Premonition

I must admit I still cannot understand what “The Signal-Man” is about. Anyhow, I could relate some of its key words while discussing it in the class.

The opposition between isolation and community was well depicted in the story by using this box in a trench and the train which moved from one city to another full of passengers that traveled to be in the community of their relatives or acquaintances.

Again, we could see that the fear of the unknown is very present at the story in the character of the signal man. He could not decipher this supernatural phenomenon of seeing a ghost warning him. At the end, I could understand the visions as a premonition of what would happen next.

I would relate the character of the ghost and the premonition with the Grimm in Harry Potter since it has the same effect. Seeing the Grimm was a premonitory sign of your death. As we have discussed all writers include references to previous works of others. We can see that in almost every literary work. Anyway, I really liked the story because it was continually playing with our own fears, and it kept the mystery until the very end.

Junior

I felt very nostalgic while I was reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I think it is a heartbreaking story because for most of the time I felt very sympathetic with the creature. While I was enjoying the story, I realized of many things that happen every day in our lives. Among many things, the story has proved that humans need to live in society with other humans. The story has also proved that rejection can cause many problems in the minds of the people. Frankenstein was “born” and was abandoned by its own creator. This abandonment caused him to feel rejected although he continued trying to find good people that could accept him. He found a small family in a cottage and during a long period of time they were his family. But, when he encouraged himself to go see them, he encountered rejection again. His need of being in society made him seek for people who could accept him. However, this need of being accepted and in the company of other people disappeared after being rejected by several people again and again. He also found that he had no roots, he came from no place, and he had no name: he was not as the rest of the people. He began thinking that he should make his creator pay for what he suffered. Rejection made him be revengeful and this is shown in our society. Children who have suffered a great deal of problems and abandonment show themselves to be, in the worst of cases, criminals. I think Frankenstein is a story that leaves so much room for discussion. It definitely provides food for thought since you can easily identify problems that are present in the story which still happen nowadays. It would be great to bring Frankenstein to the classroom and discuss many of the issues depicted in the plot such as: identity, self-esteem, marginalization, family and regret.
I very much enjoyed reading Frankenstein junior story.

Moon

“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” represents what people feel when they have a little treasure. In Wordsworth’s case: Daffodils were his treasure. If we start asking people what is something very special for them they will come up with the most strange and peculiar things. Therefore, I could draw to a conclusion: Daffodils were to Wordsworth what the moon is to me. Whenever I feel sad or happy or excited, I look at the moon and it sooths me. It is an enriching feeling which overcomes solitude, and I think it is how the poet felt when he gazed at the crowd of daffodils. It is clear that the poet had a very close relationship as well as all the other romantic poets with nature. In his poem, he mentions various elements of nature such as cloud, hills, daffodils, lake, trees, stars, Milky Way, bay and waves. Nature was a key element of all the romantic poets, and it is absolutely clear that Wordsworth rejoiced with it. I do enjoy staring at the moon as I think Wordsworth enjoyed gazing at the daffodils.

Fears

Having read Keats’ “When I Have Fears that I may Cease to Be”, I completely identified myself with its words because I do have feel fear when I think about my death. Also, I could immediately relate his poem with the desire of transcend after dying. Keep living in the world, not physically but by being remembered. That is why there is a saying that reads “Every man needs to have a son, plant a tree and write a book”. These three are ways of transcending in the Greek fashion. I am sharing my thoughts about death (written almost a year ago).

Thoughts...
I seriously have no idea of why this thought comes to me once in a while. Anyway, I don't like it, it makes me feel rotten. Actually, I just hate the way it makes me feel! This stupid thought is about death. When it comes to my mind I ask myself whether life is really worth the trouble of living it.
I have this restlessness desire to know what happens after death. Where do we go to? Is there any place to go? Why have I taken all the trouble to live my life and do my best doing it if I will day and that's it, it will be over? This thought really worries me, and when I am thinking about it I feel so cold and my stomach gets tense. I mean, Death frightens me. And it makes me feel scared of wasting my time in silly things. I really think we have to live our life and take the most of it without wasting any minute.

Today, I was in the bus and this stupid thought came to me... I said, I don't want to die, I don't want to! But you can't live forever, right? Eventually, we will all die. What right does death have over me that take away my possibility of living forever? For me, dying is the most horrible thing in life, but we all know it will happen, any day since your birth.
I hope to feel a bit more relaxed about this topic that is a big issue for me!

Just a question,
What do you feel when you think about dying?

Coleridge

“It is essential to poetry that it should be simple, and appeal to the elements and primary laws of nature; that it should be sensuous, and by its imagery elicit truth at a flash; that it should be impassioned, and be able to move our feelings and awaken affection”.

After reading some poems, we can see that nature is essential for the romantic poets. Kubla Khan by Coleridge is full or references to nature, but not any type of nature, nature that goes beyond concrete seeing. The above quotation relates to Kubla Khan because it describes poetry as appealing to the elements of nature and also the importance of imagination which undoubtedly is present at Coleridge’s poem. Can we read without portraying characters, settings and images? Imagination is indispensable for reading. As his description of nature does not involve reason, we need our imagination to depict the beauty of Xanadu while reading. He has taken me into a journey to a place that exists only in me because none of us could have seen the same place. We all have very singular images of Paradise.

