From the Literature Institute 2001
By Melita Bunghanoy
Kealakehe High School
Student says, “ Miss, this is so boring. Miss, this is so stupid. “Why do we have to know this?” My well-thought and deeply provoking reply, “ This isn’t boring; this isn’t stupid. Do you want to grow up illiterate and ignorant?” Well, so much for providing students a sound and enlightening reason for learning literature. So why do I want students to read and study literature? To be honest, I want them to feel the same sense of wonder and magic I feel whenever I open a book, I want them to feel a chill or tingle when they encounter a beautifully wrought sentence or an image that is the equivalent of a Rembrandt, Van Gogh, or Picasso painting. I want them to be the child I was when I first opened my first book and found myself spiraling into a world as real as my own. I want them to know that when they read they learn about the world, others, and themselves. I want all these things to occur within my students. And not simply once every quarter, but every day and in every class.
I want these things, yet I deeply sensed I was wanting as a teacher of literature. Blank stares, persistent yawns, incessant whispers, and other off-task behavior all pointed to the fact I wasn’t engaging my students. Oh yes, there were the fleeting moments when I captured the imagination and interest of students, when I could almost touch their enthusiasm for 4 literary works. In a class of 17 year old, prank- prone, smart-alecky males, I had a couple of uplifting moments. As we read aloud The Man who was Almost a Man, the annoying whisperings and fidgeting ceased, and I realized the power of literature. After the reading I asked the class whether or not the main character was a man based on his actions. One student, who usually takes every opportunity to catch up on his much needed sleep during my read aloud replied, “MISS, he wasn’t a man at all. Having a gun doesn’t make a person a man.” If only they were always so engaged. However, the reality is dismal. Many of my students, especially my average and lower-ability students, rather than delving into literature on their own, wait for me to tell them what it all means. Despite prodding them to take the risk and rely on their own judgment, I usually end up giving them my interpretation. The horrifying consequence manifests in students jotting down my interpretation, word for word, on tests.
When the opportunity to participate in the Summer Literature Institute sprang before me, without hesitation, I promptly applied, hoping that my weaknesses as an English teacher would be addressed and rectified. Guided by sagacious, veteran teachers, I would learn to make literature come alive for my students.
The institute has not failed me. Two essential principles that I garnered from these past two weeks are 1) the critical and indispensable need for personal connection and 2) cooperative learning. The crucial first step in engaging students with literature, whether poetry or fiction, is to have students personally connect with what they are reading. From the instructors, I fully realized that before students can move on to analyzing and critiquing, they must first respond personally. I knew the importance of this initial step, but somehow in my teaching I flippantly implemented personal connections, completely oblivious to the magnitude of this step. How could students find any value or worth in what they are reading if they are not guided in relating or responding? As a reader, I choose literature I value. Students need to find worth in what they are reading, and what better way than to find it by personally connecting and responding?
The second principle, just as critical, is cooperative learning and the dialoguing that takes place. The positive and most effective strategy that the instructors utilized was to place the teachers as learners themselves. In this way, teachers knew first hand how trenchant and fun the diverse cooperative strategies were. For example, the “Save the Last Words for the Artist” activity clearly revealed to me how effective and potent employing small groups and the entire class can be in teaching literature. Already, my comprehension of Vinegar Hill grew as my group dialogued about what we believed would be the most significant aspects of the novel. Each group member contributed to our learning, feeding off each other’s ideas and enthusiasm. One member addressed the stultifying sense of duty to family that the main character internalized. Another member came up with the original idea of using the apron with the apron strings inextricably knotted to symbolize the family bondage. The most surprising, but highly beneficial to the class’ understanding, was the presentation of each group’s work. As each group presented their work, interpretations abounded exuberantly, and we found that our interpretations went beyond what was intended, but that only enriched our understanding. In this stage of the activity, teachers also fed off each other’s ideas. Literature came alive through the dialogue intrinsic in cooperative learning.
The Summer Literature Institute has filled me with hope. I began the institute with an overwhelming sense of want, a child in great need of nourishment, priest who somehow lost her faith, not in the teaching and the text but in herself. This two week institute, with its effective hands-on practical strategies and enthusiastic and nurturing atmosphere, has made me believe again.
The most significant aspect of the Literature Institute for me was the immersion in literature we experienced. As we read poetry, short stories, excerpts, novels I stretched my mind in many different directions. My comfort level with various genre has increased and widened my horizons as a reader, and in that respect has enriched what I will be as a teacher of reading. I can now visualize myself exploring poetry with students -prior to this, I would not have considered interpreting poetry with my students.
