How did someone who disliked and even feared book end up receiving a PhD in English from Stanford? Well according to Gerald Graff, the PhD himself, it is all in the approach. In Graff’s essay “Disliking books” he talks about how as a child he did not enjoy books and felt a disconnect between what he read, and how it related to him. That is until, he read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and had begun having class discussions about the controversy at the end of the book. In this way Graff found a love of literature. It is my belief that Gerald Graff aims to reform the way literature is taught. In many regards that is already being done in lower schools. Though, it has not been implemented as much in upper level classes of high school and college. …show more content…
Every child would get the themes that were presented to them and memorized for a test. The issue is that not every child has that attention span, furthermore this system does not allow the child to reach conclusions on his own. In my classroom children would read ahead, others wouldn’t read at all. As a result, some children would fall behind and others would make leaps forward. Though for some students this might be effective. Truthfully this method allows the student to simply memorize information and spit it back out for a test and severely lacks all critical …show more content…
He too quickly dismisses the idea of reading on your own to find meaning and think critically about a book. For him, Graff states that “It was through exposure to such critical reading and discussion over a period of time that I came to catch the literary bug.” (26) While this may have worked for Graff, not all students will “experience a personal reaction” (27) through the use of critical discussion.
The solution to this seems to be neither giving away answers or lazily doing assigned reading in order to find meaning within the text. The student needs a heathy mix of assigned reading, and classroom help. This is vital, to the education of a student. He must be challenged to arrive at conclusions on his own, but also not left in the dark when he did not get what was asked of him. However, these “wrong answers” that the student came up with, should not be discouraged so quickly
How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C Foster is a how to do book that teaches children how to become better readers. The novel was written in second person. The purpose of this novel is to inform readers on details that they wouldn’t usually realize in literature. Students who read Thomas C Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor are suppose to gain knowledge of how to identify details of their story that have connections to other literature or have alternative meanings that the author is trying to get across to the reader. Thomas C Foster believes reading his novel can help develop you into a better reader. He believes this because the information that he includes can apply to your reading. When you realize the connections he talks about, it gives you a better understanding of the book you are reading.
According to “Hidden Intellectualism”, Gerald Graff says that “ Everyone knows some young person who is impressively “street smart” but does poor in school” ( Gerald Graff 244). He explains that to many people believe that one who is so intelligent in life cannot do well in academic work, and he or she needs spend extra time on his or her school works than things in sports. However, Graff used his own anti-intellectual experience to verify his opinion that street smarts are simply as important as school smarts, and he recommends school should take all these street smarts and apply them into good academic environment. Graff also believes we should allow students read literature or any things they first feel interested, for example “George Orwell, which is a writing on the cultural meanings of penny postcards is infinitely more
...s not solely about rote memorization and the three R's or anything else that can be tested with a bubble sheet test. Learning is about growing as a person and gaining meaningful experiences. This is the type of education students receive from Frederick Douglass.
He explains two different kinds of people in two different neighborhoods from his childhood: “On the one hand, it was necessary to maintain the boundary between “clean-cut” boys like me and working-class “hoods,” as we called them, which meant that it was good to be openly smart in a bookish sort of way. On the other hand, I was desperate for the approval of the hoods, whom I encountered daily on the playing field and in the neighborhood, and for this purpose it was not at all good to be book-smart” (266). This backstory he shares reveals not only his past, but it helps to give him a purpose for writing. Based on his personal experiences as a boy with two different kinds of “intellectuals,” he has firsthand seen both kinds of intellectualism in action, so he can easily argue for both sides, creating a complete argument incorporating aspects of each side. Furthermore, he specifically he mentions the terms “clean-cut” boys, and “hoods.” These simple quotes using slang terms from his neighborhood exemplify his situation and brings us back to his childhood, helping the audience visualize the situation he is coming from. Simultaneously, this invokes a reaction in the audience about each distinct term, making the audience think about Graff’s argument in relation to their own thoughts and connotations of each term. Therefore,
In the essay "Disliking Books" the author Gerald Graff explains his disinterest in literature and what helped him overcome it. The author informs us that as a child no books interested him, regardless of genre, time period it was written or author. He states his main issue was an inability to connect with the books presented to him. Even in college the author was unable to find interest in literature, confessing he couldn't even finish reading books he was assigned. This issue persisted until he was told to read Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. At first he was unable to read it in any capacity; until he learned of the controversy over the ending. Graff suddenly took interest upon receiving a topic to think about while reading other than the book
Although the greater picture is that reading is fundamental, the two authors have a few different messages that they seek to communicate to their audiences. “The Joy of Reading and Writing” depicts how reading serves as a mechanism to escape the preconceived notions that constrain several groups of people from establishing themselves and achieving success in their lifetimes. “Reading to Write,” on the other hand, offers a valuable advice to aspiring writers. The author suggests that one has to read, read, and read before he or she can become a writer. Moreover, he holds an interesting opinion concerning mediocre writing. He says, “Every book you pick has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (p.221). Although these two essays differ in their contents and messages, the authors use the same rhetorical mode to write their essays. Both are process analyses, meaning that they develop their main argument and provide justification for it step by step. By employing this technique, the two authors create essays that are thoughtful, well supported, and easy to understand. In addition, Alexie and King both add a little personal touch to their writings as they include personal anecdotes. This has the effect of providing support for their arguments. Although the two essays have fairly different messages, the authors make use of anecdotes and structure their writing in a somewhat similar
Carr is worried. He confesses that he now has difficulty with the simple task of sitting down and reading a book. Absorbing the text is now belaboring, and he finds that his mind drifts off into other realms. Moreover, this phenomenon is not only limited to himself. Bruce Friedman, a pathologist at the University of Michigan Medical School, admits that he “can’t read War and Peace anymore…even a blog post of three or four paragraphs is too much,” (Carr). In addition, Scott Karp, a devoted blogger on online media and literature major, relates that he was an avid reader in college. Sadly, he observes the same trend in his focus as Carr and Friedman. Karp speculates that the loss of focus isn’t so much a change in the way he reads, but in the way he thinks (Carr).
