Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings

Literature is a very multifaceted subject and is generally considered one of the most difficult subjects to teach. There is no right or wrong way to teach literature; however, there is an effective technique. The essence of literature is not just getting an answer, but getting a deep, provocative and creative answer. The teacher should not teach, but guide the student.

Steps

1. 1 To get an education: No public university will hire you to teach English unless you have a bachelor's degree, and very few will allow you to teach less than a master's degree. If you are going to teach at a university, be prepared for the fact that it will most likely require a doctorate, as well as recent publications in reputable scientific journals. It is obvious that scholars from the humanities are hired for the position of an English teacher, in particular those who specialized in English.
2. 2 Do your research: Check out the different genres of literature from different periods, as well as their evolution. If the first step did not prepare you for this, it is likely that you cannot teach at the university yet.
3. 3 Imitate but don't copy: If you are going to teach English at a university, you have already spent 4-10 years in student classrooms. It’s naive to assume that you don’t know how to teach — after all, you’ve watched others do it for most of your life. Use this knowledge. Take the example of your best teachers, adapting their methods to the current situation, and in the process, you can find your own unique style. If you are just copying other teachers and / or downloading lecture plans from the Internet, teaching is perhaps not your calling.
4. 4 Always read passages of works in pairs: Students often rely on textbooks and ready-made answers to texts and, with rare exceptions, perceive them as true masterpieces.Do not forget to leave free time for extracurricular reading and re-reading of poems, for example, to enjoy the sound and syllable before analyzing it solely as a complex kind of prose. This applies equally to writers such as Charles Dickens or Jane Austen, whose writings place considerable emphasis on the rhythm and dimension of the stanzas as the key to understanding meaning. They can set the mood through rhythm to indicate, for example, boredom or anticipation.
5. 5 Keep students on their toes for the first few weeks: Usually a group of students will shortly be enrolled in your subject for no reason. Because of this, you tend to end up with a few bums in the class or people who intellectually don't quite fit the subject. If you make classes extremely challenging and provocative in the first few weeks, it will be a signal for some less interested students to leave the course. The rest will be ready to work and actively participate in the educational process. (Note: If the university is receiving government funding based on attendance, you can wait until the enrollment deadline has passed before embarking on a “survival program” that will cause some to drop out of your class. The dean may also disband the group if the required number of students.)
   • Make it a rule of thumb to work at a fast pace. If the student does not start responding after 20 seconds, work on specific exercises. For example, if a student does not answer, ask: "What are the possible interpretations of the phrase:" Cowards die many times in their life, before their final death ", or" What does red symbolize? " or "Name 3 mythological animals that could fly." The questions do not have to be literary in general. If it’s something fun and informative, students will appreciate it and be more focused during class.
6. 6 Ask new questions. Do not repeat questions from numerous textbooks and books, and even more so from the Internet. Make sure the topic has not been discussed previously in class. Of course, the questions should be like, but not be like, the examples given in similar teacher resources. You will classify students by their level of literary analysis, not by analytical reports.
7. 7 Always ask why. In any part of the work, the most important question in the literature is "Why?" Make sure every student knows the importance of this question from the first lesson. You must train students to be self-confident and try to interpret each line according to the reason and intent behind it. Intention is the heart of literature.
8. 8 Add fuel to the fire: Unity of opinion and interpretation is alien to literature. Each phrase can be interpreted in different ways, judged by its importance and the presence of hidden meaning. You should do your best to ensure that your students are familiar with different opinions and approaches. The devil's advocate method is perfect for this purpose. Challenge their position, and when they take your side, change your mind again. This can create interesting debates and help students defend and argue their opinions. Try to use unsubstantiated arguments to rekindle the rear of students and help them think in the abstract, which is very helpful when writing essays on literature. This technique will also help to attract the attention of students who are always sleeping in the back row. The dispute is much more interesting than the person in front of the blackboard.
9. 9 Add story to main story: When students are familiar with the material, let them know the person who created it - the author. Tell us about his past, lifestyle and documented sources of inspiration.Many famous writers have lived very interesting, and sometimes tragic and scandalous lives, so it is always interesting to learn about both for general development and for a better understanding of his work.
10. 10 Engage every student: There are students in each group who are not really very interested in the material, but come to class every day for no apparent reason. Also, in each group there are those who tend to monopolize the conversation and develop discussion around their opinion. Avoid this at all costs. Even lazy students are able to contribute to the discussion. Ask a lot of questions and give everyone the opportunity to express their opinion. No need to just stand and wait for the student to decide to answer (you will waste precious minutes while the student eats and nukes).
    • Maintain interest in each student. Students tend to feel relevant and can easily identify the teacher's favorites. Try to avoid this at all costs. Your job is to develop students' imaginations and treat everyone equally well. Talk to each of them in private at least once.
    • Get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your students: by giving them different types of assignments (speech, argument, essay, interpretation, etc.) you can find out the strengths and weaknesses of each of them. Praise everyone for their strengths and strengths, and talk about their weaknesses and weaknesses. Allow students to choose the form in which they are most comfortable to express their thoughts. For example, if a student performs well in oral discussion, but worse in written work, allow him to complete an assignment verbally. To tell you the truth, you have to give everyone a chance to choose the form in which they are best expressed. Talk to students in person about their weaknesses and how to work on them.
11. 11 Evaluate thought, not content: When grading an essay, you should remember that literature, unlike other subjects, does not pay much attention to content. It is the creativity and thought behind the content that sets a good essay on literature. Of course, you rate the content as well, but in the literature, you should rate ambiguous and creative interpretations a little higher, and a little lower than work with a textbook interpretation. For example, a student who can convince a reader that Frankenstein's monster was in fact his alter ego, by referencing quotes from the book, is a better student than one who views the monster only as a creature that was unfortunately man-made.
12. 12 Give your homework appropriate. Students must be treated like adults, so homework assignments must be of the appropriate level of difficulty. Explain exactly the nature of the assignment and the format you want. The best assignment is an optional assignment. Make sure that they write a lot of articles based on the results of the research, and also give a sufficient number of non-standard tasks: an essay on the complexity of learning in the specialty language and literature, write a verse, analyze a fairy tale (in fact, fairy tales are filled with symbolism, for example - “Beauty and Monster").
13. 13 Refer to specific sources. No matter how creative the thought, it should be based on quotes from the material studied. A student may have a brilliant idea, but if it doesn't match what he read, then it's worthless. Emphasize that each statement should be supported by specific lines, stanzas or dialogues in the text.
14. 14 Read excerpts from the work of other scientists: Introduce other literary critics' interpretations to students. You can also save old student essays to read some passages as examples. Invite students to discuss the opinions they have read. As an example, you might ask, "What aspects do you agree or disagree with, and why?"
15. 15 Enjoy the experience: If on the way to work you feel fear, oppression and you want to turn around and go home - it's time to reschedule or cancel your class. If you don't give your best when you teach, students will notice this and the atmosphere in the classroom will change as well. On the other hand, students may be very grateful if you give them a few extra hours.

