Going deeper

There comes a time in every English class where all the students are assigned a hefty novel to read and not usually one of their choosing. They will spend weeks on that one text, going over the plot and symbolism and every other possible aspect of the story. By the end, the book is exhausted and the whole work is left as a carcass before the students. They know most everything about the text and there is not much left that they haven't studied about the text. After weeks of  this intensive study, only then do the students move on to other shorter texts as time allows. Wanting students to juggle more than the one big text may make the students confused and unable to fully understand both. In freshman English, we spent about 3 weeks reading Romeo and Juliet, acting out the scenes and having class discussions to better understand what was going on through Shakespeare's tough prose. Now, I have to read about five texts ever two weeks including a long text. I find it very difficult to fully appreciate and understand the texts when I have to cram in all of the analysises of all of those texts in short amount of time. I feel that a longer time is needed to understand the meaning of and the beauty of the text.

Until Next Time
Emilie