Being under Pressure

It is known that sometimes people under pressure perform actions which do not want to. The main character of the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell is pressured to shoot the elephant even though he did not want to. In this essay, I will try to prove this thesis with three different assertions presented in the story.

The first assertion is: “As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” The character is from the beginning desiring not to perform the action of killing the elephant. The second fact is that the character explains that when he was facing the elephant a huge crowd of “natives” were behind him so “And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward.” It is clear that this man felt the pressure and immediately understood that he would have to do something he did not want to. The last piece of evidence is that since he was a “sahib”, a European man, he had to act like one, being very resolute and do definite things. “For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life trying to impress the “natives,” and so in every crisis he has got to do what the “natives” expect of him.” So, the character finds out that in the end all sahibs need to do what others want them to do.

In order to conclude, I can say that with the evidence provided I was able to prove the fact that the main character had to shoot the elephant because of the pressure natives imposed on him. Throughout human history, many situations have occurred because of the pressure people feel, for example wars. Many of the actions we performed are modelled by what the society expects of us. Sometimes, people should try to act correctly, doing good to others, instead of acting according to what others expect of them.

Literature in the Classroom: Students Give Their Opinion: Action Research Project

Introduction

Action research is a very powerful tool for teachers since we are able to develop a research inside the classroom and that can greatly contribute to the improvement of students’ learning. Usually, action research is done on the basis of problems and situations teachers identify as a distracter for learning.

I am currently working at Liceo Miguel de Cervantes in Santiago, located in Agustinas which is a public institution that depends on Municipalidad de Santiago. My students are high school students who do present some sort of poverty difficulties. They come from all over the Metropolitan Region and I can see a lack of interest in their educational process. I have been lately perplexed by the inability of my students in 11^th grade to provide their opinion in any given topic. My students are 16 to 18 years old and they are 19 girls and 7 boys. I have always been very interested in the power of literature as a teaching and learning tool. Therefore, my question for this action research project is: How can I include reading activities in my lessons so as to give my students the space for giving their opinion?

Something I think would really make a difference is the development of thinking skills which would allow the students to express their opinion. It is worth mentioning that these students do not have a place or space to say what they think about different topics such as: Politics, relationships, envy or any other topic which may be included in the Ministry textbooks: English 3° Medio, Richmond Publishing. The idea is that I can give them that space in the English class. However, we would be working in English class; the importance is not English but all the indirect learning and skills development that will take place. The reason behind the inclusion of literature in this project is because I think literature is a great learning tool and by using the reader response approach I will be able to guide my students in the ability to think and give their opinion. The reader response approach can be understood as “A text is re-created every time someone new reads it, and it becomes, in the process, increasingly richer. The text is a stimulus that elicits responses from us based on our past experiences, our previous reading, our thoughts, and our feelings” (Chen).

Plan of Action

The methodology to be used in this research will be as follows: Students will read a literary piece (either a short story or poem) and later different activities will be implemented in order to give the students the space for giving their opinion. This methodology is strictly related to the reader response approach because these activities are: Response journals book discussions, role play and book reports (Chen). The other strategies I will use in this research are: Readers’ theater[1] and quick write. Readers’ theater is an excellent opportunity to help students build their own opinion about certain topics. As they will get involved in the story they will be able to have a deep understanding of the story and the characters. The Readers’ Theaters (“Monkey Lives! A Superhero Tale of China”, “Resthaven”, “The Baker’s Dozen A Saint Nicholas Tale” and “The Borrower and the Boy”) were taken from Aaron Shepard’s webpage: http://www.aaronshep.com. Quick write is also an excellent strategy when you want the students to give their opinion about a certain topic. Therefore, students will be allowed to write in Spanish since the importance is not the development of the writing skill, but the development of thinking skills.

This research will take place during three weeks. The readers’ theater is already in action and after students have performed the script they will be able to use the quick write strategy for answering different open questions. Another activity I will use is the discussion group based on a song which can be considered as literature because every song is a poem.

Data Collection

The collection of data will be done by the use of books, articles, interviews with students and videos. Also, students will provide different pieces of paper where they will have given their opinion about a specific topic during class. All of these will be attached at the end of this document.

The first book I used in this research was “50 Literacy Strategies” by Gail E. Tompkins. These strategies can be very helpful when students are trying to mingle with emotions and getting to know the human view. This book presents several instructional strategies that can be used in the lessons. Some of these are: Reading boxes, readers’ theatre, quick write, alphabet books, anticipation guides, interactive read-alouds, open-mind portraits and many others.

