Literary Examples

It’s time to return my classroom to the literary. The literary examples of teaching are the ones I fell in love with first as a student, and then a teacher. Getting lost in a book. Stunning discussions. Laboring in love through drafts of my writing to get every word just right.

Right now, I’m racing through skill lessons dictated by slide decks and obsessed with grades as much as the students are (and I only grade once a week!). I have to keep pace. I have to do it perfectly. My students are depending on me to get it right.

This is the extreme version, but perhaps you can relate. My heart is in a right place. I want to teach the best I possibly can. What does it mean to hyper-fixate on literacy at the expense of the literary?

Literary vs. Literacy

Literary vs. literacy is not a competition, but there are differences. Literacy knowledge tends to be what we think of when we think of the Common Core, but that’s just because we tend to focus on the early standards (1-6 for reading, in particular). It includes:

• Foundational reading skills
• Close reading
• Academic discourse and writing

But if we stop there, we are teaching bots, not humans.

Literary Examples of Knowledge

According to Timothy Shanahan, literary knowledge includes

• Cultural understanding. Cultural knowledge is omnipresent in any text. This understanding creates students who can “read” the culture of any text or situation.
• Historical and social context. Typically considered when reading older works, it is also important to consider in contemporary readings. Students become sensitive to (and possibly critical of) the external influences on any speaker or writer.
• Human relations. Character relationships reveal insights for how we relate to each other. This is our opportunity to help students develop the skills to find and thrive in community.
• Identity and personal development. Characterization can be a mirror for our own identities, especially when we look for common ground with characters instead of vilifying or scorning them. Helping students have empathy for themselves as well as others is imperative. We are all works-in-progress.
• Literary touchstones. “The canon” is a vast, ill-defined idea, but consider this to be “influential texts.” If a work has a known influence on other works or the world, bring it up in class. Let the students surprise you by creating their own schema of influence. They may bring up texts (stories, movies, songs) from their cultures that connect to class texts.

Who are literary students?

Literary students live readerly, writerly lives. Today, this is an endangered life. Our neurology and humanity depend on literary development. Reading and writing promote brain health, a positive well-being, and strong relationships. This is the sacred calling of English-language arts teachers.

Knowing that a readerly, writerly life could look many different ways, a teacher needs to create different invitations. Dialectical Behavior Therapy teaches the skill of Accumulating Positive Experiences. The idea is that if you have a negative thought about something, you can collect positive memories about that thing to counteract the thought, so students who maybe don’t see themselves as “literary students” can become so through positive experiences that challenge their stereotypes of what this means and how it doesn’t fit them.

Literary Examples for Accumulating Positive Experiences

The question for any class period becomes, was this a positive literary experience?

Here are some positive literary examples:

• Literary thinking. Include cultural understanding, historical and social context, human relations, identity and personal development, and literary touchstones in coursework. One idea I have is to create a “mystery jar” full of questions related to these topics about the text. When class discussion stalls, students can pull a question from the jar that generates relevance while feeling novel.
• Literary reading. Choose texts that have resonance and beautiful language. Most students do not encounter literary texts on their own. They are awash in oral language and popular fiction, if we’re lucky. These also have a place in the classroom, but if there are no literary texts, it would be like an American going to Paris and only eating cheeseburgers. We have to share new tastes with students for them to truly develop their own. And for the students who say, “Nothing happens,” we do have to prepare them for character-driven texts, which is where focusing on literary thinking can support them in making meaning. (for help getting students to read independently, check out 4 Unusual Ways to Motivate Students to Read).
• Literary discussion and writing. My favorite student-driven discussions have been Socratic Seminars and book clubs. For writing, I love a good writing project. I also want to try this narrative of learning essay.