My main goal as a teacher is to motivate my students to be life-long learners. I want my students to enjoy learning, and to seek answers to their own questions. I will do this by providing them with enjoyable learning experiences and "real-life" activities. As Leila Christenbury, author of Making the Journey: Being and Becoming A Teacher of English Language Arts states, they need to learn the knowledge, then use it. My classroom will be like a studio where we are all teaching each other and learning from each other. The students have as much to teach me as I have to teach them. I plan on assessing the individual needs of my students every year and adjusting my curriculum to fulfill those to the best of my ability.
Reading is one of the most important skills that we can teach a student, because it affects almost every aspect of life in our society. Students need to be able to read a contract so they will not be taken advantage of. They need to read the ingredients on a food item so they know if it is safe for them. Students need to know how to read so they will be informed citizens of this country.
Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, author of You Gotta BE the Book: Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with Adolescents, discusses three dimensions of reading. They are the evocative dimension, which deals with visualizing the story world; the connective dimension, which deals with connecting the text to your life and other texts; and the reflective dimension, which deals with critiquing the book and reflecting on the ideas introduced. Wilhelm states, "none of the less engaged readers ever responded on the connective or reflective response dimensions unless they had first fully evoked and experienced the world of the story" (144). As a teacher, I want to make sure my students are fully able to experience the evocative dimension. In his book, Wilhelm explores the common characteristics and strategies of engaged readers and discusses how he can help unengaged readers become engaged.
In his study, Wilhelm discovered that engaged readers make predictions, fill in gaps, infer and elaborate characters, take on multiple perspectives and shift between them, "see" the story world in their head, connect the story to other texts, connect the story to their own lives, recognize the role of the author, recognize their role as the reader, and interrogate texts. I find that I do these things without even thinking about it. However, I must remember that some students don't know how to do this, and therefore find reading to be a chore. Much of this attitude comes from the emphasis on phonics instead of whole language in our elementary classrooms. My job is to help students enter the story and have an enjoyable experience reading, so that it may become a life-long habit.
Three ways that I feel I can help engage students in literature is through theater, art, and writing. I believe that using theater in the English classroom is very beneficial. Theater is a great way to teach students life skills of communication, empathy, collaboration, and critical thinking. Theater can be used to help unengaged readers enter a book, and therefore be able to move beyond the text to greater understanding and appreciation of literature. Some possible activities would be acting out a scene (see the story world), creating a scene that doesn't already exist (fill in the gaps), and a talk show (infer and elaborate on characters). In all of these activities students put themselves into the shoes of one of the characters and see things from that character's perspective. When students are challenged to take on the perspective of a character in a book, they are learning to understand people who are different from themselves. Students also become comfortable with their own body and voice, and learn how to use them effectively. By participating in theater, students learn to work with other students, critique their own and others' work, and reflect on their own actions.
Just as theater is a great way to reach the tactile learners, art is a great way to reach the visual learners. It is not uncommon to find students doodling on their notes during class. I figure I might as well have them draw in a way that helps them enter the story world. Wilhelm discovered that there were some students that didn't get interested in the theater exercises, however they absolutely loved the art activities. Such activities can include drawing the opening scene, symbolic story representation, and visual protocols.
The third way to help students enter the story world is through writing. Writing is a way to help students understand and explore their thoughts about what they read; it is a way to clarify their thoughts, or just record their thoughts. They can write questions they have during reading, and explore aspects of the literature, by writing their personal response or comparing to another piece of literature. Great discussion can happen in groups during class, but the personal response is addressed in the writing. Writing is also a great way to expand on the book. For example, students can write alternative endings. This requires students to know the content of the story very well so they can write an ending that makes sense and fits. They could also write a scene between two characters that isn't included in the book. They can write a letter to a character from another book. These activities let them into the mind of the characters.