The second book I used was “Teaching Reading with Literature: Case Studies to Action Plans” by Gail E Tompkins and Lea M. McGee. This book explains what the reader response approach is and the different steps that need to be taken into consideration in order to apply this approach in the lesson: Preparing step, reading step, exploring step and extending step. The authors support my idea of the benefits of including literature in the classroom by stating: “Literature encourages children’s cognitive development as they view problems from different viewpoints and grapple with abstract concepts, issues, and motivations. Reading and talking about literature often engage students in a higher level of thinking than might actually be expected” (Tompkins and McGee, 1993)

The articles I used are the following:

“The Benefits of Using Drama in the ESL/EFL Classroom” by Chris Boudreault in which the author clarifies all the benefits that students obtain when using drama and literature in the classroom. Some of the benefits are:

· The acquisition of meaningful, fluent interaction in the target language;

· The assimilation of a whole range of pronunciation and prosodic features in a fully contextualized and interactional manner;

· The fully contextualized acquisition of new vocabulary and structure;

· An improved sense of confidence in the student in his or her ability to learn the target language” (Boudreault, 2010).

The author also mentions the human or social benefits of using drama in the classroom. The list of benefits for including drama in the language classroom grow as follows: Leadership, team work, compromise, authentic listening skills, practice with real life savior-faire, cooperation, empathy, development of decision making skills, promotion of the exchange of knowledge, building of confidence and self-esteem, refinement of presentation skills, encouragement of self-acceptance and acceptance of others, features of empowerment, pride in work, responsibility, problem solving, management and organizational skills, begets creativity and imagination (Boudreault, 2010).

“Learning English through Children's Literature” by Gail Ellis. This article is a bit more focused in learning English, but the author also thinks that “Storybooks address universal themes and allow children to play with ideas and feelings and think about important issues” (Ellis, 2002).Therefore, she also supports the idea of using literature for giving students the space to think, reflect, ponder and comment about certain universal issues that are present especially in well-known stories.

“Teaching English through Literature” by Murat Hişmanoğlu is an article where the author recognizes the value of literature for social development. Hişmanoğlu mentions the importance of:

· Personal involvement and the relation between any text and the reader

· Universality and the fact that most stories deal with universal topics that most humans have experienced or will experience

· Personal relevance and how readers relate the story to their own lives

· Group activities such as class discussion or debates where students take responsibility of their thoughts and share with their classmates their ideas and reactions on the given text (2005).

I used one interview to students[2]. The interview was taken on Friday, July 2^nd, 2010 in class time. The interview was given to students in a piece of paper were students had the space to share their answers. The questions were very simple and straightforward because I needed everybody to understand what I was asking them. However, they were in English, I translated them into Spanish. The answers could have been yes/no, but I encourage the students to give reasons explaining their answers.

The videos were used to check whether these activities worked or not in other countries or contexts. It is also important to notice that the focus of the videos was on how these activities worked.

In “Class Discussion -- Anticipation Guide” the teacher shows how to facilitate a discussion among her students after using an anticipation guide. The activity previous to the discussion was to complete the anticipation guide. Then, the teacher gave them some time to discuss in groups some of the concepts and later she guided the discussion by asking direct questions to certain students. Other students were also participating in the discussion.

In “How to Facilitate a Classroom Discussion” different tips are shown on how to facilitate a classroom discussion. Some of these tips are: Maintaining control, making discussion meaningful, seating arrangements, knowing students’ names and creating a classroom community. All of these are very important when wanting to have classroom discussions. Unfortunately, most of the times teachers overlook these tips and fail in accomplishing the purpose of class discussion.

In “Class Discussion after the Protest” a teacher leads her students to discuss about previous situations. The focus of this discussion is to make students reflect on and about their actions. This is also very helpful when teachers try to understand how their students act and which the reasons behind those behaviors are.

Data Analysis

In the interview, I was able to notice that students are willing to state what they think as long as they feel they are being heard. The answers to the questions in the interview were somewhat varied[3]. Some students answered in number one that they were given the space for providing their opinion. Others answered that they were allowed to give their opinion only when they were asked. Some others bluntly said that they have not had the chance of giving their opinion ever. In number 2, most students agreed that the school should give them the space because they think and they have opinion about certain topics. In the third question the common answers were: Class discussion, group work and they also thought about learning more vocabulary so that they can speak in English.

