How to Read Literature Like a Professor Strategies
You've probably heard of Thomas C. Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor and may already use it in your classroom. Foster's text, while not originally written for classroom employ, has become a staple for many AP®* Lit teachers. Foster puzzles over this miracle in the preface of the volume'south second edition, maxim he is flattered by the new audition but did not anticipate the book being a tool for teachers.
*AP® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, this website.
How to Read Literature Like a Professor (henceforth called HTRLLAP for the sake of my sanity) is neither textbook or novel. And still, AP® teachers have integrated it into their classes in many different ways. I've been teaching it for a few years and have deduced some excellent strategies for incorporating HTRLLAP into the AP® classroom. Furthermore, I've learned iv consequent ways to effectively impale HTRLLAP's joy and potential for learning. Here are four means that AP® teachers misuse Foster's text:
#1 Assign it as summertime reading
This one is going to ruffle some feathers, but I call up the biggest mistake AP® teachers brand when using HTRLLAP is assigning it for summertime reading. That being said, I totally understand the reasons behind doing it. Foster's book is not exactly short. And of course, a universal truth among AP® Lit teachers is that we e'er run out of class time. However, exporting it to summer reading introduces a new gear up of issues:
- Some kids will not read it
- Many kids volition not fully grasp all of the book's significant
- Students oft forget information over the summer months
- Capacity blend together, making individual lessons difficult to think
- SOME KIDS Volition Not READ IT
That first one seemed so obvious I felt it needed mentioning over again. Personally, I find HTRLLAP too valuable to let students rush information technology, skim it, or skip it altogether. Instead, I devote the first three weeks of AP® Lit to studying the book, usually 3-four chapters at a time. Each day the students take a curt quiz on the reading, so we get over notes and breakout texts from each affiliate (bachelor for purchase from my Teachers Pay Teachers store, see below). By including it in the schoolhouse year my students acquire that the volume is important. In fact, we care for it as our textbook, referencing it oftentimes enough that some students purchase their own copy then they tin can annotate the text permanently. For these reasons and more, I volition non allow Foster'southward text to die on the summer reading list.
1.a – Sometimes it has to be summer reading
…and notwithstanding, and so ofttimes we run out of time. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I am forced to assign HTRLLAP for summer reading, as I know we won't have fourth dimension for information technology in the fall. Therefore, if you must assign it over the summer, make sure you do it justice in the autumn. I recommend devoting a skilful amount of fourth dimension (at to the lowest degree a week) reviewing students' understanding of Foster's novel. You can also apply bell-ringers, notes, and expansion strategies to expand HTRLLAP's in preparation for the coming schoolhouse yr.
#2 Confine it to the page
Another common flaw is to only discuss HTRLLAP as it is. However, I believe teachers should model intertextuality skills and connect Foster's lessons to their own favorite books. Foster does an astonishing job of this in his book, which is one of the reasons people love reading it. He throws in allusions as well equally Master Shakespeare, and clearly he has done his reading homework before writing the book. Yet, not many teenagers have read Lolita, "Sonny'due south Blues," or Dubliners in their spare time. To say it frankly, some of Foster'south textual references are too highbrow for teenagers.
In society to gainsay this, I move HTRLLAP beyond Foster's text and connect it to novels and plays that I know my students have read before coming to my class. To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm are popular choices in my lessons. Another thing I beloved to do is use Foster's lessons to analyze film and television. Some of my students were more insightful in their analysis of Breaking Bad and Inception than any other text we read throughout the year. (To learn more than about how to utilize media to raise date, read this blog post.) See beneath for some examples of the connections to tv set and film I brand in my notes:
Examples
Ane of my favorite memories was of a student running into my classroom and joyfully telling me that his family wouldn't watch television with him anymore. Their reason: because he couldn't cease analyzing the shows. He was using Foster's methods to make predictions and spoiling the endings of live television! I was and then proud!
Foster's appeal grows when modeled and expanded. I urge you as a instructor to model understanding of Foster's lessons with books, plays, movies, songs, television set shows, and other references from your experience. Past showing them that you can make these connections with HTRLLAP, they'll begin to make their own. To acquire more about integrating film and tv set clips to enhance assay skills, bank check out this post.
#three Use the One-and-Done Approach
Probably the most common crime against HTRLLAP is analyzing it as the beautiful resource that it is–and and then abandoning it on a shelf for the rest of the year. In my utilise of the text, we study information technology at the beginning of the year for a reason. The students are told to use each of Foster's lessons (there is i per chapter) to guide them throughout the year. At the end of the unit, I give students smaller versions of a classroom poster I had designed, showing each of Foster's chapter lessons on ane document. My students look to this poster throughout the yr and use the handout to study for the AP® Lit exam.
One year, my class discussing a detail from All the King's Men when suddenly a pupil shouted out, "He'due south going Southward!" The rest of the class was puzzled for a moment, until another kid lit up and responded, "He's going to run amok!" The poster reminded them of 1 of Foster'southward affiliate lessons, and all at once the class was making predictions as a grouping. I almost cried.
You lot tin can purchase this printable affiche here.
#4 Skip the Writing Assignment
The concluding misuse of HTRLLAP is skipping Foster'south concluding chapter. Foster'southward last chapter contains a short give-and-take of Katherine Mansfield's "The Garden Party." I understand the motive to skip it, since Mansfield'due south story is 1) long, and 2) difficult. However, Foster included it in his text for a reason. AP® Lit students need to practice close reading paired with analytical writing.
In my classroom, I inquire students to read "The Garden Political party" only, without the commentary afterwards. They come in to form gear up to discuss it and we spend 20 minutes drafting an on-demand essay. They partner up and share their insights, and and then nosotros return to HTRLLAP. Together nosotros read the rest of Foster'southward text and his insightful have on Mansfield'southward short story. My students usually have a dramatic reaction to his affiliate, and it is always i of despair and anger. I have yet to have whatsoever student make the connection to hell that Foster makes in his book.
Nonetheless, this exercise is not designed to suspension their spirits. It is to show how a story can be interpreted in varying ways, and how looking for patterns can yield such interesting results. I follow this lesson with our beginning prose timed writing of the year. Overall, consistently pairing HTRLLAP with writing trains students to read closely, looking for patterns and predictions like Foster trains them in his book.
Conclusion
If you already utilize How to Read Literature Like a Professor in your AP® classroom, I commend y'all for finding such a rich resource for your students. I hope this post has convinced you to employ it purposefully in order to make the book more just a volume but a valuable resource in your AP® students' toolbox.
If yous are looking to add How to Read Literature Like a Professor to your AP® Lit curriculum (or your own lessons demand an overhaul), I have a ready-fabricated unit available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I recently modified this resource to match the College Board'southward new CED. Information technology tin even count as a short fiction according to the CED. You lot can purchase my How to Read Literature Similar a Professor bundle here, or the typography posters solitary here.
Source: https://lit-and-more.com/4-ways-ap-teachers-misuse-how-to-read-literature-like-a-professor/
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