The role of the teacher in the Literature class
Samuel Johnson (in J. Boswell, 1791): ‘It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them. There must be an external impulse’. You have a class tomorrow, and on the schedule it says that it’s a literature class – it’s part of the curriculum, and those lessons were decided upon within the English department (or whichever language you teach, of course). The thing is, you’re not quite sure what your role is going to be: guide? Explorer? Facilitator? Explainer? All-knowing, tentative, free-wheeling, directive? Impulse-giver, as Johnson says? And should you have additional activities, say, written expression, or speaking, perhaps a bit of grammar thrown into the mix? Some history, too, and a bit of culture? Or is it just about the act of reading, whatever the outcome? Well, and what about the set-up of the learners? In groups (of 3, of 4), individually, in pa