After reading and doing research on the topic, I was able to understand that many activities can be used so as to provide students the space for thinking and giving their opinion. As Boudreault affirms “Drama for second language learners can provide an opportunity to develop the imagination of the students. The students can go beyond the here and now and even 'walk in the shoes' of another. It provides an opportunity for independent thinking. Students are encouraged to express their own ideas and contribute to the whole. Creative drama will offer exercises in critical thinking and the chance for the students to be creative” (2010), I think drama and literature can take a predominant role in the classroom when the number 1 goal is to encourage our students to think and express what they think. The books and articles provided strong grounded evidence that Literature is one of the best elements to include when you want to have class discussions, group work or simply to offer students the time to give their opinion on universal topics which are meaningful for them. Hişmanoğlu agrees by saying “One benefit of having literature as the reading content of a composition course is that the readings become the subject matter for compositions. In a composition course whose reading content is literature, students make inferences, formulate their own ideas, and look closely at a text for evidence to support generalizations. Thus, they learn how to think creatively, freely and critically” (2005). In the book “50 Literacy Strategies” by Gail E. Tompkins there are many instructional strategies that you can use which can be beneficial to the students in the process of learning how to give their opinion. Giving opinion is a process and most students need to learn how to do it and also consider themselves important enough so as to give their opinion. In this book, you can learn how to use different strategies such as: Quick Writes, open-mind portraits, anticipation guides, gallery walks, interactive writing and writing groups. Another important thing I learnt is that teachers must become good facilitators for using class discussion. As it can be observed in the video “How to Facilitate a Classroom Discussion”, guiding a group into a discussion activity is not a piece of cake. Different elements need to be considered if you want to have classroom discussions. Otherwise, things can get a bit complex if you are not able to monitor the situations that can occur inside the classroom.

Conclusion and Recommendations

After doing this research, I was able to learn about how to include reading activities in the lesson so that the students can have a space to give their opinion. Activities such as quick writes, open-minded portrait, class/group discussion, debates, journals and many others can help you assist your students in the process of giving opinion. Anyhow, giving opinion is the means I would like to use for helping my students learn to appreciate themselves, increase their self-esteem and to start knowing who they are: Finding their identity. By using these some of these activities in the classroom with my students, I was able to realize that students do have opinion and that they do think: All they need is the space and someone who listens to them.

However, I think that one part of this research did not turn out to be successful as I might have wanted mainly because I did not include it: Selecting appropriate input materials. These input materials should be poems, novels, short stories, biographies and others such as news and songs. It is worth mentioning that not every single piece of literary text is appropriate for this type of activities. Therefore, another research should be completed so as to choose and select the best materials to accomplish the purpose and goals of this research. It is highly recommendable to continue working on this research in order to increase the knowledge of the topic and find even more appropriate activities. My next step is to find appropriate input materials to modify and perfect this research. After doing so, I will be able to apply this research in any other context and with any type of students.

My class, my test

In San Juan Evangelista School, teachers were assigned to prepare tests for the entire level. The problem was that sometimes “test developers” did not know what the other teachers had taught or their methodology; therefore, the entire assessment process was not valid. Teachers should be able to develop their own tests for their own students because of three main reasons: first, teachers are aware of the content taught in the class, second teachers know with which methodology they have taught the content, and lastly teachers must use tests as part of the learning process. In this essay, I will argue why teachers should be allowed to develop their own tests.

The only way teachers can create a test is by knowing what contents students have reviewed and learned. When other teachers develop tests, these may include content which students have not been taught. In technical terms this is known as content validity. This means that teachers should assess what you have taught with a representative sample of the content domain. For example: if a teacher is assessing his/her students reading comprehension with open-ended questions, he/she should not assess grammar or spelling in the answers since that is not part of the reading comprehension domain.

A test, in order to be valid, needs to consider the methodology in which students have learned the contents. Instructional validity is the technical term for explaining how a test needs to consider the way in which students have been taught the contents. For example: if students have studied the meanings of certain words and how they collocate with others in a written manner, teachers cannot assess use of words in an oral manner because that is not the method in which they taught the words. In our country, PSU is the selection test for students to enter the university. This test format is multiple choice/objective tests. Therefore, students should practice their tests with a similar format. Format is also what instructional validity seeks for.