Along with being used to help students enter the text and explore the evocative dimension, theater, art, and writing can also be used to explore the connective and reflective dimensions. I agree with Mary L. Warner, author of Winning Ways of Coaching Writing: A Practical Guide for Teaching Writing, when she says, "the integrated language arts classroom targets student's needs and learning styles more readily and effectively than keeping the disciplines of reading and writing distinct" (149). Writing is a way for our student's to enter the literature. Students can journal their thoughts and questions as they read; this will help them formulate their own ideas. Journaling is one of the most basic forms of responding to a piece of literature. Writing helps students connect with and understand the text in a deeper way. As Warner states, "reading shapes writing and writing shapes reading" (148). There are so many different writing activities that can help students enter the text. I will have students write before, during, and after reading the novel. Students can do a writing exercise based on a theme from the book, which will help get them excited about reading it, but also give them a starting point for connecting with the literature. Writing during reading helps students further connect with the piece, and also to gain a deeper understanding of the reading. I would also have the students do a writing project after finishing the reading. This is a way for them to bring everything together and show how we learn from reading. It's good if the "before" and "during" writing lead up to this final project.
I believe that variety in our classrooms is the key. Tchudi & Tchudi, authors of The English Language Arts Handbook: Classroom Strategies For Teachers describe the reading/writing classroom as "operating with a balance among whole-class discussions, small group exploration, and individual reading" (98). As Tchudi & Tchudi describe, the goal of the reading/literature classroom is to "lead students towards individual competence" (102). I want to allow students the opportunity to read individually, discuss literature in small groups, and to discuss literature as a whole class. In each of these activities I want to include writing. As Tchudi & Tchudi say, "using writing before, during, and after reading helps students become active readers" (104).
I believe a big part in helping students to become life-long readers is to set them up for good experiences in reading. As Tchudi & Tchudi say, "a good experience with one book helps pave the way for success with the next" (104). When I give students choices in, not only what they read, but also how they write about it, they become invested in their work, and will enjoy themselves. I do not want to have students think they must dissect every book past boredom. Tchudi & Tchudi also state that teachers should "let literary matters [i.e. plot, theme, characters, setting] emerge through student responses" (99). Not every book needs to be used to teach every literary technique. Some books lend themselves to a discussion about a particular technique better than others.
I am also in support of working across the curriculum. I plan to work with the other teachers at my school to create cross-curricular projects. These could be as simple as me suggesting an activity they could do that would go along with their lesson, to doing a joint project that the students work on in both classes. Any way that I can combine subject areas and reduce the line between them is very beneficial to my students. Life is not divided into subject areas and learning shouldn't be either. The students should learn about history in their theater class, science in their history class, and all subjects in their English class. Working in collaboration with the other faculty is one of the best things teachers can do for their students.
Just as I often blur the lines between subject areas, I would say I blur the lines of literature. In today's society, information is abundant. Journal and magazine articles are very useful sources of literature that I can bring in to my classroom. Comic books are also literature that could entice visual learners to want to read. I want my students to see the resources that are surrounding them, and take advantage of them in the classroom setting. The literature that I bring in to my classroom is a way for me to expand the minds of my students. That is why I want to include traditional literature from the official literary cannon, and marginal writing that is not seen as often. I think that literature is a way to discover what was important to a society during a specific time period, and also looking at whose voices were more readily listened to. Reading the stories of the Indigenous peoples of the world is a great way to explore the idea of colonization and the right to be a unique culture. Connecting to and reflecting on these stories will help students become aware of the wrongs done to Indigenous peoples even today. I would also use literature to explore the issue of racial discrimination. As far as traditional literature is concerned I want to cover texts that may be difficult for a student to pick up on their own. I can use the classroom as a way for them to be able to read literature that is slightly too difficult. One example of this is Shakespeare. Shakespeare uses a language that takes repeated exposure to get used to. Students will gain a better understanding of the literature by discussing the plays in class, doing theater, art, and writing exercises, and possibly watching the movie.
I agree with Wilhelm that reading is a transaction between the text, the reader, and the author. I want my students to also see that and be able to interrogate the text and question the author. This is why I would have open discussions about the use of language and/or racial slurs in a novel. Students would discuss if the use was appropriate or not, and what the language tells about the characters, author, etc. I agree with Leila Christenbury that the classroom should be a place where students argue, question, challenge, comment, and observe. The literature I decide to include in my classroom cannon would be carefully planned and purposeful. I believe that with each piece of writing, each student will come away with a different personal reaction; however, I can still accomplish an overarching goal.

Bibliography:
Christenbury, Leila. Making the Journey: Being and Becoming A Teacher of English
Language Arts. 2nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000.

Tchudi, Stephen and Susan. The English Language Arts Handbook: Classroom Strategies
For Teachers. 2nd ed. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999.

Warner, Mary L. Winning Ways of Coaching Writing: A Practical Guide for Teaching
Writing. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2001

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. You Gotta BE the Book: Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading
with Adolescents. New York, Teachers College Press, 1997.