Why teach novels? This remains one of the most loaded and difficult questions for any English teacher. With the surge of Young Adult Literature hitting Amazon, do the classics have any place in the modern-day English curriculum? From reading the assigned articles by Gallo, Jago, and Broz I have formulated my own opinion (based off their articles) about why teaching novels is important and how the English curriculum should be set up. The English curriculum needs to integrate a scaffolding procedure that integrates Young Adult Literature with classic literature. The books assigned should alternate between classics and YAL and the content should build upon itself in terms of a central theme as well as an increase in difficulty and complexity. Also, the teacher should attempt to relate the themes and issues of the text to modern-day students so that the students can connect with the texts on a personal wavelength. Teaching novels, whether classic or YAL, is important because it provides an opportunity to teach students how to sift through tremendous amounts of information in order to analyze, think critically, and interpret the information and shape it for their specific needs (example: a persuasive essay). Students, whether they know it or not, need English class and its lessons in order to survive in life.
2 comments:
I agree with everything you wrote. I think a mixture of both the classics and Young Adult Literature is great as long as the teacher is teaching the students how to think critically about what they are reading.
I agree that the literature should increase in difficulty and complexity, as well as your ideas about combining YA literature with classic literature. What I'd like to see with this though is more of an idea similar to the article we read about teaching Great Expectations in installments: Picking a day of the week to have free-choice (free-choice Fridays, etc.) where students get to read their YA selections only at a designated class time. There's just so much great classic literature, that I hate to see it exchanged for the YA novels even though I think some pieces are written well enough to enjoy that position. Still sorting this all out in my head though. Too many books, too little time.
Post a Comment