When teachers develop their own tests it is even more feasible to promote learning with the tests. However, assessment is closely connected to learning; the latter will not come automatically. When teachers develop their own tests, they are aware of the entire process of assessment and with that awareness they will be able to promote learning by deeply analyzing tests results and evaluating their methodology and teaching styles. Feedback is also essential in order to promote learning through assessments. When we provide students with detailed and meaningful results, we will be promoting autonomy and learning because they will be able to see their strengths and weaknesses.

As a conclusion, we can state that these three arguments are key in order to discuss the issue of test development. The assessment process needs to have a high level of validity which can be provided by knowing the context of each class. Teachers are the ones that best know their context, and they should be able to develop their own tests for their own classes. When teachers are given standard tests, they are not able to use tests as a learning tool; therefore, they are not able to take 100% advantage. Most of the times, the best things are tailor-made.

Learning From Society

During this semester we have been able to learn about the literature of the post colonial time. More importantly, we have learned about the people and the society of these people. Authors such as Jamaica Kincaid, Jean Rhys and Chinua Achebe made me go deeply into the understanding of their different societies and they also made me get a broader view of how the postcolonial time affected their societies’ development. It is essential for students to understand all of the changes that people went through during this time. Therefore, in this paper I will discuss the importance of taking a piece such as Things Fall Apart into the class and how I can do it.

Things Fall Apart by China Achebe describes the society of Umuofia before and after the colonization and its people. It principally narrates the story of Okonkwo who is a very well known and respected man in this society. He has a large family because he has three wives and many children. The people in Umuofia were not Christians, but they believe in many Gods who were represented in their priests and priestess. After the arrival of the European colonizers, the people in Umuofia suffered because all of their traditions were being removed by these colonizers who were imposing their religion of one and only God, their laws and their customs.

Things Fall Apart describes a very patriarchal society where older men were very respected and they were in charge of making decisions. However, their Gods defined the destiny of every person in the village. Thus, any order the Gods commanded needed to be executed and no one could oppose to it. The role of women was a very secondary role, mainly that of the obedient wife and mother. Women were not allowed to make any decision, not even regarding their children’s lives. The title represents exactly what the text is about. Due to the arrival of European colonizers, every aspect of their society was falling apart: religion, family, laws, Gods, traditions and customs. It was easy to see that after the missionaries got to Umuofia there was no intention of converging both different cultures and blending them into one. The goal was to colonize and impose European culture to the villagers.

This short novel really called my attention because I think the author was very clear about how to transmit what really happened in the colonization. Some important concepts such as patriarchic society, chauvinism, law, religion, destiny and legacy are clearly explained and students should be able to discuss and learn about them. Also, by using this novel I can commit to a cross-curricular project with the History department and deal with the topic of Imperialism differently. Apart from that, dealing with this piece inside the classroom can help students understand the Umuofian society and learn about how to deal with different issues that still occur nowadays. As Gail Ellis states “Storybooks address universal themes and allow children to play with ideas and feelings and think about important issues” (Ellis, 2002). Literature has a sense of universality which makes it incredibly accessible for people and simplifies the work we can do with it and with our students inside the classroom.

I have increased my knowledge of Methodology for working with a literary piece. I still believe the best approach to work with literature is the Reader Response. As Gail E. Tompkins and Lea M. McGee “The reader response perspective focuses on reading as a lived-through experience that involves the feelings, images, thoughts, and associations called to mind at the moment of reading. Readers respond to those feelings during and after reading” (1993). I will explain different activities that can be used with Things Fall Apart in any secondary class. It is important to mention that this book can be used with any student, but my main focus here is to work with teenagers because I think literature is essential in their process of finding their identity and developing higher thinking skills. All of the activities have been taken from the book 50 Literacy Strategies by Gail E. Tompkins.

Book Boxes

As we know, many times teachers do not consider other intelligences children may have or other learning strategies children may use for learning. Therefore, Book Boxes are fit for students with artistic talent such as drawing, painting and handcraft skill. Book Boxes is an activity where the teacher can separate the book into the 24 chapters the book has and designate each one to a couple. This couple will be in charge of reading the chapter and filling their box with characters, settings and situations. For example, in the first chapter we have the characters of Okonkwo, his father, the wrestler and the three wives and the different situations such as the wrestling match, his father’s laziness, his father’s death and the marriages. Children use their artistic abilities to make the characters and the situations: this can be drawings or any other element. When all students have finished their book box, they come together and retell the story using the elements from the box.

