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My  experience with teaching Literary Perspectives has, for the past two years, been marked by the changing nature of the course.  The redesign of the class, from Genre Studies, a course focused on the exploration of literature, to Literary Perspectives with its emphasis on research and presentation has necessitated a shift in the organization, content and skills of the class.  The final performance task comprises 15% of the students’ finals grades and, as such, dictates the skills and content that must be covered in order to ensure that students are adequately prepared for the task.  While I miss the freedom of Genre Studies, I recognize that the shift in the course has created a sense of importance for students.  They understand that we are building towards an important final assessment, and this creates increased “buy-in” amongst many of the students.

 

In reflecting on the course this past school year, I believe that the most significant change I have made to the class has been in my revamping of the way in which I structure the final performance task.  Previously, students were permitted to choose their own topics and then find corresponding literature.  This required the use of numerous hours of class time.  Additionally, students often chose works that were inappropriate for their age-level simply because the works related to the topic that they had chosen.  The selection of novels by a number of students also required a significant amount of time given to reading.  Additionally, when students chose works with which I was unfamiliar, they were left to their own devices, particularly if the works were relatively obscure.  

 

Seeking to manage the limited time given by the semester-long course, I determined this year to eliminate the time lost to literature selection.  By creating a collection of short stories united by theme and giving student the opportunity to choose from these, I saved upwards of a week.  Time that had been wasted by students wandering the internet searching for the right novel or short story (and often settling on something inappropriate) was reclaimed for direct instruction time.  Also, by mandating that each group member read all the short stories in their group’s thematic collection, I provided students with ability to help their peers navigate the stories in the collection.  With three or four responses and analyses to each story, students had a wider pool of viewpoints and insights to draw from.  The role of choice was maintained to a certain extent by having each group member choose a single story to focus on after the group had read the entire collection.  By and large, this change saved valuable class time for direct instruction that better prepared students for the final performance task.  It also resulted in stronger, more coherent and more cohesive final presentations and papers.

 

As I look forward to the coming year and the changes I want to make to the class, I hope to promote student engagement and autonomy by restructuring the course introduction.  Rather than choosing the thematic focus for the course units, I plan to create a list of 5 or 6 options.  These options will all be relevant to students, and will all be based on the works available in the school’s book room.  I hope to open the class by examining the idea of perspective and exploring varying perspectives on a topic with a few poems or very short short stories.  Once students have begun to understand the concept of multiple perspectives in literature, I will give them the list of options for topics.  Their task will be to create a compelling case for their preferred option.  This case must be based on establishing the relevance of their selected theme through solid research.  They will compose a proposal and pitch their selected topic to their peers.  In this way, we will immediately begin to develop the research skills so necessary to the final performance task.  I also hope to promote student engagement by giving them a sense of autonomy.  Ideally, students will be more inclined to read and explore a topic that has been “sold” to them by their peers.  

 

I consider the standard “sophomores” to be one of the most challenging groups to work with.  This is the result of the wide variety of students who enroll in Literary Perspectives at the standard level.  In addition to the “typical” standard students who took Humanities at the standard level, the course also contains students who have recently moved up from Basic Humanities, as well as a diverse international population whose ages are as varied as their nationalities.  These international students are often taking their first class after a number of semesters in ESL.  Having such a diverse group of students presents instructional challenges, but also can lead to a vibrant and interesting class.  This is particularly important for a class that is focused on perspectives.

 

I am sure that I will continue to “tweak” this class.  The freedom of such a wide list of works designated as sophomore reads, combined with the focus and intent provided by the looming challenge of the performance task, makes Literary Perspectives an interesting course to teach, and an excellent place to enjoy professional “play” in the form of creative lesson planning and course design.