HOTT ALIX GENEVIEVE
LMA IV
CRITICAL THEORY
DR. AYUK AKO
TOPIC
Theory based literature teaching in Secondary and High schools.
Theory is a set of principles use to analyze and interpret texts. The new pedagogic strategies enhance purposeful teaching, textual perspectives and objectivity. Thus theory based literature in secondary and high schools is very important as it widens the student ways of thinking. Our discussion will be focused on the student critical way of thinking and the teacher’s role as an initiator and a guide.
Theory based literature teaching in secondary and high school is a necessary tool for text interpretation. These theories help a student to develop a critical way of thinking. A student can answer a question following a certain theory unconsciously, not knowing he made reference to a particular theory. For example: in Chaucer’s The General Prologue and Canterbury Tales, a student who does not see the Wife of Bath as a prostitute but as a powerful woman is using the New Historicist theory or the post modernist theory unconsciously. Therefore teaching should be taught according to changing time, student have to give their own opinions. From the reader’s response theory the teacher knows the type of theory the student uses to give his point of view. For example the asking of technical question to students and from their various responses, a teacher can judge or know the type of theory the student is using. This will help him to assess the students and know those that have a high intelligence quotient. This type of teaching demystifies the old role of teaching where the teacher is the master of knowledge and redefines the teacher’s new role as initiator, moderator, and a guide.
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