I found the readings for today pleasantly practical for the classroom.   Throughout reading the first chapter of Textual Interventions I was highlighting ways to use the different exercises.  The idea of looking at things from an alternate perspective and creating something new from the perspective, then comparing the new with the old would create powerful, and interesting, learning.  It’s only been recently that I’ve realized how fluid texts are—this was not something taught to me in my high school or undergraduate education–and I wasn’t bringing this idea to my students.  The “Preludes” chapter offered some practical ways that this would now be possible for me.  I particularly liked the “I think, therefore I am” activity because one of my favorite writing activities for my freshmen was to work with NPR’s “This I Believe” essays and have each of them create a short essay with their life philosophy.  Playing with a statement like “I think, therefore I am,” and the implications of that would be a fascinating way to have students begin to think about their guiding principles.

Although I really enjoyed the “Preludes” chapter, the chapter “Introducing Difficulty” from The Elements (and Pleasures) of Difficulty was even more engaging.  It expresses concisely and clearly the struggle I’ve had with students who believe the difficulty has no place in the classroom.  As the chapter quoted from the OED and J. South “They mistake difficulties for impossiblilities” (2).   Countless students have told me “This is hard,” implying they should not have to complete the task.  They do not consider that perhaps I have intended for the exercise to be hard, have assigned it because it is hard, and want them to wrestle with that difficulty.  I love the idea of doing a “Difficulty Paper,” because it includes students in a discussion who often feel on the fringes of an English class (those who know they have difficulties with understanding a reading) and forces other students to admit that they may have to struggle with certain aspects of a text.

I found chapter eight, “Helping Students Read Difficult Texts” from Engaging Ideas to be the least helpful in what I could do differently in my classroom.  I think the ideas presented are true—students do not know how to read for different purposes and often do not read as effectively or efficiently as they could or should.  But the ideas presented in the end were overwhelming, partly because I have tried using many of them.  They are valuable, and I have found that using them selectively for specific students with difficulties works quite well.  But when I tried to introduce them to all students as helpful measures they reported greater frustration with the reading that they lost any rhythm of the text and any sense of the pleasure of reading disappeared. While I acknowledge that it was my fault because of how I made students use those methods, the long list of them at the chapter’s end was quite reminiscent of a teaching style from which I have moved away.