I was wondering what everyone else thought about re-reading difficult texts. If I have a class read "Romeo and Juliet" straight through, the go back and re-read and point out things that require a deeper reading, would that make it more enjoyable? Like watching "Sixth Sense" a second time? What do you think?
~Stan
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I don't know, Stan. One of the classes in my practicum right now is doing Romeo and Juliet - they're moving pretty fast, but they've still been doing it for five weeks...and they're not done reading! All the reading is in-class, because these kids may not have the time or the place to do any kind of homework. I know if you write a thorough literary analysis at the college level, you should really reread the novel...but none of us have time to do that, and high school kids certainly don't. I think in many cases "guided reading" is enough, and then you can return to a few key passages for a detailed look which students can apply to the rest of their reading. Teachers suffer from not having enough time - even if we could spend three months on one book, we shouldn't, unless our goal is to make students hate the book.
I definitely think that rereading is necessary if our students are going to be able to fully grasp what they are reading - at least the more difficult pieces. However, Katie does point out the timing issue and how is that realistic without spending FOR-EV-ER on one piece.
I think the idea behind re-reading is a good one, but sometimes you just don't have that kind of time. With larger texts, re-reading could simply be out of the question. There's too much to cover for this strategy to work on larger texts.
I can definitely see that it has great potential, but using it on something like Romeo and Juliet might be a little lengthy.
Though I'd think the students would learn a whole lot more the second time through a Shakespearian play (as well as the third and fourth time if they read it in other classes), I agree that it's too much for high school students and takes too long. On the other side, going back through and examining the long soliliques (sp?) and monologues a second time could be just as benifital.
Post a Comment