Tips

• If students have difficulty interpreting and finding hidden meanings, try doing this exercise at the beginning of the lesson. Write any simple word on the chalkboard, such as “dust,” each student's task is to try to interpret its meaning. So, dust collects in untouched and neglected places, it can be perceived as something forgotten, abandoned, something that is worthless or the remains of something, and so on.
• Bring pictures to class. There are many illustrations and drawings of mythical creatures, literary heroes, as well as writers. In the modern world, visual perception prevails over verbal. Thus, the use of different images will help make the activities more interesting and can also be used for comparisons. For example, you might ask if the illustration matches the description of hell in the text.
• Encourage students to read, not only texts, but everything that interests them. Reading should become a habit for them, so they can achieve amazing results during classes.
  
• If the activity seems monotonous, change the pace. Move to a garden or other outdoor area. Do a role play where each student will represent a famous writer (some will be W. Shakespeare and some will be Shelley) and ask them to play themselves. Refer to pop culture and modern media, ask how to interpret them (it would be interesting to see how they could compare "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" with "Fight Club"? Alternatively, you can make it a mandatory rule - to speak with a certain accent during class.

Warnings

• Be flexible with your deadlines and schedule. It is unrealistic to assume that it will take students the same amount of time to understand and discuss all the different materials. This almost never happens. If students are having trouble with poetry but are good at prose, spend more time studying poetry. Of course, the desire to have a schedule is understandable, but it will be much easier to work if you understand that there may be changes in it. Your job is to be a professor, not an organizer.
• If you have students who do not master the subject, privately invite them to stop classes or, if they are really interested, advise them to attend them as a free listener.
• Don't modify your rating scale to match your class potential. You don't have to have the same number of fives, fours, and threes. You measure the quality of their work. If they have passed the work of a terrible quality - show them what they deserve, at least two marks, but allow them to pass / retake the exam.