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Literature Pedagogy: Ensuring Engagement in the Literature ClassroomRunning Head:

Literature Pedagogy

As the cost of a college education in the United States reaches record highs, professors
search for the best ways to ensure that students are getting the most out of their
increasingly expensive education. Countless theories have been put into practice with
just as many different outcomes. A college education is now seen as a means to a more
prestigious or higher-paying job, when in the past, college was considered a place to get
a diverse education and expand ones worldview, with a high-paying job seen as a
secondary perk. These days, professors struggle to keep their students engaged,
especially in the technologically advanced society in which we are immersed. This is
especially difficult when teaching subjects that can seem irrelevant or outdated to a
technology-driven and career-focused student body. The toughest classes in which to
spark student interest then become those in the humanities, specifically English and
literature, because these classes do not necessarily have a career that is clearly linked to
themfor example, like learning how to write code for a engineering or computer
science classes wouldclass, or how an antibiotic affects the body for a biology class.
Across all fields of study, however, everyone who has been a student has probably
had a boring class or a bad teacher. The common lecture hall, full of bored
sometimes texting or even sleepingstudents, and a droning professor behind a podium
is what we usually picture when we are told these stories. Students who are see
themselves as victims of boring classes report lower levels of engagement, retention
and interest in the material., Aand statistically, they are correct. Research shows that
these students are not sufficiently challenged and that they do are not reaching their full
potential as college students. In fact, cCurrent research suggests that lecture-style
teaching is the least effective way to reach students and ensure engagement, because the
students are not actively involved in their own learning.
TheA widespread move toward a more student-centered approach, rather than
the traditional, teacher-centered approach, is having an immense positive impact on
college studentsseeks to remedy this. . Positive results have been reported: Students are

Comment [VT1]: Maybe talk about the

skills the classes teach that inform other
job choices but that seem less obvious?

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indeed more engaged and perform better when classrooms are student-centered. . One
of the biggest advancements toward making college moreThe student-centered
classroomis ensures greatering engagement by students in enrolled the college
classroomcourses. Engaging students is something that every professor should strive for
then, but it is not easy, and in fact and requires quite a lot of exploration and reflection
into ones own teaching methods. Current research suggests that lecture-style teaching
is the least effective way to reach students and ensure engagement, because the students
are not actively involved in their own learning. Instead of lecture-style teaching,
collaborative learning environments are encouraged, and explicit relevance to the lives
of the students are is considered one of the most effective teaching methods. The
positive relationship between student engagement and student learning is emphasized:,
because when students have a personal stake in the learning process, retention rates
increase. In this context, it is especially important to consider the needs of the
technology savvy students of the twenty-first century who enroll in literature courses. I
will explore lLiterature pedagogy will be explored within this context as I examine the
implementation and impact of traditional and modern teaching methods, and search for
ways in which professors can ensure that students are not only engaged in their classes,
but also get the most out of their classes and are encouraged to reaching their full
potential in their education and in their lives.
Over the last 20 years there has been a shift in the way literature is being taught at the
university level, and it is important in the realm of pedagogy to examine the pedagogy
behind these patterns as they develop and change. First of all, it might be appropriate to
explore the teaching of literature itself.
Some might ask why literature still mattersespecially in a time when funding
for humanities education is continually being cut and the world is becoming more
focused on science and technology. We, as humans, must study the things that do not
fall under the category of hard science because only literature can give us things by
means particular to it; it Above all, the humanities teach us critical thinking skills: they
teach us about humanity and about good citizenship, and they helps us understand our
place in the world and how and why we matter as human beings. When advised to cut
arts education funding in order to fund the war effort, Winston Churchill asked, Then

