Re: Literature Interview Questions/ just 3

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>
> Great question - the purpose is to understand how other teachers
> use Literature in their classrooms - different approaches, styles,
> choice of author. Does this help? Thank you for responding.

I'm assuming we're interviewing literature teachers - not history
teachers - though they sometimes use literature in their classrooms.

If we say to a literature teacher, "How do you use literature in your
classroom?" they will look back at us as if we're nuts. So let's not
ask it that way. We can't even say "What role does literature play
in your classroom?" because it's rather like asking an engineer how
they use the train.

To get there would be the best answer and a literature teacher could
fairly say the same. We use literature to get there.

Where is the question?... Some lit teachers will have never thought
about that and others would speak volumes to you and each one likely
have a different answer than the next.

Of course we teach literature because first we're required to. The
standards - and every state has them - would offer a very lengthy
list of what is hoped to be achieved by teaching literature to students.

Maybe best to say - (1) what do you emphasize in the literature as
your class reads a book?

I really think that's the best way to phrase the question. And then-
(2) why do you emphasize that? What ideally would you like your
students to take away from their reading?

For example, I emphasize the connection of literature to life and
society over the actual construction of the novel and the literary
devices used in it.

And I'd like my students to see what's real in the literature we
read. Literature to me is a mirror held up to society - is the
reflection an accurate one? Or is it muddied or distorted?

Along the way, I emote and gush over the author and how they
constructed the book, share details of the author's life and puzzle
over how that impacted on the book.

I want my students to take away being better read people - educated
people have read books... - and ideally I'd like them to have had a
positive experience with literature in my classroom. I'd like them to
consider for themselves whether continued reading on their own could
be of help or merit them in life ( literature strengthens me - if
I've read it in a book and then see it in life I can go "ah - Mr.
Chips warned me of this day. He too met this challenge."

Last (3) - why have you chosen the books you assign in class.

(the answer might be - school curriculum insists upon it)

But in my case it's because I want to choose books that will invite
student interest but yet be representative of a country's classic
literature and also include works of modern literature including what
we're now sometimes calling 'multicultural literature.'

Hope that helps.

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