Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "teaching"
Do You Have an Ear for Literature?
I spent twenty-six years in the tenth grade, twenty-seven if you count the year I was actually a sophomore. In that time, I tried very hard to make reading a good thing for my students, offering variety, encouragement, and gentle nudges on to the next reading level. One of the things I learned is that the "ear" for literary excellence is tricky. Age, ability, and inclination all enter into it, and while there are some who have a tin ear for literature, most can develop their sense of "good" literature if they try.
There are three facets of reading. We can teach people to decode words. We can teach them to find the pertinent facts and details as they read. We cannot teach appreciation, but we can develop it, or rather, the reader can, with practice. Life experience, understanding of character, detection of sarcasm, satire, and misdirection are all things that come with reading and discussing literature with others. Teachers have to focus on more than "Did they read the piece?" and "Can they answer the questions at the end of the chapter?" Students might read, might be able to tell you who the main characters are in a piece, but they often have difficulty with the tone if they are tuned in to only decoding and recalling details. They can miss Mark Twain's comedy genius entirely as they fight their way through "My Grandfather's Ram", trying to find the story line.
Appreciation comes from reading a wide variety of works, which to me is what the job of a literature teacher is all about. While we all might know what we LIKE to read, a teacher's job is to help us develop our literary ears, so we have a larger sense of what really good writing is.
There are three facets of reading. We can teach people to decode words. We can teach them to find the pertinent facts and details as they read. We cannot teach appreciation, but we can develop it, or rather, the reader can, with practice. Life experience, understanding of character, detection of sarcasm, satire, and misdirection are all things that come with reading and discussing literature with others. Teachers have to focus on more than "Did they read the piece?" and "Can they answer the questions at the end of the chapter?" Students might read, might be able to tell you who the main characters are in a piece, but they often have difficulty with the tone if they are tuned in to only decoding and recalling details. They can miss Mark Twain's comedy genius entirely as they fight their way through "My Grandfather's Ram", trying to find the story line.
Appreciation comes from reading a wide variety of works, which to me is what the job of a literature teacher is all about. While we all might know what we LIKE to read, a teacher's job is to help us develop our literary ears, so we have a larger sense of what really good writing is.
What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?
I'm preparing a presentation for a group of teachers, and a question I will ask them has come back around to me: How did you come to do the work you do?
I think many of us float into our vocations. For me, a small town girl in the '60s whose mother, grandmother, and great-grandfather had all been teachers, choice wasn't really choosing. It was more doing what I thought I could and should do. Luckily, I loved teaching and made a good living at it.
But now I'm a writer, and I can't imagine doing anything else. What if I'd made that decision forty years ago?
Honestly, I think teaching prepared me for writing. I know there are writers who do brilliant work in their twenties, but I don't think it would have been me. I knew I liked to write, but that isn't the same as having something to say.
John Lennon said that when he was a boy and people asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said "Happy." They said he didn't understand the question; he said they didn't understand the answer.
I think what we want to be changes over time. I'm really glad I spent thirty years working with kids, trying to get them to see their potential, before I finally took a breath, looked around, and realized my own.
I think many of us float into our vocations. For me, a small town girl in the '60s whose mother, grandmother, and great-grandfather had all been teachers, choice wasn't really choosing. It was more doing what I thought I could and should do. Luckily, I loved teaching and made a good living at it.
But now I'm a writer, and I can't imagine doing anything else. What if I'd made that decision forty years ago?
Honestly, I think teaching prepared me for writing. I know there are writers who do brilliant work in their twenties, but I don't think it would have been me. I knew I liked to write, but that isn't the same as having something to say.
John Lennon said that when he was a boy and people asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said "Happy." They said he didn't understand the question; he said they didn't understand the answer.
I think what we want to be changes over time. I'm really glad I spent thirty years working with kids, trying to get them to see their potential, before I finally took a breath, looked around, and realized my own.