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Engelke 3
what are we fighting for? What Churchill meant, of course, was that there is no reason
to fight for our rights if, on the way to these rights, we forget about humanity. A
hHumanities education teaches us how to use what we find in literature to relate to
other humans who may be from diverse backgrounds and cultures. In fact, much of the
literature I studied identified that the best teachers encourage strategies for students to
participate in their communities and cultures. English literature professors have a duty
to employ techniques that foster and illuminate the principles and practices of the
discipline itself (Chick, 2009). Literature itself contains the opportunity to show
students not only how their lives matter, but also ways to make them matter (Van
Engen, 2005). Elaine Showalter, in her book Teaching Literature (2003), defines the
goal of teaching literature as that of training students to do literature in the same way
that scientists do science. Literature professors aim to equip their students with the
tools to think critically so they can then apply those skills to the world of language,
literature and culture around them throughout their lifetimes (Showalter, 2003, p.26).
My research shows that using active learning strategies and engagement techniques is
the best way to accomplish these goals. Unfortunately, employing these strategies can be
difficult when pedagogical inquiry is not a main tenet of teacher training or practice.
Traditionally, pedagogy has been seen as less important than more academic
pursuits like research. ; research tends to be publicly funded while teachers are expected
to learn how to teach in private and via their own means, with little collaboration with
other professors. While research tends to be publicly supported by grants and academic
policies, the actual act of learning how to teach has been widely privatized, meaning that
it is done alone and without academic support (Tompkins, 1990). MMany sources point
to the fact that while pedagogy is looked down upon in some cases, it simply isnt
supported in academia generally. To compound this discrepancy, or perhaps as a result
of it, pProfessors do seldom not discuss their teaching techniques, and when observed
by their colleagues or heads of departments, they frequently feel threatened. Jane
Tompkins, in her article Pedagogy of the Distressed (1990), even compared pedagogy
to sexpeople are not supposed to talk about it, but when the time comes, they are just
supposed to know how to do it. Furthermore, people usually avoid talking about their
personal experiences with it because there isnt a vocabulary for articulating those
experiences and no institutionalized format for doing so. While research tends to be

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publicly supported by grants and academic policies, the actual act of learning how to
teach has been widely privatized, meaning that it is done alone and without academic
support (Tompkins, 1990). Many sources point to the fact that while pedagogy is looked
down upon in some cases, it simply isnt supported in academia generally. It While
research tends to be publicly supported by grants and academic policies, the actual act
of learning how to teach has been widely privatized, meaning that it is done alone and
without academic support (Tompkins, 1990). Many sources point to the fact that while
pedagogy is looked down upon in some cases, it simply isnt supported in academia
generally. Teacher training, other than for the composition classroom, is usually an
afterthought in doctoral programs, and professors are rarely encouraged to investigate
their own pedagogical practices (Stenberg, 2002). In fact, most college teachers do not
receive formal pedagogical training while earning their doctoral degrees, which impedes
their access to newer pedagogical methods and research (Feden, 2012).
Fortunately, from what Ive found in my research, a shift is occurring. Many
professors are pushing to create learning communities wherein professors collaborate in
on their teaching methods and observe each other not as judges, but as studentspeers,
and provide feedback to each otherthis creates an open communication so that
professors can improve their teaching techniques. However, changing or expanding the
idea of pedagogy is not exactly a simple task, because of pedagogys historical position of
disdain.
Stenberg and Lee (2002) point out that academia has historically preferred
abstract social visions over questions regarding whats actually going on inside the
classroom. They suggest a paradigm shift away from this abstract theorizing, toward a
more active, hands-on dialogue between teaching and research. Oddly, however, the
discussion rarely approaches the fact that most professors-in-training do not naturally
know how to teach and are not given the necessary opportunities and resources to find
out.
One way to counteract this deficiency is to turn toward introspection. Selfreflection into ones own teaching practices can help professors become better teachers
overall. more skilled, more capable, and in general better teachers. Research shows
that it is good pedagogical practice to regularly question the ideologies that we bring to
the classroom, and use that these questions to adjust lessons plans and class structures

Comment [VT2]: Needs to be followed by

parenthesis and citation.

