STRATEGIES IN TEACHING LITERATURE IN ENGLISH CLASSROOM

STRATEGIES IN TEACHING LITERATURE IN ENGLISH CLASSROOM

I. INTRODUCTION

Literature is creative writing of recognized artistic value or it is the art of written works. But since there are so many written works such as novels, prose and stories which are adapted into film or even the play which is performed by the performers, so literature is also broadly defined as any written or spoken material that refers to creative works.

Literature is important to be taught at schools or even universities. By learning it, the students are hoped getting helpful things to their life. Usually when students hear the word literature, soon a thick old book of poems, prose and play and also a bored class come to their mind. Actually it is not true; in teaching literature the teacher can build the joyful situation. So, the students can really involve into the lesson and have fun, and then later they will get something from it. In this paper I will discuss the strategies and procedures which can be applied in teaching literature in English classroom.

II. STRATEGIES IN TEACHING LITERATURE IN ENGLISH CLASSROOM

As teachers of English, we have to help our students to understand the linguistic expression. We can not avoid that they still have problems in comprehending the nuances, creativities of the writer or the implicit things from the words chosen in the poems, prose or play. First of all, I would like to introduce you at a glance about approaches to teach literature before we jump to the strategies themselves.
There are three main approaches to teach literature, they are:
a. The cultural model, which asks the students to explore and interpret the social, political and even the historical from the content of the text. From what they have done, they can compare to their own cultural things.
b. The language model, which asks them to access the linguistic features, such as figurative language. So they can get the real meaning of every word, phrase or line.
c. The personal growth model, which allows them to make connection between what they have read or listened from the text and their personal and cultural experiences. Here they will be asked to express their opinions and feelings.
What is needed in the best teaching literature is the integrated approach from these approaches.

2.1. Strategies and Procedures in Teaching Poems

Strategies for Teaching Poem

In this section, I have chosen a poem entitled ‘The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, to become an example of teaching poem. If you want to teach poems to your students, here are some strategies that can be conformed. They are:
a. Pre-reading

• Ask the students about the poem (you have read the poem by your own already, but not your students). Your students must be ever in confused condition. Ask them these questions: “how is their feeling? what do they have to do? Do they ever get back to the first thinking or not?, which will lead them to tell their ideas.
• Pay attention to the title. Ask the students whether they can get the whole meaning of the poem before reading it or not (only by looking at the title). Based on the title “The Road Not Taken”, ask the implicit or maybe the explicit meaning that the students got at the glance when they look at the title. You will hear many different ideas from your students.

b. listening

• Ask them to listen to your poem reading. This activity can prepare them to read by themselves and discuss it. And then you can start reading it with good rhythm. The good rhythm shows the abstract feeling from the poem.
• Read the poem aloud; pause where the punctuation marks appear, not where the line ends. Because, stopping at appropriate spots helps the students to clarify the meaning and get the feeling.
• Pay attention to sound devices. A good poem uses sound devices for a reason, usually to draw attention to major points.

c. Becoming familiar with the poem.
Hand out the copy of the poem to the students, or just write it down on the white board. But if you have the copy, it is much better than write on the board.

d. Discussion Questions.
Remind the students that the questions about poem do not always have “right or correct” answers. So students can answer it freely based on their ideas, experiences and maybe their imaginations. Ask the students such questions like these:
What does the title “The Road Not Taken” mean to you?
What is the connection between the title and the content?
How do you interpret the first and the second line in the third stanza?
Do you ever have the same experience just like this poem? What it is?
You can ask them to sit in pairs or group, so they can share the idea, but ask them to work on questions individually.

e. Reading

• Ask the students to read the poem by themselves, not only once but several times. So that they can deeply get into the poem and hopefully get into the point that the author purposed to be understood. The point from this poem is that the confused condition when someone makes the chosen to be taken as the path that she or he will pass in your life. And she should think carefully which one she should take as her path. And she should realize that she will never come back to the other path when she has chosen another one. This point should be the same as what your students have got, but they are free to say the different thing, because everyone has different point of view on looking at some things.
• Determine the rhythm as you read and the rhyme scheme.

f. Writing practice.

• After they have discussed and read the poem several times, now ask them to make connection between the title and the content, also and their experiences.
• Summarize the poem’s meaning.
• Ask them to imagine that they are the one in the poem. Then ask them “what can you see?, how do you feel?”. Write a paragraph describing the scene. Use their own words, but feel free to borrow some sights, words and phrase from the poem.

