AIBU to think she needs to read the book

[Reallynoreading]

A friend of mine is a really hardworking teacher, also the parent of two high needs children. She works really hard but has surprised with with this comment I saw from them.

She are going to be teaching a book to their class soon is watching the film of the book, when asked why not read the book they posted this comment -

Sorry X, I don't really have time to read. I work till midnight doing school work Monday - Thursday and later on Saturday and Sunday. I suppose it could be my Friday night read 😊 Come to think of it, I tried when I was 15 and didn't get very far.

AIBU to think of you are teaching a book (even in primary school) you need to read it your self?

Mostly I feel it’s sad that as a teacher she doesn’t have the time built into her working week to do some basic prep for her lessons, and this is a reflection of how difficult teaching has become and shows why so many are leaving.

She do don't have time to read the book?! I am aghast tbh. I am a full time head of department in a secondary school and I have 2 Youngs dcs. I read 43 books last year.

This is quite a sad comment, really. I don't love Chaucer, I don't love Tennessee Williams. I teach both well, but is it necessary for me to love them in order that my students might love them? Can't they decide for themselves what they love?

I think it's very, very unlikely. Most especially with Chaucer who's Middle English can be extremely inaccessible to a modern day student. You might teach them well enough to pass an exam with good marks but that's a world away from inspiring genuine enthusiasm. And it would be very rare to inspire enthusiasm in something that takes hard work with understanding and appreciation as the only reward if you weren't enthusiastic yourself.

So are you saying the only people who should teach a play or book are those who genuinely love it?

Ideally, yes. Kids in school often have to spend months on end working through texts that feel indecipherable. A teacher that loves the text can inspire at least some of the students to love it and the others to understand that while taste is subjective and they don't love it themselves, they can see the appeal to others and appreciate it on that level.

A teacher who doesn't love it might have some success making the text accessible to a rare student who may come to love it but that's tough in a class setting. In a small group or a one to one, without the demands of exam preparation, they can give the student the tools and space to discover their own reaction, which may be to love it. But with so many to teach and specific goals to reach they won't be able to prevent the resentment most of the other students will feel at what they perceive to be a slog to get through to achieve a specific grade or even just a total a waste of their time.

Just to add, I think that actually applies to most subjects but most especially to subjects that feel inaccessible and difficult with no obviously discernible reward other than arbitrarily having to study it for a grade that may bring a seemingly unrelated reward. Shakespeare and Chaucer definitely fall into that category Williams.

It’s a Shakespeare play.

So there'll be millions of teacher guides out there for her to refer to. It's not like it won't have been done to death.

Given the choice between reading Shakespeare or cribbing from a guide, I know which I'd do....

It's all about priorities...

Pengggwn - if the play is being taught at primary school and thus the teacher is addressing character/theme/plot, etc, then the film is the worst way to do that without textual knowledge to back it up. Even if you’re not presenting the film as a “reading” of the text, you can’t simply present it as synonymous with the text.

Tringley - couldn’t disagree more about having to love the text to teach it. You have to be interested in the ideas it explores/excited by what it’s doing stylistically/ challenged by the reasons you don’t love it and share those with the kids - you just have to generate some interest and challenge. But you absolutely don’t have to uncritically love it.

Otherwise my teaching Donald Trump’s speeches to my LangLit class is going to be a big waste of time. But it won’t be, because I, and they, are excited by challenge they present. But I really don’t love them

She should certainly read the play herself, yes. At the VERY least read a detailed scene by scene synopsis.

How she teaches it should depend on the age/ability of the class.

I wouldn't have even tried to read a full play in its entirety with a Yr 7 or 8 class, there wouldn't be enough time in the term. I'd provide a simplified summary of the text. But I would absolutely use extracts and key scenes, and those would be the focus for assessment. And we'd definitely be looking at language - otherwise what's the point of studying Shakespeare in a literacy setting?!

Yes I am an ex English teacher, how can you tell?!

She could make something of the fact she's not yet read it yet as a discussion point, 'I wonder what will happen with x, do you think the author is setting up y to happen.'

Wow that's reaching a bit.

Tringley. You do know that teachers don't always get a choice about the texts they teach, right? Mostly it's a case of 'whatever we have enough of in the book cupboard'

You don't have to have a passion for everything you are teaching in primary school. As you teach all subjects, should you love all parts of all subjects you teach?

Throughout the course of a typical day you could be teaching about the Rosetta stone in topic (ancient Egypt), followed by prime numbers in maths, followed by a PE lesson teaching hockey skills, then electrical circuits in science and finally spend the afternoon analysing extracts from Macbeth in English. Full research taken to teach all of that? No chance! You'd be working every single minute of the day and night. To have a real passion for all that? Absolutely ridiculous.

Primary teachers have a high workload, there's simply no time and a good teacher can fake enthusiasm - that's a large part of the job.

Knowing something so well can cloud your teaching. You can enter into a voyage of discovery WITH the children.

Often experts in specific subjects make poor teachers as they know so much about their specific subject they find it hard to break it down into smaller, more manageable steps that are accessible to young children.

A secondary school English teacher not having read and explored a key text - well that's another thing.

And 'teaching a book' for god's sake - Shakespeare wrote PLAYS. Plays are for performing. Teaching the sequence of events in a Shakespeare play, analysing the language, exploring the characters is how you'd 'teach his book'.

'Basic prep' for lessons is just that - BASIC prep. I'm sure your teacher friend has done basic prep. It's the in depth prep there's simple no time for- unless you're in a secondary school. You have to cut corners, find short cuts; the primary curriculum is huge.

...speaking as an ex-teacher, very happily an ex-teacher.

Blah!
Sounds like she'll only be providing an overview to the kids.
Ideally, yes, read the book.
However, googling a full synopsis and key points of the story or buying a Cliff notes text should be sufficient.

Pengggwyn

So Year 5 are shown Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo and Juliet by a teacher who’s never read the play and...what? Romeo and Juliet, the play by Shakespeare, is set in an American city called Verona Beach, and everyone shoots each other with guns and the best bit is when the petrol station catches fire?

I genuinely don’t see what you’re saying is the alternative to (a) this is the story of Romeo and Juliet in this film; look at Friar Lawrence’s amazing tattoo or (b) this is a film version of Romeo and Juliet where the director has made some changes to the original story; let’s think about why he made them. Which actually, primary school kids are probaly more than capable of coping with.

I don't love everything that I teach. I'm very honest with the kids about that; I think it's really important that they understand you won't like ALL literature, but there is something you will probably love out there. When I teach something I may dislike glares at the poetry anthology in the corner of the roomI use it as a starting point to see what other people make love about it that I don't see.

May love, obviously

@Pengggwn really? I show it to y9!! Not unsuitable at all. It's a 12 rating. I assure you I am very competent.

@Pengggwn oh sorry I just realised you said 10 and 11 yo not y10/11!