Teaching Difficult Text in High School
Teaching Difficult Texts in Secondary Schools The following event occurred during my observations at Northwest High School. I must first note that this event happened over a period of time when the teacher I was observing was teaching a unit on Beowulf. Although, I feel this teacher is better than most at what she does, the method she used to teach a difficult text is very traditional and suspect with its effectiveness regarding at-risk students. ... When the students return to school the next day the teacher summarizes their assigned reading, rarely reaching the higher level thinking that goes along with effectively analyzing literature. In teaching what most students find “difficult” texts, it is important to give them a chance to engage in the book before they become disengaged due to the difficulty of the text.