Procedures for Teaching Poem

After having good enough preparation, there are some procedures based on the strategies:

• Copy the poem and hand out it to the students. If you do not copy it yet, write it on the board.
• The teacher reads the poem “The Road Not Taken”.
• Giving a good model when you read the poem to the students, so it will help them to clarify the meaning of poem.
• Read the poem together with your students, and then ask them to read it by themselves. The purpose of doing this is to encourage them to “dig” deeper to find the meaning. Ask them to read several times.
• You can ask them to sit in a group, but later work individually.
• Write a paragraph or even the simple idea that they have understood from the poem.

As I experienced in my literature class on September 23 up to September 26, 2010, taught by Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M. S, one of the poems that we got was “The Road Not Taken”. Firstly, the lecturer wrote the poem on the board and read to us with beautiful rhythm. Reading the poem with good rhythm is a key to help the students to acquire the meaning. She let us to understand the poem deeply and to imagine that we were on that situation. Then she asked about the sense or feeling of ours; many ideas came out from us. A student said that it talked about a confused situation, another said about chosen, and many more. Since those differences of the students (us), she asked us to read it again together with her, and discussed it. And then, we wrote our own work on a paper about the content of the poem. We sat in a group, so we can share the ideas, information or sense with friends and of course we still got the guidance from the lecturer.

What I experienced is more and less the same as the strategies and procedures that I have discussed above.

2.2. Strategies and Procedures in Teaching Prose

Strategies for Teaching Prose
For teaching poem and play does not take longer time than teaching prose, because prose especially novel need to be focused more than one meeting. So, it is better if the students can watch the film adapted from the novel. They can discuss together about the film, such as the theme, characterizations, the moral message and many things as the same as what the novel talks about.
Teaching prose focuses on increasing students’ comprehension of the material and establishing personal connection to it. The key is to use a variety of strategies to keep students interested and involved. The prose that I want to discuss is “Everyday Use”, since the story is quite short, so no need to watch the film if there is adapted film about it. The students can cover it by reading the story. Here are some strategies:
a. Pre-reading
Ask the students to look at the title carefully, so that they will have their own idea about the content of the prose that they are going to read. The title is “Everyday use”, maybe the students will think that it is about the daily language or the things that they usually use. The difference ideas are good to keep their interest to read the prose.

b. Reading

• Ask the students to read it together with you or they can read it by themselves. If you have the copy, you can ask them to read it by themselves, but if you show the slide you can read it together.
• Identify all lines or sentences that could be difficult to be understood by the students. The teacher can help them or the students can contribute their assist by helping to each other.
• Ask them to identify the characterization and the characters from the prose. Let them sit in a group or in pairs to discuss it, so that they can present what they have done later. For example the characterizations from “Everyday Use” are:
  Mother: her character is a great strong woman.
  Maggie: her character is less confident, not educated well.
  Dee: her character is contrary from Maggie.
• Identify the plot and setting from the prose. From the prose “Everyday Use”, the setting is at their old poor house.
• Teach them to observe what is on the page, the facts and answers to "who, what, when, where, and how”. For example:
  What is the main idea or the theme of this prose?
  Who are the characterizations?
  When does Dee visit her mom and sister?
  Where does the conversation among the mother, Dee and Maggie take place?
  How does Maggie react to Dee when she asks her grandma heritage?

c. Writing
One of the best ways for students to increase comprehension is to write about the story they've read. Just let them do it individually, since they have already worked together while reading part.

d. Discussion

• After your students have done their work, ask them to present or discuss together, whether there is a different idea or not from the rest. This way will keep the enthusiasm of the students to discuss together in the class if there is a different idea.

• Ask them to find the relationship between the title and the content.
  

• Teach students to discover the theme of the text, what the author intended for the readers to understand. You can say that each person has different way to appreciate something. Let say the contradictory between Dee and Maggie. Dee wanted to appreciate her grandma’s heritage by hanging it, while Maggie wanted to use it everyday. This contradictory will lead to the theme or even the title.

Procedures for Teaching Prose

The procedures for teaching prose are:

• Share or hand out the copy of the prose, or you can show the story by using slide.
• Read the prose together, or just let the students work it out by themselves.
• Write the idea that they have got from the prose.
• Discuss and present their work. It should be about the basic things from the prose such as the relation between the title and content, the characterizations and character, plot, and setting.
• Working group or in pairs is better to construct students-centred work. So they will learn together not only will wait the teacher’s reaction. Writing task is exception; ask them to do it individually.
• Guidance from you is needed.

