Blog Nine

Stages of Literary Appreciation :Reflection

            My literature teacher drags into the classroom with the novel of focus swinging at her side. She lifelessly greets the class, which makes me glance at my watch to start subtracting the number of minutes I must endure this anticipated episode of misery from the present time. She sits at the side of the teacher’s desk and crosses her legs – a location and position she will remain in for the rest of the lesson.

            We are then instructed to open our novels and one student is randomly selected to begin reading aloud. Readers are changed constantly in an attempt to ensure that we are paying attention. After some reading has occurred, another set of random selection begins to answer questions based on what was just read. Thankfully, the bell which signals end of class rings and saves us from ‘death by boredom’ for now, as this routine will continue in the next literature lesson.

            Had my literature teacher considered the stages of literary appreciation, she would have realized that we were at the level of ‘Finding Oneself in a Story’. She would have taken into account the fact that we were becoming discriminatory readers and are no longer satisfied with knowing only what happened. She would allow us to discuss why events in the literature happened and connect the happenings to our own personal experiences. She would assist us in our quest to finding out about ourselves by planning lessons that allowed us to talk and interact with our peers. She would also select texts that are right for our level in the stages of literary appreciation.

            As a teacher, my selection of texts will include realistic fiction, contemporary problem novels or wish-fulfilling stories and will all be Young Adult Literature. These texts are suitable for their age and level in the stages of literary appreciation. These books will be of interest and relevance to my students, as they will read about lives of characters which may be similar to their own. I will also allow students to respond to the novels based on their personal experiences through group work and response journals, in an attempt to get them to justify why characters behave a certain way and why events happen in the texts. I will allow them to speak about their likes and dislikes of the literature and develop activities that encourage them to engage in critical thinking. I will also ensure that whatever activities I use in the classroom will be student-centred rather than teacher-centred in nature. I will present the literature in a manner that brings it to life in order to captivate students and perhaps encourage them to read more in their mission to find themselves in literature.

            In order for students to appreciate literature, it is up to us teachers to ensure that we can meet their needs at the correct level in the stages of Literary Appreciation. By making the students experience pleasure and profit from their reading, viewing and listening, we will be moving a generation one step closer to becoming adults who are intellectually stimulated to read for personal fulfillment and pleasure.