Recalling Great Books

Sitting or standing in front of my students and trying not to say too much has never been my style.

Heck, usually when I'm preparing to teach a novel, or any work in literature, I spend hours pouring over the internet looking for activities. Then I spend several more hours finding the right questions for Chapter Questions just so that we can make sure they actually read the text that is assigned.

Then there's the necessary time that I spend getting ready to discuss the author's background.,reviewing literary terms, and time spent helping my students apply these terms to the text...or rather mimic MY interpretation of the text. Which is not what I'm wanting to do at all!

Next, being a literature teacher, essays topics are created to allow the students to expound upon the great work that they've read while explicating the text. Finally, there's the objective test .

So, of course, there are piles and piles and PILES and PILES of papers...everywhere there are papers. It's busy work mainly. Yes, it's randomly created bits of informat to take up time while ensuring that my students did their assigned work. Argh!

That description was true of my classroom until recently. Yes, I'm still teaching Literature and Composition. But, now I'm trying a novel approach on our novels. ha ha! Only this "novel" approach isn't so new.

Actually, I've found that the most engaged my students have become in a text, is when I don't lecture. It's when I don't tell them about the symbolism or give them my interpretion of the literary work.

So what do we do without the piles and piles and PILES and PILES of papers? We talk.

Just like the good old days when I was taking Great Books. The different now though, is that I'm not a student. I'm on the other side of this table. I'm trying to learn to facilitate the discussion without saying too much.

It's NOT easy! I so want to say, "YES!" When a student makes a point that I totally agree with. I want to jump in and expound upon the moment. Instead though, I find myself nodding my head and saying, "That's a really good point or turning to the class and redirecting the conversation back to them by asking what they think about the student's comment."

What does this do? It TEACHES! The students are going into a depth that my students have never reached with this novel. What novel? Huckleberry Finn

Huck Finn was one of my favorite novels from high school, but I'd not been able to get students engaged in it since I'd started teaching. Perhaps, it was the piles of papers or maybe it was the drudgery of answering "chapter questions." Whatever it was, the students weren't learning.

They were reciting. They were simply jumping through the hoops, getting their grades and complaining while they did so. The book was the too hard. The language was too difficult. They didn't like the text because it was so controversial.

And now...there's little to no complaining. The students are teaching each other. They are delving into depth in symbolism and theme and allusions like never before. The text has come alive! Or rather Great Books have come back to life!

How long will this last? I don't know, but I do know it worked for me for four years in college. And now I find it working in my own classrooms. If only I'd realized it was a technique I could use on my own.

So what do we do, if there are no chapter questions, quizzes, and objective tests over the novel? Each night as the students read they write down two higher order thinking questions for the discussion in class the following day. If they can answer the question on their paper they do. If not, that's okay too. Then at the beginning of class the students get out their questions. I go around the room and look at the questions. Those students without questions and those who have not completed the assignment are placed in the hall until their work is done. They may not participate in the discussion.

Those who are ready to work on the text stay in the room and discuss it. As those in the hall finish their questions or their reading (both must be done to return) they may re-enter the classroom and join the discussion. Each student has a Popsicle stick. When the student participates in the discussion in a meaningful and relevant way I take the Popsicle stick and they have credit for the day. They don't have to make but one relevant comment, but most get so involved in the discussion they continue.

What's changed? Why are they so much more engaged? I think so much has, but I conjecture that the biggest change is that they are enjoying the learning. It's going where they want it to go and the peer pressure has changed from pushing students to say, "This is so hard and I don't get it," to "I want to participate in a discussion with my peers."

Let me leave my ramblings on re-visiting Great Books with this. I literally heard a student turn to the student behind him today and begin to beg her to join in the discussion, not only so he could hear her opinion, but also so she could have her Popsicle stick taken up. Will wonders never cease?

And I think that when the discussion has closed, and the essays begin that the work I'll receive will be much higher in quality as a result of this Great Books learning opportunity.

So good bye novels, quizzes and teacher created questions. So long novel lectures. Au revoir, piles and piles and PILES of papers. I may have to hold on to some worksheets and lectures for grammar and such, but as for the rest if literature. I know my students and I are looking forward to a much brighter tomorrow. After all it's another Great Books day!