the teacher to get students to read for pleasure rather than grades. I don't claim that these ideas are particularly orginal, but I wished more people loved literature. As a student, but never a teacher, here's my (I hope not too jerky or just not getting what teaching is) wish list of ideas for literature teachers/professors:
1. Maintain a small private classroom library. I know this is expensive, but just contribute any (non R rated) novels you have lying around, maybe Harry Potter and Twilight, cheap classics picked up at the Salvation Army. It doesn't have to be exhaustive, and some of them will probably not be returned. Allow your students to check out one book at a time, and tell them to return it immediately if they hate it after 25 pages. Since not all teachers have their own rooms, I know this isn't practical for everyone. Maybe you could print a list of books you were willing to lend to your students, then bring them in individually?
2. Have a list of books and authors that appeal to the adolescent mind. (I'm 23 and not all that mature.) Zadie Smith, Philip K Dick, Neal Stephenson, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Neil Gaiman, Mona Simpson all immediately spring to mind as authors who write "good books" while being entertaining and accessible to people who can read but claim to not like it. Particular books in that genre: Fight Club, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Persepolis, Makes Me Wanna Holler.
3. Provide a list of novels that you have read that they may write their essays on in lieu of the assigned book. Impress upon them that they must muddle through the assigned reading, but don't force students to write papers on books that they hate or don't understand.
4. Tell your students that if they want to like reading, they have to seek out books they like, and abandon those that are boring or incomprehensible. An afternoon in the Barnes and Noble literature section is sure to produce one book worth reading, and if that doesn't work, there are always graphic novels.
5. Reading is for pleasure, except during school, remind your students of this, sigh optional.
I know this is a wish list. I know many teachers/professors would love to be able to do some of these things and cannot due to their bosses. But I'd like to think that it can also be a blue print as well as a dream.
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Robin Sneed
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Comments
1. Yes. A classroom library is vital. Depending on the student, it is important not to torture them with books they hate (I teach at-risk students, so I have some leeway with book choice and reading rates.)
2. I think teachers are coming around to the realization that there is plenty of contemporary fiction that can be considered Literature. Two authors I use most to initiate a desire to read in my students are Gary Paulsen (Hatchet) and S.E. Hinton (not all that contemporary, but still relevant).
5. With effort we can make required reading pleasant for students, but it takes subject area knowledge, patience, empathy, and time. The last of which is stretched too thin by those f-ing standards.
Finally; your ideas are not "jerky' they're your ideas and they make sense.
At there homes, I often saw luxurious TVs and no books besides Christian self help (so stimulating to the teenage mind) and their mom's romance novels. They didn't have a concept of books as fun entertainment. I'm not saying, oh, those ignorant poor people, they just watch TV, but that there does appear to be some message broadcast that says, "Reading's for the rich, not for you."
My father explained that we were too poor to buy a TV, but that used books were a good bargain. Teachers should consider that some parents never set up a library card or keep reading material in the house, and that's why I think the classroom library is a must.
Thanks!
I'm always intrigued by your comments and ideas. If fact, your "proposed course plan" comment on one of my posts a while back got my wheels turning, and I'm putting a plan together for my memoir course next fall in which students will read one required text, choose another text from a list, present their chosen text to the class, and then choose a third text from those presented by their classmates. This does not go so far as to let them read whatever they want, but I hope it will help them feel more empowered in their reading.
This morning, I had a long discussion with two different classes about how much they hate Franny and Zooey, their current reading. (A few of them like it. Most don't.) Later in the semester, we're looking at the first Harry Potter book, which most of them will love. Along the way, we're returning repeatedly to the question "What makes a book good?" I'm always fascinated by their responses to this question.
I think it's important for students to love books, but I also think it's important for them to read things that challenge and stretch them, and sometimes, with the proper support, they come to love things that they hated at first. I just wish that, by the time they get to me (in college), they'd had more opportunities to mess around with books on their own and find the stuff they love.