Engelke 5
(Ahn, 2011, p.275). Professors who want to enact pedagogical inquiry should constantly
be revising their class plans and discovering new possibilities in their teaching, because
this will allow them to understand their students and themselves better. Professors then
will be able to experiment with new and exciting concepts in their classrooms, which
could lead to valuable discoveries (Stenberg 2002).
It is important then to understand that enacting pedagogical inquiry is an
ongoing process, and that those who pursue it good pedagogy will not once and for all
learn how to teach. Rather, their practices will change constantly throughout their
career, molding and shifting to fit the needs of their students and the cultural milieu
within which they are taking participate.
While pedagogy has tomust be part of an ones active research agenda then, its
practical purpose needs to continue to outweigh its theoretical purposes. The theory of
pedagogyical practices should have a working relationship with the actual practice,
rather than becoming the new subject matter to be mastered (Stenberg, 2002, p.331).
This old-fashioned perception of pedagogy, which views pedagogy has an abstract and
teaching-unrelated field, has had some negative impacts on academia.
The pPrivatization of actual classroom practice and learning about teaching
fostered teaching methods that weare not necessarily conducive to student learning. In
this study, tThese are referred to here as traditional teaching methods, and they include
some positive and negative aspects. The positive aspects of traditional pedagogical
practice are few, but important to understand in order to gain insight into the ways in
which professors can ensure their students are given the tools to be successful. Lecture
is the key component of the traditional teaching style. While it can seem boring to
students, it is can be superior to other methods of teaching for a few specific reasonsin
certain scenarios and serve a specific purpose within otherwise more interactive
classrooms.
Lecture gives the professor the ability to present up-to-date information quickly
and efficiently to students. Professors can also use this method to convey the main
points from many different sources in a quick and straightforward manner, so that
students do not have to read several articles or texts in order to glean the main point of
the days information. In this way, lecture can be a time efficient tool. It also allows the
professor to pace the course to meet the needs of the students, which can have a positive

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Engelke 6

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influence on their performance. In fact, not all students will say that they find lecture
entirely ineffective all of the time. In a study done by Jana Hunzicker and Twila
Lukowiak (2012), students appreciated traditional lecturing when they anticipated that
it would improve their exam performance.
Jennifer Clark (2008) also identified some situations in which lecture is a
necessity in college classrooms. When terms and concepts need to be learned quickly in
order for the students to apply and use them, lecture and presentations are excellent
tools. Presentation technology can be useful for these times because it gives students
something to look at other than the professor, while subtly reinforcing the main points
the teacher is making. One student in Clarks study even saidcommented that the reason
he liked the use of PowerPoint in his history class was because of the pretty lights. (p.
42). And it is true, slides do It adds entertainment value to the traditional lecture for

Comment [VT3]: Citation needed

todays highly-visual students. Furthermore, auditory learners will undoubtedly find

lectures stimulating and may get the most more out of this style of teaching than any
other. Clark also claimed that PowerPoint allows professors, who are forced to teach in
lecture- style due to high enrollment, to engage with their students in ways that
traditional lecture does not (Clark, 2008).
In sum, traditional lectures can be useful for a variety of situations: classes with
very high enrollment, auditory and or visual learners, maintaining control over the
direction and pacing of the class, and condensing many different ideas and sources into
one format for the sake of time. Although these are all positive things, there are some
drawbacks to using lecture as the primary teaching tool that should not be ignored.
Traditional teaching methods are statistically shown to be less ineffective and
because do not engage students actively (and therefore do not facilitate optimal
learning). The lecture, specifically, is what research argues doesnt work,; and it is seen
by research as an old-fashioned and outdated practice. Clark points out the widely held
belief that lectures are notoriously boring. (Clark, 2008, p.39). Without additional
audio or visual stimulation, student learning is impeded. In the traditional lecture hall,
the professor talks at students while they mindlessly take notes on what is being said
without actually engaging with the material inintellectually any way (Clark, 2008). The
problem with lectures, according to research done by cultural psychologist Lev
Vygotsky, is that they are decontextualized and inert (Scaffolding Learning, 2002).

