I know how to talk about literature. I know how to write about literature. And I'm beginning to understand how to ask students about literature. But, I struggle with how to point a student toward a correct, deep reading. My brain works in such a random way that I despair of ever translating my process into lesson plans.
Elaine Showalter's Teaching Literature goes a long way to assuage some of my anxieties. I've seen how a class works from the student's perspective and Showalter is helping me see the teacher side of it. I'm much more comfortable with the idea of class being a production: staging, costumes, a script. I don't think I want to teach directly from lecture notes, though I know that it is necessary in some cases. I've worked at a theme park for nearly a year now; I can direct and hold the attention of several hundred people at a time. Whether that translates to inspiring students remains to be seen.