Double-Entry Journals

Double Entry Journal is an activity where students can relate to any quote from the book and write their own reflections for the quote. For example,

Quotes

1. A few years later, Okonkwo had married three wives. He owned a large farm and he had a large compound with a thick wall of red earth round it.

2. Nwoye cried when he heard that Ikemefuna was going away.

Reflections

1. I think Okonkwo should have never married more than one wife because marrying to more than one woman is very disrespectful.

2. Nwoye never had a friend before he met Ikemefuna; therefore, he was very upset when he heard that he was going away. He knew that he would never have another friend.

These quotes can be either chosen by the teacher or the students and can be written throughout the entire reading process. Thus, students will be constantly reflecting about different topics and themes that are shown in the story.

K-W-L Charts

A K-W-L Chart is an activity where students can monitor their own process of learning about the story. K stands for “What We Know”, W stands for “What We Wonder” and L stands for “What We Learned”. The teacher can divide the class into groups and before reading the story the teacher can give a small introduction to the piece and students can complete the K column. This column can be also complemented after reading the first chapters. The W column is completed with all the questions about things students would like to know. After we finish reading the book, students complete the L column which shows all the important ideas they have learned from the story. By using this activity, students feel that they have accomplished learning and that they have a complete understanding of the story.

Open-Mind Portrait

An open-mind portrait is an activity where students can illustrate how they feel about any character and what characteristics called their attention. The idea is simple: students draw the face of any character and in the back of the page students write or draw any characteristic about the character. With this activity, students can use their imagination if they choose a secondary character because they will have to infer certain characteristics from the reading. Students will also be able to relate themselves to the characters in the story because they will connect their characteristics to those of the characters. By using this activity, I will be giving my students the opportunity to give their opinion through drawings and writing because what they draw is what they think.

Quickwrites

A quickwrite is an activity where students write freely about a topic in particular, to answer a question or to write their reflections about a quotation. The idea is to ask students to think deeply and reflect; therefore, students can write in Spanish if they have difficulties with English because the focus is on their ideas, not on their language use. Students have 5 minutes to write without stopping about the prompt, so they will be writing and constantly making connections among the ideas they write. Some prompts to use with Things Fall Apart are the following:

1. What is your perception of Okonkwo? Give reasons
2. “A few years later, Okonkwo had married three wives”
3. How important is religion for Okonkwo’s community?
4. Why do you think Ikemefuna was given to Okonkwo?
5. What was the relationship between Ikemefuna and Nwoye? What feelings can you associate with their relationship?
6. “‘Where is Ojiugo?’ Okonkwo asked his second wife. ‘She has gone to see a friend,’ she replied. Okonkwo bit his lips and became angry. Okonkwo went back to his own hut and waited for Ojiugo to come home. When she came back, he beat her very hard. He was so angry that he forgot it was the Week of Peace”
7. Do you think the society of Umuofia is chauvinistic? Give reasons

Things Fall Apart is a great piece of literature because it provides a closer glance of what the colonization was like in Africa. Using it in class is very innovative and attractive because children are not used to reading in English neither reading about Africa. Students will be able to learn about the Umuofian society and how alike we are. By using all of these activities, students will be able to work wholly with the story and put themselves into it. Reflection, imaginative and creative thinking and connections are present in all of the activities. It is important to mention that the focus here is not the English language, but students’ abilities to think and relate to the people in the story. In the end, students will have learned about and from the Umuofian society and hopefully they will apply the learning into other areas.

Bibliography

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, 1974.

Ellis, Gail. Learning English through Children's Literature. December 2002. http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/learning-english-through-childrens-literature

Tompkins, Gail E. 50 Literacy Strategies: Step by Step. Boston: Pearson, 2009.

Tompkins, Gail E and McGee, Lea M. Teaching Reading with Literature: case studies to action plans. New York: Macmillan Publishing CO, 1993.

Jane Eyre: the other perspective

Being a fan of literature, I have always been very interested in the 19^th century British literature. I am a big fan of Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters. Therefore, I have read “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë several times. However, I was terribly mistaken. In this essay, I will prove that I had not finished reading “Jane Eyre” until I finished reading “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys.

