The purpose of teaching literature in schools has often been debated
especially during the recent concern of our "failing educational system"
and the importance placed on high stakes tests. However, teaching
literature not only improves reading fluency through the expansion of
vocabulary, but also increases students' reading comprehension
skills. Comprehension skills not only include retelling main events, but
also include the ability to identify the author's choice or words,
central themes, character development, symbolism, irony, etc.
Including literature especially classical literature supports the
idea of teaching a truly integrated curriculum. For example, classical
literature can be used to teach history and language arts. One does not
need to have a specific course designed solely around reading classical
literature. It can be used in history and writing classes to encourage
higher level thinking skills.
Today it seems that students need to not only
learn from literature, but also understand how it applies to their
lives. Instead of having students read the whole of a "literary
classics", teachers should begin to incorporate newer texts and excerpts
from the classics can teach them the same lessons is becoming vitally
important. Students need to feel they can relate to what they’re
reading; otherwise English and literature teachers will find themselves
losing their audiences. Turning students off from literature is doing
them a disservice, teachers need to ensure that their students cannot
only read but can analyze and question the texts they are reading.
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