What is Literature Good For?

Carol Jago, in her recent book With Rigor For All (Heineman), cites six contributions that the study of literature makes to student development:

1. intellectual curiosity as the content of great works of literature offers them teh ways and means of delving into stories, and through these stories, of having a vicarious experience of the human condition far greater than any of them could ever acquire on the basis of luck and firsthand encounters
2. cognitive skills through the study of literature that supports the critical reading of all texts, the precise use of language, and the creation of sound arguments
3. aesthetic sensitivity that helps them recognize and respond to art
4. an intra- and intercultural awareness by reading texts from both their own and other cultures
5. an ethical sensitivity that includes the ability to regulate conduct according to principles and the ability to deliberate about issues both in their own heads and in dialogue with others
6. an existential maturity that allows them to behave as civilized human beings in a world where others are not always so inclined.

Jago draws this list from Shaped by Stories: The Ethical Power of Narratives by Marshall Gregory (2009). According to Gregory, existential maturity “is more easily defined by what it is not than by what it is. It is not self-centeredness; it is not unkindness; it is not pettiness; it is not petulance; it is not callousness to the suffering of others; it is not back-biting or violent competitiveness; it is not mean-spiritedness; it is not dogmatism or fanaticism; it is not a lack of self-control; it is not the inability ever to be detached or ironic; it is not the refusal to engage in give-and-take learning from others; it is not the assumption that what we personally desire and value is what everyone else desires and values” (57)

Modeling instruction after what good readers do naturally

What I really love about this section from Carol Jago's With Rigor for All (pp. 111-112) is both the reminder to tell weaker readers the "secret" (or secrets!) of excellent readers AND the paragraph which follows the list, which reminds us that the core of all these strategies is "the thinking that these tools represent."

In order both to help students comprehend demanding literature and to meet Common Core Standards, I begin with the behaviors of good readers behaviors of good readers According to research by Michael Pressley and Peter Afflerback (1995), excellent readers are extremely strategic readers. Often without realizing that they are doing it, strong readers:

• overview a text before reading
• determine what is most important in what they are reading
• use prior knowledge to make sense of new learning
• predict what is likely to come next in a text
• construct an interpretation of a text as they read
• draw inferences from what they read
• determine the meaning of words they don’t understand, especially when the word seems critical to making sense of the text
• use techniques such as underlining, rereading, note-taking, visualizing, summarizing, paraphrasing, and questioning strategically to focus their reading
• engage in an imaginary conversation with the author
• anticipate or plan for the use of knowledge gained from the reading

Although many remedial reading programs have turned these behaviors into reading strategies, each with its own catchy acronym, I don’t think this is the best method for helping reluctant readers develop the habit of doing these things naturally. Too often the strategies insert a layer of artificiality onto the act of reading. Do you keep a reading log? When was the last time you filled in a wish-bone/fishbone graphic organizer to explain relationships between characters? This is not to say that such tools can’t be helpful for making what is transparent for good readers visible to all students. But too many students think their work is done once they complete the graphic organizer. It’s the thinking that these tools represent, the habits of mind, that we want students ot acquire. Teachers need to be strategic in their use of classroom time so that students spend a brief amount of time practicing strategies and the bulk of their time reading."

Des Moines University Award "marrying writing and medicine"

Here's quote from this year's winner:

“I am slowly discovering that writing is not just something I love to do, it is a fundamental aspect of who I am. It’s part of my processing machinery. When I was a little girl, for fun, I wrote stories about people, animals, inanimate objects, and gave them to people as presents,” said Hammer who calls Portland, OR and Seattle, WA hometowns. “I keep note cards in my pockets at all times, on the wards, on road trips, especially on long runs just in case that brilliant idea happens to ambush me while I’m on the trail. I have often felt that I must maintain my hobby on the sly. So to think that there is ‘merit’ for what I am possessed to do, often beyond my control, and to be included in a journal among others who seem to share my syndrome, I feel quite found and encouraged to continue.”

Here's the website:

http://www.dmu.edu/2010/10/first-abaton-selzer-award-for-writing-presented

Harvard Business Review Daily Stat

When I say Kelly Gallagher a couple years ago, he said that he shared with students – as a way to get kids to thing more critically about their world – a statistic drawn each week from The Week magazine. I try to do something similar in my class and give kids a template to speak about the data: “At first glance it seems as though ___; however, something that’s not said is ______.” Stuff like that. Anyway, there’s a place you can sign up for “Daily Stat” from Harvard Business Review. Here: http://web.hbr.org/email/archive/dailystat.php

Here’s today’s:

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Among Students, Web Connection More Important than Car

64% of college students in a global survey said that if forced to choose, they would opt for having an internet connection rather than a car. 40% said the internet is more important to them than dating, going out with friends, or listening to music. The Cisco Connected World Technology Report draws on surveys of some 1,400 students in 14 countries.

Banned books list from NCTE

check it out here: http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Anti-Censorship/Titles%20Challenged%202004-2011.pdf

Chicago Tribune First Amendment Essay Contest

Deadline October 11. Check it out here: http://nieonline.com/chicago/2011FAFpromo.cfm

BART shuts down cell phones. 1st Amendment Infringement?

Recently, San Francisco "jammed" cell phone use on their mass transit b/c they knew a protest was brewing. Two professors on 1st amendment rights argue about it on Science Friday on August 22... (this is a podcast). For rhetoric? For Friday night entertainment? http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201108195