The Little Black Boy

After reading “The Little Black Boy” by Blake, I felt he wanted me to feel we are all the same in Eternity. Thus, I was drawn to entitle the poem as “Equal”. Choosing a painting was effortless because Renoir’s “Mother and Daughter” is very explicit. It shows a tree which was an element in his poem. However, it presents a girl whereas his poem presents a boy. The words in Blake’s world are highly represented in the poem. For instance, the tangible is shown with the sun that gives his heat and light away so that every soul can feel it. The intangible is depicted with eternity. These two key elements in his poem constantly move, and the tangible becomes intangible and vice versa. Past is present also as it is continuously influencing the present and it portrays the fact that there has always been white and black.

Picture: http://k43.pbase.com/u34/selvin/upload/24572152.impressionist02.jpg

Bringing Literature to our Classroom

“Women need to be free and have the same rights as men”

This statement was constantly repeated in our literature class presentations. After reading The Tempest (Shakespeare), The wife of Bath (Chaucer), Sense and Sensibility (Austen) and seeing The Merchant of Venice (directed by Michael Radford), we have discovered that within literature we can find thousands of topics and current issues to discuss with our peers and students. Being in this class has shown us that literature is a must in our teaching. It can bring so many topics that can initiate discussion because these issues are somehow meaningful for us and our students and may develop critical thinking. In this essay, I will answer the question is it important to bring literature to the class? And why? After answering to these questions, I will present different techniques and strategies to include literature in my future planning. Throughout our literature class, I have discovered that written texts can be used not just for reading comprehension, but for speaking activities, debates, discussions, creating a sketch or a video and some written responses. Also, teachers can start developing students’ critical thinking by asking them to reflect and question the several reading passages. Consequently, we must include those activities in our daily planning: as Judy Richardson has stated, “Constructing lessons that are interesting and relevant should be every teacher’s goal. I will demonstrate how seamlessly teachers can add literature to a lesson” (2000). Apart from all these reasons, students can also learn English through reading by increasing their vocabulary, encountering new structures and writing styles. For all these reasons, literature is indispensable and must be brought to the classroom.

As we have to bring literature in the classroom, we ought to find different techniques and strategies, undoubtedly considering the context of your students, in order to make this possible. There are several strategies that we can use so as to bring literature to the classroom. For instance, you can ask your students to build mind maps with characters’ relationships; that will make reading more understandable. Moreover, you could also ask them to bring several interesting quotes from the different readings they have read, if necessary, depending on the level, in Spanish, for in-class discussions. These, among other strategies such as: story impressions, vocabulary overview guide, word family tree, follow the characters and brainstorming, can unquestionably bring literature to your classroom (Buehl, 2000).

Certainly, there are other techniques that can be used to include literature in our classes. As to exemplify, we could use story-telling with more basic levels as they will not have to read the complete book which could be overwhelming, but one or two chapters each student. After reading, they will report on their chapters to the class. They could also read a short story without reading its end and inventing their own end: later, compare their end to the real one. Another good technique is to bring read alouds to the class so as to give your students the first glance at a book, and they can later be engaged in reading the entire book. For instance, you could read a summary of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and make your pupils decide whether they would like to continue reading or not. This must be systematic process in which you bring different summaries every week (Richardson, 2000).

How can we include these in our planning? If you would like to have a conversation group to practice students speaking skills you could use some readings because “selected readings have great potential for stimulating conversation, because once students are exposed to a given reading, they have a new fund of information that can be used as a departure point for discussion” (Dobson, 2005). Another way of including books in your planning is having your students read abridged books or penguin books and later present written and oral reports. From the same extensive readings, they can keep a vocabulary notebook with words from the selected readings. Activities based on poems, short stories, essays and fables can be developed in about 30 minutes of your class while you integrate more skills than just the reading one. If you are a good reader, you must share your experience so as to motivate your students to start reading, learning and growing with literature. As Clifton Fadiman said, “When you re-read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before.”

During this second semester in my school, I am trying to develop a project on bringing literature to the class. As I am a good reader, I am always buying books; therefore, I have many books I can lend to the students to do their extensive readings. Briefly, my idea is to have each student choose a different book and encourage them to write a book report in which they can write a summary, a comic, an interview, a piece of news or a dialogue. Thus, students will practice and develop their reading and writing skills. I am looking forward to executing this project at San Juan Evangelista’s school. Bringing literature to the classroom and everyday classes is of the utmost importance in order to create a more interactive environment based on the readings. It can also help students build and increase their vocabulary and command of English, as they will be constantly reading in and outside the classroom. Different techniques as the ones shown above can help us include, little by little, literary work in our teaching. Fortunately, there are several books on how to bring literature to the classroom such as: Teaching Reading with Literature by Gail Tompkins and Lea McGee, Read it Aloud by Judy Richardson, Reading Interaction (International Reading Association) and Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning by Doug Buehl. In this essay, I have briefly shown its relevance and, to some extent, how to do it.

"When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can."- Samuel Lover

Work cited

Buehl, Doug. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. Delaware: International Reading Association, 2000.

Dobson, Julia. Effective Techniques for English Conversation Groups. Washington: United States Information Agency, 2005.

“Quotations About Literature.” Welcome to the Quote Garden. 14 October 2007. 9 July 2009 <http://www.quotegarden.com/literature.html>.

Richardson, Judy. Read it Aloud: Using Literature in the Secondary Content Classroom. Delaware: International Reading Association, 2000