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Engelke 7
Another important factor that reduces engagement in lecture classes is that it is
difficult to make the material seem relevant to the students. This can be seen in
literature classrooms where the text is typically taught as a detached, lifeless body
(Van Engen, 2005, p.11). Omitting and even discouraging cultural, social, and historical
context in the learning of literature breeds disengagement and even contempt when
students simply areare simply unable to make the material relate to their lives. The
nature of literature typically makes lecture ineffective for the teaching of it anyway,
because literary analysis focuses on aesthetics, themes, content analysis, and other
abstract concepts rather than concrete ones.
Paulo Freiiere refersred to the traditional lecture-style of teaching as the
banking method, where the professor is expected to gain accumulate as much
knowledge as possible and then deposit that information into the empty and waiting
brains of her students. This is a passive form of learning for students because they arent
engaged with the lecture material. In fact, according to my research, students only retain
about 40% of the material taught to them in lecture-style courses, and most of that only
comes from the first 10 minutes (Feden, 2012). This is especially important to consider
in light of the culture of todays college students who have distractions literally at their
fingertips when the class turns boringCandy Crush, Snapchat, TwitterFacebook, and
Twitter, and many others offer much more exciting alternatives to a boring literature
professor.
Jane Tompkins identified the influence behind the banking method. The
professor uses lecture as her only form of communication with students because it puts
her in a position of powershes the only one talking so nobody can contradict her or
ask questions to which she doesnt know the answer.and Aall of her students respect
and are intimidated by her, thereby giving her the aura of the wise and all-knowing
professor. This persona is something that most students will be intimidated by, and they
become unwilling to challenge the professor, ask questions, or even speak at all, which
provides the fear-driven professor with a safety net. Tompkins says when she started
teaching, like the majority of new professors, she was so concerned with showing her
students that she was capable and worthy of supplying them with knowledge that she
would put on a daily performance which was not concerned with the students
learning but with how smartclever and intelligent she appeared. The goal of these

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Engelke 8
performances was to basically make the students like and respect her as a professor.
Tompkins terms this method of teaching the performance model whose driving force
is fearfear of being shown up, exposed as a fraud, dismissed as a bad teacher, or
perceived asappearing unknowledgeable (1990, p.654). Strangely enough, the fear that
influences the decision to teach in lecture stylefollow the lecture model of teaching is
merely cyclical. Professors are afraid of being perceived as bad teachers, so they become
bad teachers in the process, blinded by their own fear. Research shows that more
modern teaching methods are a better way to reach students, and while they may
require professors to step out of their comfort zones, the outcomes make this transition
a worthwhile endeavor.
The modern style of teaching places an emphasis on engaging students, as
research shows that engagement leads to higher levels of learning. In this new
paradigm, professors ask questions, rather than give answers to the students, which
then does away with lectures almost entirely. Modern teaching methods also focus on
stating explicit relevance to students liveswhen students understand how the material
relates to them personally, they take a more personal stake in the learning process and
simply care more. In fact, engaged students statistically attend class more often, and
when they are theredoare physically present, they are also mentally present in that they
truly apply themselves by participating more, taking the homework seriously, studying
for exams more diligently, and developing an overall internal desire to learn. The
engaged student completes the coursework with enthusiasm and is able to solve course
problems creatively and collaboratively. and SheHe also uses the concepts she he has
learned in new ways, demonstrating which demonstrates her his learning (Hunzicker,
2012). Engaging activities are fun, interactive, challenging, purposeful, and relevant.
In the student-centered classroom, it is crucial for professors to focus not on what
they will say, but what their students will have learned or be able to do by the end of the
course (Avery, 2010). Preston D. Feden proposed that engagement can help students
develop and maintain their metacognitive processes and other important academic
skills that lead to better understanding not only of course material but also of material
in other classes, and even in media and other modern forms of communication (2012,
p.21).

