I love teaching literature and I love learning literature. I used to read 10 books a week when I was a kid. I have always loved to read and I want to pass down my love of reading and literature to my students. When I read, I escape to another world--a world of fantasy, a world of adventure, a world of science fiction, a world of romance, a world of betrayal, and a world gone mad. This is the reason why I majored in French Literature in college. And this is the reason why I teach literature to my students. I love teaching literature because classic literature talk about enduring themes that never grow out of style like love, betrayal, coming of age, etc...these themes last forever. The question becomes how do we get students interested in literature?
Remember plays and dramas are meant to be performed. How many books have you seen been transformed into movies? Poems are meant to be sung and many songs are actually poems. If you see a poem, try to come up with a melody to go with the poem and then have students sing out a poem they like.
1. Give reading quizzes. To make sure students have read the chapters, give them content quizzes on a daily basis.
2. Ask students interesting literature questions about the book you are reading.
3. Expect students to come to class with their own literature questions that they can ask each other.
4. Involve multimedia in your teaching--have students watch Youtube videos of the novel or trailers.
5. Have students act out parts of the Shakespeare play.
6. Have students re-write parts of the book to see what would happen in a parallel world.
7. Students can create their own plays and post their video on Youtube for all to see.
8. Create a class book of all literature essays.
9. Have students create a class website about what they read in class.
10. Students can keep a reader response journal where they can draw, do artwork, write poetry and react to what they have read.
11. Have younger students create a storyboard or a comic book of the play or book they just read. Students can work together to create the comic book.
12. Have students create a melody to go with their favorite poem that they read in class.
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