I experienced first hand the value, the richness, the connectedness of being a member of a community of readers and interpreters. The experience of sharing our perspectives as we built an understanding of Vinegar Hill opened the door for me to be willing to tackle more difficult issues in novels. Usually I dislike reading about the trials and challenges of others -it leaves me with a sense of depression. After reading Vinegar Hill I thought “Well, that was somewhat hopeful at the end.” But this was a tentative feeling and I still could not see myself selecting other novels on tough issues. Then, we collaborated on creating a visual interpretation of the book, shared those interpretations, and discovered new meanings even as we shared the “final” products. Somewhere between this experience and the many other explorings of literature we have done over the last two weeks, I have discovered a sense of adventure!
I am excited and I am going to nurture this fresh perspective by setting aside time for personal reading for pleasure and by seeking literature in previously unexplored aisles of the bookstores. I used to search for books to read in the young adult section, posing the fact that I am a middle school teacher as reason enough for my preference. Well, the mind has been stretched and there are spaces to be filled!
Yet, reading as an individual is no longer enough. I am no longer satisfied to read wonderful literature and ponder it in isolation. I will seek out communities of readers and thinkers so that I can continue to exercise and stretch my mind. fu sharing this wish with a group of colleagues at the institute, I voiced a common desire. We have already made plans to read The Diary of Mattie Spenser and meet before school begins.
What a bonus to find such personal growth overlapping the professional growth the Literature Institute has stimulated! As I feel my own energy and excitement emerging from the context of immersion in reading and literature, I wholeheartedly embrace the endeavor to create such a community in my classroom. I realize in a more profound way the value of the classroom community as a setting for the reading and studying of literature. When the community is seen as accepting and supportive, students will be able to exchange of ideas in the process of discovering the meanings of a text. The synergism of the group will create results surpassing the results an individual would produce in isolation.
Within this community, the multitude of strategies we experienced throughout the institute are the tools I can provide my students as they seek out meanings of the text. As students work with these tools, they will become comfortable with them and be able to judge for themselves which will be the most helpful in their process. The key is in the wide range of the strategies, capitalizing on student’s strengths by addressing the multiple intelligences. When these tools are utilized in the rich context of community we begin to nurture readers in their development.
There are several perspectives that have crystallized for me these past two weeks that will guide me as I select from possible teaching/learning strategies. These perspectives are grounded in metacognition -helping the student to be aware of their own process as learners. Reflection aids the student and the teacher to examine what does and does not work for the individual in each situation. This awareness of process enables the learner and teacher to make informed choices in the future to maximize understanding and growth. A major aspect of this metacognition in the Title I students I teach is awareness and understanding of Mature Reader Strategies, or what “good” readers do as they read and make meanings of their reading.
The major perspective that falls in this category is the stance students take when reading. An aesthetic stance involves appreciation while an efferent stance involves reading for information. Students who are avid, or “good,” readers learn to approach reading from an aesthetic stance and take an efferent stance as necessary .Students who are unmotivated readers approach reading from an efferent stance and see reading as a functional skill. The Title I students who are doing poorly in reading need to learn to take the aesthetic stance in order to develop an appreciation for reading. I can intentionally promote the aesthetic stance as a primary stance for students as I select strategies to enable their reading.
The constructivist perspective of literary study-that the teaching/learning mode is one of transaction/ inquiry more than one of transmission -also adds clarity to the choices I will make as a teacher. The transmission mode, which is more teacher centered, communicates to students the need for an authority figure to impart learning. The transaction/ inquiry mode, which is more learner centered, communicates to students their responsibility and involvement in learning. In the transaction/ inquiry mode, students will learn to think “I can read and make meanings of this text” rather than “I need the teacher to be able to read and make meanings of this text.” I want students to become self-directed learners who are critical thinkers and problem-solvers. This means making conscious choices about classroom experiences so that a constructivist perspective is maintained.
Finally, the richness of the strategies for sharing meanings highlights the perspective of creativity .Making meanings of text is a creative process, the same as the process of composing the text. I need to need to support this creative process as I provide opportunities for students to share the meanings they have discovered and constructed.
In the process of writing this reflection, I looked back to where I was when we started to see how far I had come. Alas, it seems I have not traveled far at all. There are no “new” ideas. All the ideas I have expressed in this reflection are grounded in the writing I did for “Literature Learning Log #1.” I spoke of students learning that reading is pleasurable, of students experiencing reading in the context of a community , and of students being able to express the ideas and understandings gained from their reading. But then, I have traveled far, in clarity , in specifics, in definition and in personal experience, to grow, from the seeds of those beliefs, a vibrant garden filled with a myriad of choices that will intentionally nurture avid readers.