“Wide Sargasso Sea” tells the story of Antoinette Cosway, the caribbean woman Mr. Rochester married in “Jane Eyre”. It tells the story of her life, narrated by different characters, and how she became the “mad” woman in the attic. I could see in the novel that she was a neglected child whose only shelters were nature and Christophine, her nurse. However, when Mr. Rochester showed up, she began to feel more protected and loved mainly because she had somebody to talk to and someone to have sex with. In the novel, we could see that Mr. Rochester had never loved her: “It was all very brightly coloured, very strange, but it meant nothing to me. Nor did she, the girl I was to marry. When at last I met her I bowed, smiled, kissed her hand, danced with her. I play the part I was expected to play. She never had anything to do with me at all.” (Rhys, 1992) This quote explains how he never appreciated the island; therefore, he could never appreciate Antoinette because she was the island. The novel finishes when they are in England and she is already under the care of Grace Poole.

“Jane Eyre” tells the story of Jane Eyre, her childhood and her youth and how she found love in Thornfield Hall with Mr. Rochester. In “Jane Eyre” Mr. Rochester is already of some age and he already had his “mad” wife in the attic. In this novel the wife’s name is Bertha Mason and at the end she sets the house on fire and kills herself. When Mr. Rochester explains how he met her he says:

“Well, he (Rochester’s father) hated the idea of dividing the family property, so he left it all to my elder brother. But that meant I would be poor unless I married a rich wife, so he decided I should marry Bertha Mason, the daughter of his wealthy friend Jonas Mason. I was young and easily impressed so when I saw her in the West Indies, beautiful and elegantly dressed, I thought I loved her… After the wedding I learned that my bride’s mother and younger brother were both mad… I soon found out that Bertha and I had nothing in common.” (Brontë, 2000)

When I read “Jane Eyre” I was always thinking poor Mr. Rochester who was deceived into marrying a woman from the Caribbean who was crazy like her mother. When Antoinette attacked him by setting fire to his room, I thought about this unfortunate man who could never be happy because he was linked to a wife who will never allow him to be happy. When he was going to marry Jane Eyre and the ceremony was interrupted because the brother, Richard Mason arrived to speak the truth about Mr. Rochester and Bertha Mason (Antoinette), he felt he lost everything: “I’ve been waiting for you all this time, Jane, he said. And I haven’t heard you scream or shout or cry. Aren’t you angry with me? I never meant to hurt you. Will you ever forgive me?” (Brontë, 2000) At the end, the “mad wife” sets the house on fire and Jane Eyre is told by a servant: “I was one of Mr. Rochester’s servant at the time, and I can tell you it was his mad wife who started the fire in the governess’ room… in the fire the master risked his life helping all the servants out of the house, then bravely went back to save the mad woman. We saw her jump from the roof and fall to her death…because he went back to help her, he was badly injured in the fire, losing a hand and the sight of both eyes.” (Brontë, 2000) Charlotte Brontë provided several reasons for us to feel sorry for Mr. Rochester, that is the reason that explained my compassion towards this unfortunate character, but Jean Rhys provided arguments to stop feeling sorry for him.

When I read “Wide Sargasso Sea” I changed my mind. Although he was somehow forced to marry her, his actions were not noble. He, soon after they were married, stopped loving her, the way she wanted: “Why do you hate me? She said I do not hate you, I am most distressed about you, I am distraught, I said. Then, why do you never come near me? She said. Or kiss me or talk to me.” (Rhys, 1992) This quote proves that there was a break on their relationship and this affected her in an unimaginable manner. Christophine was there at her side curing her thirst for a man who did not want her anymore.

As I could see it, Mr. Rochester is not the unfortunate character he was on “Jane Eyre”, but a man who represents the colonial power on “Wide Sargasso Sea”. After reading Jean Rhys’ master piece I could understand that nothing is ever black or white. There are always shades which can be very helpful when someone is trying to understand a novel such as “Jane Eyre” or “Wide Sargasso Sea”. These two authors portrayed their characters very differently which can be explained, in my point of view, as the different circumstances under which these women wrote the pieces. To conclude, I finished reading “Jane Eyre” when I read the word: passage. The last word of “Wide Sargasso Sea”.

Bibliography

1) Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

2) Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1992.