2.3. Strategies and Procedures in Teaching Play

Strategies for Teaching Play

Drama strategies are the everyday means of the drama teacher. They help to develop examination skills, to get the character or to help the actor to understand the character. I have decided to choose the play “The Show Must Go On” as the example to be discussed. It told us about the panic situation when the opera or performance will be presented. Every actor or actress is nervous. The moral message from this play is “easy to say but hard to do”. The strategies for teaching play are:
a. Building up the characters

• Teacher in role
  It is a technique for shaping the dramatic process. As we know, the students are little bit shy if they are asked to perform the play in front of the class. As the warming up activity, the teacher assumes a role in relation to the students. Teacher in Role does not require great acting skills. A role can be adopted quite simply to communicate the key attitudes and emotions of a particular character and encourage them to become involved in occupational mimic activities. So the simply work in guessing emotional thing. For example: From the play “The Show Must Go On”, you stand in front of the class or just sit in the chair, and then say ”I will forget my lines” of course with the appropriate mimic. Furthermore, ask the students to guess what has happened? Or in what condition is the actress?.
  The students will make connection between the sentence said by teacher and her mimic. This kind of work will make the students understand the situation faced by a characterization and use to say the sentence with appropriate intonation also with suitable mimic when they perform the play.
• Image theatre is a flexible tool for exploring issues, attitudes and emotions for those who are confident with drama and those with little or no experience. Imaging can enable students to explore their own feelings and experiences. So they can do their best in their performance later.
  b. Reading
• Hand out the copy of dialogue from “The Show Must Go On” to the students.
• Ask your students to sit in a group based on how many the characterization requires from the play that you have already handed out.
• Ask them to read it and they can help each other if there are any words or sentences that difficult to be understood. Probably, your help is required by them.
• Ask them to identify the character of the characterization and also the condition of the play by using the above techniques about building up the characters. So they will be able to act as the author means. Based on the play “The Show Must Go On”, you just let the students to imagine being the characterization, so they will get really involved to the characters. Ask them to feel the feeling of the characterizations when they are in that kind of condition and situation.
• While reading, they should know the moral message of the play, so they can deliver it well to the audience.
• To get the points about the content, ask your students to make questions based on the play they have read. One group has to exchange the questions to the other group. Later they can present the answers and the group which the questions belong can judge the answers. The scheme of this activity is just like this:
  Group A asks:

1. Where did the play take place?
2. Who are the characterizations?
3. What is the relationship between the title and the content?
   Group B asks:
4. Why did Mr. Gage faint?
5. To you, what figure just like Mr. Gage in your life?
6. When did the play happen?
   Then, these two groups exchange the questions.
   c. Practicing
   If they think the play is clear enough, now is the time for practicing. Ask them to prepare anything based on the play, included the property. Since wrong intonation will lead in to wrong interpretation, by practicing it, the students can also help each other to put the good intonation while talking.

d. Performing
The last activity is performing what they have already read, understood and practiced together. Ask every group to perform, and then they can compare and discuss one performance to the rest. For example, one group only act as on in the script without any properties, another perform the play as the real play with properties just like powder, make up tools, chairs mirror, ice cream (properties in “The Show Must Go On”). Based on these two groups, the other groups can give comment and discuss it.

Procedures for Teaching Play

The procedures for teaching prose are:

• Teach your students to build up the characters.
• Hand out the copy of the play script.
• Let them read it, ask them to really get every point from the play. They can ask their friends and you to confirm what they do not know.
• Practice the play in a group. In the class there will be several groups that will perform the play.
• It is the time for performing.

III. CONCLUSION

A good teacher should have talent or skill to develop a great lesson plan which qualified strategies and procedures. By having it in the class, the lesson included literature will be really enjoyable for the students. Since there is a phenomena thinking that literature class is a boring class, so the literature teacher has to have basic knowledge about appropriate approaches, methods and techniques to teach it. The best approach to teach literature is the integrated approach from cultural, language and personal growth model. By using this approach, the students can make a link between the scripts of the poem, prose and play and their experiences, so they can get the meaning easily.

To build up the joyful strategies and procedures, the literature teacher has to construct the steps which are needed and suitable to the students. Due to, literature is hard to be understood commonly, let they work together with their friend, but the guidance from the teacher will always stand by if it is required.

Above, there are the strategies and procedures for teaching poems, prose and play. Hopefully it will help the literature teachers to develop the class more interesting and the students will be interested to study it.

REFFERENCES

Tom Glass. 2009. English Teaching Forum Number 4: Poetry Corner.
Website:http://www.teachingliterature.org/teachingliterature/chapter4/activities.html. Accessed on September 27, 2010.
Website: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Savvidou-Literature.html. Accessed on September 27, 2010.
Website: http://www.ehow.com/way_5557572_effective-teaching-strategies-prose.htm. Accessed on October 5, 2010.
Website: http://www.dramaresource.com/strategies/conscience-alley. Accessed on October 5, 2010.