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Engelke 9
One of the driving forces behind the shift in pedagogical practices is the presence
of millennial students in college classrooms. Millennials are considered those who began
arriving on college campuses around the year 2000. Scientists have noticed several
concerning trends in their personalities and experiences that may make them more
difficult to teach than students in the past have been. For instance, millennial students
are not used to reading long passages of text. Instead, they read short e-mails, Tweets,
and brief internetFacebook posts,; whichthis trend, as one study suggested, shows
demonstrates a decline in their ability to focus on novel-length texts. Scientists have also
noted a shocking increase in what they have been calling narcissism in this group of
students. They point to the fact that twice as many high school students in 2010 than in
1976 graduated with an A average, meaning that students were given better grades for
doing less work. Some also claim that the old model of a midterm and final exam are not
effective for this group of students, because they understand that tests are not
necessarily an accurate description of their overall learning. In fact, most young people
no longer respond to appeals to duty; instead, they want to know exactly why they are
doing something (Twenge, 2012, p.68). Furthermore, because Millennials grew up
working on teams, they may be less equipped with the the skills to think independently
(Wilson, 2006, p.60).
Despite these obstacles,But millennial students have some unique abilities that
their older counterparts may have lacked, and there are many innovative ways to reach
them without sacrificing content and difficultyrigor. In contrast to adult previous
generations, Millennials have been described as team-oriented, achieving, optimistic,
confident and socially accepting, and playing on their strengths and weaknesses gives
professors a unique ability to truly engage this complicated and complex group of
students. For example, focusing on student-faculty contact via one-on-one meetings can
increase their motivation, involvement, and intellectual commitment to the course
material. Because of their willingness to work on in teams, group discussions and
projects are excellent ways to engage them. Moreover F, frequent small quizzes (rather
than two major exams), smaller assignments, explicit syllabi, and well-structured
assignments are all the bestimportant ways to of reaching them (Wilson, 2006, p.62).
There are many alternatives to the traditional lecture that are much more
effective, and there also are several specific activities that are considered engaging to

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Engelke 10
todays students. Enacting these strategies can have highly positive outcomes for both
students and professors, and these techniques are easily translated to the literature
classroom. Collaboration, relevance, community involvement, personal expression,
context, physical or verbal activities, and variation all can be implemented in literature
classrooms in order to meet the goal of student retention and success.
Collaboration is identified as one of the key methods to engaging students. When
students partake in collaborative learning tasks, students see their task as more
important (Ahn, 2011). It has also been shown that students who prefer to work alone
still benefit from group work, and that most group work is well-received by college
students. A collaborative work environment, research shows, leads to a deeper
understanding of course material and more significant metacognitive thought in
students. An example of a collaborative group exercise was put forth in Ruth Ahn and
Mary Class article, Student-Centered Pedagogy: Co-Construction of Knowledge
through Student-Generated Midterm Exams (2011). In their study, Ahn and Class
made students agents of their own learning, and shifted the power away from the
instructor and toward the students. The authors attempted to engage their students with
the class material by having them create their own midterm exam questions. The
requirement for the project was that the exam questions could not be true/false or oneword-answer questions. Ahn and Class students were forced to dive deeply into the
content of their textbook in order to write questions that actually tested their knowledge
and applications of concepts, rather than memorization of facts. This activity improved
their higher-order thinking skills and allowed them to activate their learning and apply
it in new ways. The professors also found that working in small groups as a team to
create questions for their assigned chapter improved the students participation in fullclass discussions (p. 277).
Tompkins described an experiment in which she also handed complete control
over to her students, and they were and required them to collaborate intensely
throughout the semester. She made the students responsible for presenting the material
to the rest of the class, rather than she herself having that task. She maintained that it
iss important for professors to understand that they dont need to polish their own
presentation skills and knowledge set, but rather that the students need to develop
theirs and find their voice, which is something this activity allowed them to do (p. 657).

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In order to successfully implement this class structure, Tompkins recommended some

