One thing I have noticed in my five years of teaching is that many students struggle in relating to literature because they do not have the background or references on which to draw from. Most of their information comes prepackaged and in short technological bursts. Many of us have confronted a student whose attitude was "When everything is presented to me, why should they bother to dig deeper?" This lack of background knowledge and "give it to me now" mentality makes the job of an English teacher more difficult.
That being said, there is technology that makes the presentation of background information with the new way our students view the world much easier. Enter the Smartboard. My school just put in about ten to twelve new boards. Unfortunately, they went to Math and Science teachers. Not English. While I value and appreciate the math and science teachers, I can't help but think why has English taken a back seat to other subjects? After all, if a child cannot read, they will continue to struggle on assignments and tests in other curriculum areas no matter what technology you give them.
Luckily, a Smartboard was placed in a special education classroom. Many small group teachers float in and out throughout the day, and I am one of them. I fully intend on making use of this new technology. I feel that being able to present my students with information in a way they can relate to and understand is important for every teacher, not just in math and science areas. As usual, the pendulum of education cannot find a happy medium. We swing so swiftly from one end to the other, that it is no wonder we never find any common ground.
The best way to get people to read more (which is how you become deeply knowledgeable both about literature and its historical and cultural milieu) is to get them to fall in love with books. The average American now does not read even a book a year. Poems are perfect in fighting this. They are compact, often very memorable, and they offer an experience that often can't be duplicated in film. Raine's martian poem works best in that format, for me.
ReplyDeleteHave you seen video poems, though? Check out this Billy Collins poem. He will be at Georgia Tech next month, by the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrEPJh14mcU
It's in fact about forgetting what you read!