Ideas for using ‘Dialogues’ and ‘Stream’: First Literature Lessons and Teaching the Technical Language of Literature

I video tutorial “Ideas for Using ‘Dialogues’ and ‘Stream’ ” sono stati creati come guida per l’insegnamento della letteratura inglese – a partire dal corso Dialogues di D. J. Ellis e B. De Luca, Loescher, 2024 –, con l’intento di alimentare il dialogo tra autore del libro di testo e insegnante, tra insegnante e insegnante, tra insegnante e studenti.

Il Tutorial 1, “Ideas for First Literature Lessons: Welcome to the Feast”, offre idee su come affrontare in classe le prime lezioni di letteratura. La premessa è una poesia moderna, che apre il tema del perché studiare cultura e letteratura per poi portare al punto di partenza del percorso, un testo classico, Beowulf. L’apprendimento della letteratura è un’esperienza piacevole, alla scoperta di nuovi mondi, passati e presenti, ma anche del proprio mondo interiore.

Il Tutorial 2, “Ideas for Mind-to-Mind Dialogue: Teaching the Technical Language of Literature”, è dedicato all’insegnamento dei generi letterari. Il video parte con una riflessione sugli aspetti più tecnici dell’analisi letteraria e mostra poi i modelli di analisi dei generi (teatro, narrativa e poesia) e come questi strumenti possano essere applicati non solo a un testo specifico ma a qualsiasi testo di quel genere.

Il webinar è tenuto in lingua inglese. Gli altri webinar del ciclo sono disponibili qui.     

English Departments in Italian secondary schools are busy places and, each year, departments with strong, experienced core members see the arrival of newly qualified teachers, as well as those essential supply teachers covering for absent colleagues. Staff within a department are of varied levels of experience, varied teaching styles, and varied areas of interest. What unites us, though, is the willingness to share ideas on good practices. What can be frustrating is finding the time and means to share.

On top of this, the department may be using a newly adopted, up-to date English literature and culture textbook, like Dialogues. As teachers, we are acutely aware of how much more time goes into lesson preparation when we have a new book to explore and get to know.

The video tutorials “Ideas for Using ‘Dialogues’ and ‘Stream’ ” have been created as starting points for teacher development in the field of teaching culture, particularly literature in English. They fill an important gap in materials available for in-service training and intend to initiate or fuel dialogue and interaction between textbook author and teacher, and between teacher and teacher. More experienced teachers will find them useful as material for discussion, while new teachers can use them as a helping hand in their first year of service. For any teacher who has adopted Dialogues, or its companion compact volume, it is a valuable guide to their contents, approach and flexibility.

Ideas for Using ‘Dialogues’ and ‘Stream’: First Literature Lessons and Teaching the Technical Language of Literature form part of a series which, over the upcoming academic year, will cover various arguments ultimately leading up to preparation for the Esame di Stato. The programme of videos will include tutorials on working on an individual author, working on a theme which links a number of authors, enhancing emotional engagement, exploring cultural threads, and preparing for the EdS through cross-curricular workshops.

More specifically, Video Tutorial 1 provides ideas on how to approach the first literature lessons in class. Typically, in year 3, and in line with ministerial guidelines, we introduce literature to the students for the first time. It is a delicate moment, a significant change from what the students have been used to, an unknown, which we want them to embrace, not fear. It is also a big change for us as teachers, shifting with a class from language lessons to literature lessons, and for which we welcome discussion on methodology. The first video is called Ideas for First Literature Lessons: Welcome to the Feast since the idea is for learning about literature and culture to be a pleasurable, ‘gourmet’ experience.

The tutorial examines a possible entry point when we begin to teach literature, before outlining lessons plans for beginning work on a text, using Beowulf in the textbook Dialogues as an example.

The second part of the presentation is dedicated to Ideas for Using ‘Dialogues’ and ‘Stream’  Video Tutorial n. 2. This second video is called Ideas for Mind-to-Mind Dialogue: Teaching the Technical Language of Literature and is focused on teaching the literary genres. It first asks the question whether we need to teach the technicalities of literary analysis: why should we not be reading for pleasure rather than taking texts to pieces?

It then justifies when and why we might choose to do so, explaining what kind of difference it can make to the appreciation of a text if we understand the workmanship that went behind it.

Finally, the majority of the tutorial is given over to showing models for introducing each literary genre: drama, fiction and poetry. It shows how the tools that the students are learning to use can be applied to a specific literary text but can also be generalised to any text of that genre.

Learning the tools of literary analysis will be seen as the cornerstone of the higher-level skills necessary for working in cross-curricular mode in year 5. The teaching and learning pathway of the textbook Dialogues and its companion compact volume, in fact, gradually lead to the acquisition of the competencies necessary to be working across disciplines with depth and confidence.

In both tutorials and throughout the series, we shall be emphasising the flexibility of the materials in Dialogues and its compact companion volume so that any suggestions made can be adapted by teachers to suit their strengths and text preferences. Methodology will work towards active student participation, with the teacher acting as guide, monitor, and road mapper, but, once again, the lesson plan outlines will be flexible and adaptable to different teaching styles.

We look forward to sharing Ideas with you. The whole webinar series is available here.

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