On making readers

[sartorias]

Rising action, falling interest.

Comments

[ellarien]

Ah! Is that "rising action" thing something that's routinely taught in American schools? I don't think it is, or not by that name, in the UK -- but then, I got to drop the standard English Lit course at the equivalent of 8th grade or thereabouts, by virtue of my school's eccentric system.

The blogosphere these days seems to be full of earnest young "Indie" writers all busily explaining to one another the One True Structure for a novel. If it's something they learned in school, that would go some way to explain it.

[sartorias]

I don't know if it is being hammered quite so much now, but ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, you couldn't escape it.

Yeah--someone somewhere is inevitably teaching the New True School of literature, which will in turn proliferate outward as the New Way of Looking at Literature. (Or the Only Way.) It was existentialism when I was young, and Marxism when my daughter was in school.

[whswhs]

I remember being exposed to low-end literary theory when I was in junior high school, back in the early sixties. It never made much sense to me. I still remember being asked to compare two stories with regard to one of theme, plot, characterization, or setting, and not being able to figure out how to start. On the other hand, when the assignment was to write about who was my favorite character in a work, and why, I had no trouble with that. I suppose that's more the kind of thing that fans of a work talk about

[sartorias]

I think splashing around in as wide as possible a pool of reading is a great thing.

[barbarienne]

First and foremost, to make good readers you must let them read what they want to read. Sooner or later they will work their way to the "classics" or "good literature" or whatever you want to call it--and if they don't, it means they were never going to get there anyway.

I don't mind school assignments, but I always thought the best English teachers assigned a good variety so even if one didn't like some of the books, others were more appealing.

Also, note for parents: Don't try to restrict your kids' reading. My folks never refused me a book on the grounds of content (except comic books; my dad was a bit of a snob there). They didn't read SF/F, but they didn't suggest that I shouldn't.

Second, I say do what you note in your post: just let them talk. Don't try to direct the conversation too much. If they liked the book, they'll have stuff to say.

Part of that is don't stifle them. I think most people have had at least one teacher who couldn't hide their reactions when a student gave a "right" or "wrong" answer, where right/wrong

[sartorias]

All good suggestions. Re the parents who want their kids to read but don't read, generalizing vastly, this dropped off about fourth grade, when they could no longer score points with other parents with "My Aisling can read at high school level and she's only eight, according to the standardized achievement tests!" After about fourth grade, the other parents were wiser to what those test scores really meant, and so the bragging power dropped . . . and suddenly we got this hardnosed switch: those were the parents who complained bitterly about the waste of time that was home reading or book reports. "That interferes with soccer practice (which is year round in California) and dance lessons!"

[serialbabbler]

Once, when I was in the children's section of a public library, I listened to an adult inform the kid he was with that all fiction was trash, but she should definitely read the non-fiction. Poor kid.

[marycatelli]

Ah, the English teachers who say they want to hear what you think and grade you down on the first paper if you listen. Therefore, I did as my classmates did. They would talk of "shoveling" a paper.

[cedunkley]

Even though my English teachers always wanted the class to read the assigned book on a specific schedule so we could "experience the novel together," or some such, I always went home and read the entire book the first night to experience it for myself and then reread the chapters as assigned.

Good thing too. Of Mice And Men is one of the few books I've read that made me break down in uncontrolled sobs. I got to do that in private at home and not in front of the entire class.

[sartorias]

Wow did I hate that novel. I barely escaped having to do it in class, but did not escape having to do it with both kids, who loathed it as much as I did, and for the same reasons.

[cedunkley]

I've only read it for that English Class but I just remember reacting to that climactic moment. I have no idea how I would respond to the book if I reread it today. So many of the "classics" invoke such a wide variety of reactions to them. I have close friends with very similar reading tastes to mine who also despised it.

[silkiemom]

When my oldest son studied Of Mice and Men in his freshman year, he thought it was interesting and depressing, but did not hate it. His comment was, "It's like a children's book written by Dogbert. 'Remember kids, no matter how hard you care about your dreams, there's always something, somewhere that will crush them.'"

Given that filter to view the book, he found it interesting rather than awful. I don't think he shared that opinion with his teacher, though.

[filkferengi]

In high school, rather than take second quarter [20th century] American lit, I took a tragedy class, because I figured it'd be less of a downer. Yay for being right, & avoiding Faulkner & Hemingway, among others! As a bonus, when we read Anouilh's _Antigone_, I was able to use the paper in my independent study French class.

[sartorias]

Smart move!!!