rules of thumb. She placed an importance on entrusting students with control of the
class, because one of the main components is that they feel a sense of their own power in
their learningthe activity is not designed for the professor to prove herself. She also
recommended keeping a light workload, which helped the students focus on the
material more critically.
Nancy Chick, Holly Hassel, and A. Haynie also conducted an experiment with
collaboration in the classroom. They found that when students are presented with a
difficult text, they tend to shut down because they do not have full command of the
skills required to analyze it (Chick, 2009, p.400). Their goal was to make reading for
complexity in literature seem valuable and interesting to students, rather than
intimidating. In order to do this, they first had their students analyze a brief poem on
their own and write out their interpretations of it before class. During the next class
period, the students then wrote down any themes and patterns they saw in the poem,
and any elements they thought did not seem to fit in the poem. The students then
formed small groups to discuss their different interpretations and findings, and
tooktaking careful notes throughout. After this, the students informally presented their
work to the full class, and explained their interpretations of the poem with textual
support. A writing assignment followed in which the students discussed the complexity
of this short piece of work. The assignment asked the students to discuss how the
patterns related to each other, how its possible for all of these different patterns to exist
in a single piece of work, and what elements that they perceived to be out of place. This
activity was a way for students to see the myriad of possible interpretations of a single
poem might yield, and it allowed them to become more comfortable and less
intimidated by something they had originally considered quite difficult to grasp. The
professors data suggested that group work had a tremendously positive effect impact on
students understanding of and engagement with the material. They said, our students
initial interpretations of the poem were challenged, reinforced, and enlarged by smallgroup discussions (p. 418). Another method that works quite well for collaboration is to
issue guided reading questions for a longer piece of work, and to have students discuss
their answers in small groups. This technique fosters communication and teamwork.

Comment [VT5]: Citation

Engelke 12

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Establishing rRelevance is one ofanother the major keysvaluable step toward

ensuring engagement in the literature classroom. Relevance is the gateway to allowing
students to become for comfortable with unfamiliar, complex, and historically-distant
texts (Showalter, 2003). Many authors made the claim that without forging a
connection between the material and the lives of the students, teaching them is an
empty labor (Tompkins, 1990). A component of providing relevance is to present
students with context for the works they will come into contact with throughout the
semester. Julie M. Barst recommended conveying historical and social background via
lecture, student research essays, or presentations (2013). Stories, in this manner, are
also an excellent tool with which to engage students. Providing a brief story about the
authors experiences that influenced his/her writing of the text will immediately make
the text more interesting and easy to remember for the students (Feden, 2012). Several
sources also recommended giving students a say in determining the syllabus as a way to
make the course more relevant to them. Many literature professors implement this
technique by presenting students with a pool of texts from which to choose. The
students either choose one on their own or vote on the ones they will read that semester.
One author points out that this doesnt mean reducing the material to what is only
relevant or appealing to the students. Instead, tThis technique enables the professor to
discover commonalities between the students and the material and use that as a starting
point to evoke their interest (Youssef, 2010). In this way, students maintain a personal
stake in the direction and flow of the class, thereby increasing their engagement, while
the professor may use their common interest as a starting point. When sStudents have
more interestare invested in the material,, and higher levels of interest lead, naturally, to
higher levels of engagement and learning occur.
An example from my research is a professor who struggled to make the poetry of
Langston Hughes relevant to her majority-black students. One would think it would be
easy for the students to find his poetry engaging, but the Civil Rights movement themes
were, in fact, not engaging to them because, as the professor found out, it was something
that no longer seemed relevant to their twenty-first century lives (Youssef, 2010). We
found several solutions to her problem using the suggestions I mentioned. The professor
could have provided social context about the civil rights movement and analyzed, what
prompted Hughes to write his poetry. She could also have talked about something as

Comment [VT6]: See above. All three of

these paragraphs are underdeveloped. Can
you combine them meaningfully?

Engelke 13

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contemporary as the Trayvon Martin case if the students showed disinterest or claimed
a disconnection between their concerns and those of Hughes. Trayvon was 17 years old
around their own age. The professor could then have had them generate a list of other
gender-ethnicity stereotypes (including clothes, hairstyles, tattoos, etc.) and discussed
with the students related crimes and cases of discrimination. They then could discuss
have integrated their own lives and to find out if anything like that had ever happened to
them, and even get into a discussion on their own privilege being in college is
something that would have been a major struggle in during Hughes time.
A few secondary considerations for engagement include techniques such as
presenting opportunities for community outreach, allowing or even encouraging
personal opinions, and incorporating technology. One of the foremost objectives of
studying humanities is to become more familiar with the ways in which humans
interact, to acknowledge their struggles, triumphs, and personal concerns. Offering
students opportunities for applying their knowledge outside of the classroom in
impactful ways accomplishes these goals. Furthermore, permitting personal opinions to
enter conversations allows students to feel that their voice matters; it makes them feel
more comfortable participating in class discussions of a text (Showalter, 2003).
Likewise, professors may use social media such as blogging, class websites, or online
discussion boards to help with this component. Students may feel more comfortable
posting their findings on a class webpage because many of them do something very
similar on a daily basis with their ubiquitous social media outlets. This technique also
integrates technology into the classroom, which is something many modern students
expect (Wilson, 2006). In this context, Reader-Response Theory may also find its place.
The Reader-Response framework offers a unique medium for students to express
themselves because it gives them the theoretical tools to discuss their interpretations of
texts (Showalter, 2003). All of these techniques can help students feel important and
empowered in the literature classroom, which is just the validation many modern
learners crave.
An additional component of relevance is that it may encourage students to
participate in their communities via outreach programs and activism. After all, one of
the foremost objectives of studying humanities is to become more familiar with the ways

