Appleman Chap. 2

Appleman does a wonderful job of making the reader understand the importance of acknowledging multiple perspectives in teaching literature with the opening vignettes. The activities extend the literature and ask the students to acknowledge others' points of view. These examples resonate with the important idea that there is always more than one way of examining a situation. In other words, there are two sides to every story. This seems like a simple ideology, but it is very difficult to get some students to think outside themselves. I feel as educators, it is our duty to objectively present multiple perspectives with anything we teach--especially literature--because students will inevitably be placed in thousands, millions of situations where considering someone else's position will help them make better decisions. Instead of immediately passing judgment, first realizing why someone may have acted the way they did can be an enlightening experience.

To attempt to answer my question posed in the chapter 1 blog, 'Is explicitly teaching literary theory worthwhile?', I really like the idea of introducing literary theories after discussing multiple perspectives, since in essence, this is what literary theories embody. The handout given in Martha's twelfth-grade AP class that explains characteristics of prominent literary theories (appendix) after the lessons on different perspectives seems like a logical, smooth transition. I was initially uneasy about students experiencing information overload with a handout on literary theories, but whatever happened to holding high expectations? Just making students aware of these theories will help them be prepared to read texts in different ways. Instead, her students would be using them to explore various texts. Additionally, I found it relieving when Appleman asserts that she may go weeks without applying theory, and sometimes it is not until a student implicitly references a theory when she uses it. Any instructional material or strategy which gives students more options to respond/analyze literature can and should be employed; therefore, it is my belief that yes, teaching literary theories can be worthwhile.