"Literature and Society: Creating Thinkers."

The blog post I read today points out some positive solutions for the problems facing literature in the classroom today. The nerdy teacher talks about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and ways to incorporate such a story into modern life. Being as this book was set over a hundred years ago, it might be considered hard to relate to. This, however, is not the case. I recently read this book in my American Literature II class and the class easily found ways to connect it to recent events in our country. The nerdy teacher writes that his highschool class also had no problem linking their lives to it. By asking students to compare things happening around them to things happening in a book, a teacher is setting them up to be more attached and interested in the book. Students always ask "how am I going to use this in real life?" I asked it in highschool. That is why it is important to make sure you connect EVERYTHING you teach in your classroom to something going on in todays society. That will ensure lengthly class discussions and student participation. This rule of thumb can apply to every subject area, not just English/Literature.

You can read this article here.