How is Literature Valuable to You?

              This article made a lot of points about literature, and how to assess it that I haven’t considered yet, since I am not currently student teaching. I thought it was very interesting that the article mentions that we as teachers are evaluating the students’ performance based on what we value in their ability to understand and produce literature in our class.

In assessment classes I have taken in the past it was mentioned that we as the teacher get to decide how we assess or even what we choose to assess. This article made that stand out to me more in a meaningful way that I have not considered, what I value. How do I want my students to learn, and how do I want them to show me that they have learned those intended objectives, and met the goals of the class? I am a firm believer in not giving traditional tests in the English class that I want to teach. I don’t think that literature is something that is black and white, even though it is written in it. (literature humor) Subjects like math and science allow you to find the correct answer, the definite solution. English does not have that privilege, there is always going to be another opinion, a different perspective, or a different world that the text lives in. I think that’s why so many of us are so passionate about the subject, because we like to see things through different lenses, we like to argue our point of view until we have made our point crystal clear, because English is unlike any other subject, there is not a correct way to read a piece of literature, just like there is no correct way a piece of literature can make you feel.

Trying to come up with testing methods that allow for so much creative freedom can be difficult. Trying not to squander the student’s ability to write or show how they feel, while also creating an effective and efficient assessment can be tricky on our part. I am a big fan of testing methods like discussions, group and individual presentations, essays even though most students cringe at the word, mind maps, or verbal book reports. There is so much room to be creative in all modes of testing, and I think that giving students more creative freedom is critical when they are evaluating literature, and when we evaluate them.