Comment [VT7]: See note above:

elaborate, relocate, or cut.

Engelke 14

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in which humans interact, to acknowledge their struggles, triumphs, and personal

concerns. Offering opportunities or outlets for applying their knowledge outside of the
classroom in meaningful ways accomplishes these goals (Showalter, 2003).
Allowing personal opinions to enter discussions is a good way to allow students to

Comment [VT8]: Either elaborate or

relocate or cut. It seems to interrupt the
flow of your argument here.

feel that their voice matters; it, and therefore makes them feel more comfortable
participating in class discussions of a text. Professors can use social media like blogging,
class websites, or online discussion boards to help with this component, while also
allowing integrating technology to enterinto their teaching classroom. Reader-Response
Theory finds its place in this context. The Reader-Response framework offers a unique
medium for students to express themselves because it gives them the theoretical tools to
discuss their interpretations of texts (Showalter, 2003).
Another impactful pedagogical tool is to present students with context for the

Comment [VT9]: See note above:

elaborate, relocate, or cut.

works they will come into contact with throughout the semester. Julie M. Barst
recommended conveying historical and social background via lecture, student research
essays, or presentations (2013). Stories, in this manner, are also an excellent tool with
which to engage students. Providing a personal story that relates to the material or a
brief story about the authors experiences that influenced his/her writing of the text will
immediately make the text more interesting and easy to remember for the students
(Feden, 2012).
In order to engage his students on many different levels, oOne professor used

Comment [VT10]: See above. All three of

these paragraphs are underdeveloped. Can
you combine them meaningfully?

turned to debate in his literature classroom during their study of when they were
reading Dantes Inferno. He posed a mock trial of Satan in which the students played
the roles of defense, prosecution, Satan, and Judge (Showalter, 2003, p.110). The same
can be done for texts like Frankenstein and King Lear. This technique seems especially
effective since a good percentage of English majors are also pre-law students. Along this
same line, some professors highly recommend getting students physically and verbally
active in the classroom. When students are encouraged to physically participate in
learning activities, their brains are working in different ways that actually facilitate brain
growth and strengthen their interpretive abilities (Avery, 2010). For example, a class
that covers drama may allow students to act out particularly important lines. In fact,
verbal interactions with texts literally train students brains to engage with their
metacognitive thinking processes (Feden, 2012). A playful atmosphere strengthens

Comment [VT11]: This sentence needs to

be supported by research and requires a
citation.

