My literary history is sadly rather unspectacular. A large majority of things I’ve read were assigned by various teachers throughout my student life, leaving me little time for reading of my own. On the upside, my teachers did a good job of exposing me to a wide variety of genres along the way. As a child, I highly enjoyed reading and did lots of it. When I started reading as a student, things began to change. Being forced to read made it difficult for me to be motivated, but I typically still enjoyed the stories once I got into them.
As I got older, my relationship with literature only became more bitter than sweet. The farther I got in school, the more I would have to read and I would have much less time to do it. On top of that, most of my teachers were heavily bound by the standards imposed on their lesson plans, and they only had one mode of assessment. Make me write papers. This pattern has become extraordinarily tiresome. To read a novel and then write about it can be a very time consuming and mentally draining process. This is especially true when the process is repeated constantly, and the writing is expected to be of consistent high quality. As a result, I have absolutely no desire to read, and this is especially true when it comes to my personal free time. I will always love a good story but reading and writing just feel like work to me and cause me nothing but stress. I think it will take a long hiatus from life as a student to bring me away from the dark side again. At least I hope I can be redeemed.
As an aspiring future teacher, I will always be looking for new ways to effectively teach students about literature and understanding it effectively. I am happy to report that our reading and discussion of The Outsiders has already helped me to look at instruction of literature in a new way. I read The Outsiders as a seventh grade student and I didn’t really remember anything about it. I now realize that I retained so little of the information because it was taught to me in a way that didn’t utilize the strong the story’s strong ability to relate to young students. My disinterest as an unmotivated student kept me from taking the most important elements of the story seriously and my teachers did nothing to convey those aspects of the book. I see now how great adolescent literature can be when it comes to motivating students to get into literature if it can be taught effectively, and the right issues are raised.
If I ever do finally become a teacher, I will inevitably have to distinguish between good and bad practices in terms of instruction. Experience has taught me that I should avoid unguided and unenthusiastic instruction at all costs. These things along with negligence of the key points in stories like The Outsiders are part of what led to my burnout. One thing my teachers did a good job of was making sure that students got a good variety of newer literature and the classics. I think it is important to give kids that range so they can gain a greater overall appreciation of literature, and give them a chance to benefit from the qualities of many works.
