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last.updated 9.30.07

 



Literature & Literacy

Purpose

Students should be able to:

  • identify and describe the various strategies and theories laid out in your readings
  • (preliminarily) discuss what strategies and theories best fit within your own pedagogical philosophies
  • determine a personal position regarding how literature should be used in a secondary classroom and what value is therefore placed on literature in this position


Before Class

  • Read Soven, Chapter 7 (157-195)
  • Read Alsup & Bush, Chapter 1 (1-38)
  • Submit PAB entry #3 to the Blackboard Discussion Board by the beginning of class

Freewrite

Reflect on a particularly good or bad experience you had in high school regarding reading or literature. What makes this experience stand out in your mind? How did you feel about it at the time and how do you feel about it now? What affect did it have on you as a student of English?

Discussion–Think/Pair/Share

Consider the following three quotes. How do these quotes shed light on the strategies and theories or your own experiences?

  • ...our comprehension of texts, whether they are literary or not, is more an act of composition–for understanding is composing rather than information retrieval, and that the best possible representation of our understanding of texts begins with certain kinds of compositions, not multiple choice tests or written free responses (Petrosky in Soven, 158).
  • We, however, want our students to experience the thrill of reading because we know how it affected us, and we believe in the power of books to provide both windows and mirrors into the lives of others and ourselves (Alsup & Bush, 1).
  • A philosophical approach and pedagogical choices work reciprocally. Your philosophy guides your pedagogy, and pedagogy can modify belief (Alsup & Bush, 3).

Activity–Responding to Literature Narratives

Form groups of four students. You will be assigned one of the four narratives in chapter 1 of Alsup & Bush. As a group...

  • review the narrative and the responses
  • develop your own response to this narrative. You can pull from what you found valuable in the two responses, draw upon what you have learned in other education courses, and/or work from your experiences as a student. Be ready to justify your response
  • if your group is having problems developing a response, answer the "For Further Discussion" questions at the end of the narrative

At the end of class, you will share your work. But this work will not be submitted.