D. H. Lawrence in the Classroom

“Readers are made, not born” (Chen)

In the British Literature class, we have been studying many authors and their works, and also one approach to working with literature: the Reader-Response. As I study English pedagogy, one of my main objectives is to incorporate literature in the class. I am very interested in working with literature in the EFL classroom and transmit my passion for literature to my students. The above quote can be explained as the need of introducing literature to students so that they can become good readers. Therefore, giving reading assignments is not enough, so we have to work and deal with literature in the class and help our students grow interested in reading. Consequently, the Reader-Response approach is essential and the most appropriate when my goal is to make readers. In this essay, I will use “The Virgin and the Gypsy” by D.H. Lawrence. I will briefly explain what the reader response is and what the short story’s main plot is. Afterwards, with this piece of art, I will provide various activities that can be used in the EFL classroom.

The Reader-Response approach is the most appealing to me because people get to bring themselves into their own readings. Readers’ experiences play a fundamental role in interpreting and understanding any piece of literature. This approach can be defined as the approach which emphasizes the individual as a reader—responder, the role of the reader as a re-creator who with his/her experience, previous readings, thoughts and feelings enrich any text. Also, the reader interacts with the text mainly because of the objectives of this approach such as encouraging individual readers to feel comfortable with their responses to a literary text, encouraging them to understand themselves better by giving arguments to their responses which will make them be aware of themselves (Chen).

“The Virgin and the Gypsy” is by definition a short story which makes it more accessible for high school students because it contains only one main plot and the language is easy to understand. The main plot of the story is the connection between the girl, Yvette, and the gypsy and the circumstances under which they met. We can also see that she and her sister had problems in her house especially with her aunt Cissie because they could not understand how this lady interfered with everything in the house. They also had to deal with the absence of their mother who left with a younger man. This story is a very accessible one because it is simple and easy to read. We need to consider our students’ proficiency level so that they do not feel overwhelmed by a piece of literature that is too complex for them.

By using the Reader-Response, we are compelled to include the student centered classroom. Most of the activities that I will briefly present need to be developed through group work and the teacher plays the role of a monitor and a guide in the class. This story can be used in the EFL classroom quite easily. We could be using this story for various classes and with many different activities. At the beginning they can build mind maps with characters’ relationships; that will make reading more understandable (Buehl, 2000). That would be the very first glance to the story. This process is completely necessary so that students do not get confused with the story or the characters.

Later on, we can focus on the story by asking different types of questions such as: factual or memory questions, interpretation questions, application questions and evaluation questions (Chen). So that understanding is clearer we should begin by asking factual or memory questions in order to make sure they do know the story and can later on provide an opinion with strong arguments about certain issues by including information and examples from the text. According to what I want to accomplish, the most suitable questions to be used would be application questions because students will draw on their own experiences because they will be relating the story to their personal lives. Their personal responses are essential for answering these questions.

Another activity in order to include this short story into the classroom is by asking our students to role-play different scenes or parts of the text (Chen). This is always fun and challenging for the students because they like to participate in the class. Through this activity, they will be able to show their own interpretations and maybe provide a twist to the plot. They should have as most liberty as possible and be able to disagree with what the writer decided to write in the story.

With “The Virgin and the Gypsy”, students can be asked to write several response journals to different questions so that they can prepare themselves for a conversation class 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). The idea is that I decide on a few topics that are interesting and accessible from the reading so that students, after being assigned and prepared one topic, can participate in a discussion in groups where they can discuss the different topics presented in the story.

The last activity I proposed for including this story in class is creating their own stories (Chen). They can be about the story itself, for example a different ending or something related to relationships between gypsies and people from other races. This would be a long process and I would include many revisions and editing. They can read each others’ stories and make comments and adjustments on how to improve the plot or the writing. The most remarkable characteristic of writing their own stories is that it makes the writing exercise more meaningful for students (Chen) since they will have freedom for writing and creating whatever that appeals to them.

As a conclusion, I can say that we should always try to find time to include literature in the class. The stories we can access can be of any kind as long as they are adequate for our students’ skills in the language. As you can see, the activities are quite varied and easy to develop because you only need to engage your students with the different processes. By using the Reader-Response approach students will be encouraged to provide their opinions about what they read and the process will not be as that of reading for a comprehension test. They will be reading for learning, for getting to know themselves better and for growing.

Bibliography

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

Chen, Chi-Fen Emily. Teaching Literature to Children. <http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/CLit/Teaching.htm>.

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