Engelke 15
students memories and helps fortify their interpretive abilities. Eric Jensen agrees,
saying, Humans at play are motivated to repeat newly acquired skills thereby
increasing the strength of neurological structures underlying these skills and opening
opportunities for further learning (Avery, 2010, p. 7). Vygotsky also concurs, positing
the idea that verbal interactions literally train students brains to engage with their
metacognitive thinking processes (Vygotsky, 1962, p. 45).
Vygotskys Scaffolding Scale (see fig. 1) is a visual representation of what is
termed the Zone of Proximal Development. This area represents the optimal level of
difficulty in which the highest levels of successful learning and comprehension occur. In
this zone, the material is neither too hard so as to cause anxiety, nor too easy so as to
cause bore the student boredom. When the student is able to complete a task on her
own, she is able to apply the new concepts to new situations, thereby entering her Zone
of Actual Development. When a student is completely unable to perform the task
without the help of a teacher, she is in the Teacher-Regulated Zone, which only produces
learning in the one who doesnt need it: the professor. However, on the flip side of this,
when a student can successfully complete a task without any help at all, they likely could
already do it prior to the teaching, and they thus have learned nothing new
(Scaffolding Learning, 2002).
An added important consideration regarding engagement activities is variation.
Some sources suggested changing the focus of the material every ten minutes. Others
recommended introducing at least six new terms, ideas or conclusions every 15 minutes
(Twenge, 2012). The big picture idea here is to focus on not using the same techniques
in class every day across the semester. Instead of having guided reading questions for
every text and having the students discuss their answers in small groups nearly every
day, for example, a professor might hold a debate, show a related video, or briefly
lecture on the author the students are about to read and show some art work from the
given time period.
While its important for professors to engage their students as much as possible, it
is also useful to discuss the different teaching styles professors may have. In my
Teaching Literature class, together with help from the instructor, we identified three
major styles that exist together on a continuum. On the far end of the continuum we

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Engelke 16

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identified what we called Teaching Style A. This style is teacher-focused, using lecture
heavily. The professor maintains the expert persona, and the students are minimally
engaged. We identified this as the easiest teaching style to maintain because the
professor has complete control of the class. In stark contrast to this teaching style is
Teaching Style C. This method is student-focused, wherein the professor facilitates
discussions, uses lecture only as a reactionary tool, and learning typically occurs in
roundtable-style discussions. We identified this style as the most difficult to employ for;,
in order for it to succeed, students must feel completely safe sharing their opinions and
interpretations of texts, and this can be very difficult to achieve. Its also worth noting
that allowing a free-flowing atmosphere of feelings and interpretations may allow
students feelings to get in the way of accurate analysis of literature. Students study
literature because it elicits emotions in them, and there are ways to use those emotions
in the classroom, but in order for the study of literature to remain academic, students
must be aware that their emotions may increase the likelihood of inaccurate
interpretations.
In the middle of this continuum stands Teaching Style B. This, we identified, is
the ideal teaching style. Professors who employ this teaching style frame group
discussions with lecture, with an effective balance of lecture and other, more active
engagement techniques. There does not exist a singular, best method for teaching a
particular subject, nor is there a singular, best method for students to learn that
subject, so balancing a variety of employing different teaching styles is the best way to
convey different material to different students (Loughran, 2013).
A quick instructional pace, coupled with class variety, and a delicate balance of
active, student-centered tasks and teacher-led tasks is the most effective way to ensure
that students are engaged in their learning (Hunzicker, 2012). The importance of
engagement, specifically in the literature classroom, cannot be understated because e.
Engagement improves higher-order, complex, critical thinking skills in students., These
skills are developed by and the most useful ways to engage students include providing
opportunities for collaboration,. Teachers should, aiminging for explicit relevance,
encouragingeing community involvement, allowinging personal expression, and
discoveringing creative ways for students to participate physically and verbally with the
material, and all the while focusing on variation of presentation style. Engaged students

Comment [VT12]: This seems to

contradict what you say immediately
preceding this. Maybe rework some? Or
rearrange information?

Engelke 17
retain more information, feel more connected with the material, and overall learn more
from their classes. Thus, engaged students become more successful and, with earn
better grades. Universities will record, higher graduation rates, as a result and be able to
show more community involvement, by their alumni and more fulfilling careers. The
boring lecture hall is a thing of the past. Modern teaching methods should be
implemented not only in literature classrooms, but across all classes and majors. The
current state of higher education necessitates a move from the conventional, timehonored methods to more modern, different, and perhaps even unusual techniques so
that students are able to succeed in their education and in their lives outside of the
university.

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Engelke 18

References
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Knowledge through Student-Generated Midterm Exams. International Journal
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Avery, Bruce. (2010). You don't know Jack. Pedagogy 11(1), 135-51. EBSCO MegaFILE.
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Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 13(1), 149-57.
EBSCO MegaFILE. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

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Engelke 19
Chick, N. L., H. Hassel, and A. Haynie. (2009) Pressing an Ear against the Hive:
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Engelke 20
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