Gerald Graff is a professor of English and Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is highly involved in debates about the current direction of college education. In his essay “Disliking Books,” Graff focuses on using his personal story in order to make a statement about the importance of introducing the arguments over pieces of literature in school. On the other hand, in his essay “Many Voices, Many Rooms,” he uses studies, outside references, and some personal experience in order to express his views about education. In “Other Voices, Other Rooms,” he outlines the need for teachers to connect their topics with other subjects and the outside world so that students not only retain information, but also understand the subject
...more involved with the reading in this course, I understand the political undertones, religious themes, and the cultural awareness that I need in order to fully comprehend the meaning the authors convey. I believe it will be a challenge, but I will have a new perspective as well as new expectations as I continue reading literary masterpieces.
Developing studying skills that incorporate testing myself will take the ease of being overwhelmed, as well as help with concentration, and becoming more comfortable and confident. Practicing recalling information over time will help in recalling for an actual assessment, by retaking study guides, and creating at home pre-test. 3The information provided by Karpicke and Roediger can me as an educator and other educators by considering various methods of learning. Using test as an instrument of learning rather than solely an assessment on knowledge can be essential in helping students’ learning effectiveness. Since the experiment showed that the learning conditions where retrieval was repeated caused students to have 80% of the pairs recalled compared to the 33% of where retrieval was not practice shows that testing can be used as a tool of learning. In my classroom I would implement take pre-test for homework and/or extra credit assignments, as well as implement classroom activities such as games where testing occurs in a communal group setting. Retrieval is easier when related pieces of information are stored in close association with one another (Ormord p. 212). Therefore, I would have students get in pairs and test each other on the information as soon as the lesson is over as a form of review and test
Graff begins by talking about the educational system, and why it flawed in many ways, but in particular, one: Todays schools overlook the intellectual potential of street smart students, and how shaping lessons to work more readily with how people actually learn, we could develop into something capable of competing with the world. In schools, students are forced to recite and remember dull and subject heavy works in order to prepare them for the future, and for higher education. “We associate the educated life, the life of the mind, too narrowly and exclusively with subjects and texts that we consider inherently weighty and academic. We assume that it’s possible to wax intellectual about Plato, Shakespeare, the French Revolution, and nuclear fission, but not about cars, dating, fashion, sports, TV, or video games.” (Graff, 198-199) In everyday life, students are able to learn and teach themselves something new everyday. It is those students, the “young person who is impressively “street smart” but does poorly in school” (Graff, 198), that we are sweeping away from education and forcing to seek life in places that are generally less successful than those who attend a college or university.
In perspective, Graff’s argument becomes weak with his poor use of ethos, in which he solely focuses on his own anecdote but, through the same means he is able to build his pathos and in the last few paragraphs, with his use of logic he prevents his argument from becoming dismissible. However, through the same means his pathos is built as his anecdote conveys feelings in the audience, making them more willing to listen. Graff, finally, gives a call to action to schools to use students’ interests to develop their skills in rhetoric and analysis, which reveals the logic behind his argument. The topic of how students are taught rhetoric and analysis brings interest, but with an average argument only built on pathos, a low amount of logos, and questionable ethos it can fall on deaf ears.
"Any critical reading of a text will be strengthened by a knowledge of how a text is valued by readers in differing contexts."
Reading great literature often can help a person look outside of themselves more. In Dickens’s famous novel, David Copperfield, David Copperfield overcomes the tremendously trying circumstances of his youth to become an upstanding man, whereas David’s foil in the story, the villainous Uriah Heep, who grew up in a similar circumstances, turns out to be a rotten and self-interested being. David developed resilience and empathy in his early youth through reading. and Uriah did not. David describes his reading as his “only and [his] constant comfort” (Dickens, p. 58.) Through
Assessing student understanding is important but as a teacher you need to provide feedbacks to the students. During my lesson, I allowed the student to ask questions and tried to answer each individual’s answer right away. Since my students are not able to read or write I had to provide feedbacks by verbally.