The ‘Text and Activities’ method is the most common approach to using fiction and poetry in the classroom. It is low tech in that all we really need are words on a page, but that conceals a problem for many teachers. Where can we find appropriate texts and what about issues of copyright and authorial permission? Once we’ve located the texts, and got permission to use them, how can we best exploit them, especially if our students are reluctant readers?

Finding appropriate texts

It isn’t too difficult to find access to short stories and poetry on-line, especially classics which have passed beyond the copyright date. These are easy to find simply by googling.

Go contemporary

There is a compelling case, however, to use contemporary short stories rather than classics, especially if the purpose is language teaching. Contemporary short stories use, rather obviously, contemporary language (classics frequently present daunting lexis that is of little practical use to the language learner) and are frequently set in environments or deal with situations recognizable to young readers.

Using the Texts

If there is one rule that you should remember about using short stories or poetry in the classroom it is: prepare the students first. It is a sad fact that far too many teachers hand over the selected text to their students without any preparation, and instruct them to read the story/poem for framework. The teacher will then be heard complaining in the staff room the following week that half of the students clearly hadn’t read the set text at all. What a surprise. Most of the students would probably have been unmotivated to read, if not, resentful. You only need to cast your mind back to your own school days to remember your own reaction to receiving a seemingly arbitrary text to read.

One of the purposes of preparing the students, therefore, is to provide a background for the reading to take place. In an ideal situation, the preparation would help motivate the student to want to read, and  a bit of creative imagination would be required here (many people forget that creative reading is important as creative writing). While some publishers provide useful follow up material to reading stories, few- if any- provide much in the way of pre-reading activities.

By: Carla Mae M. Soriano