If a student sees the word “literature” on his course description he is probably going to let out a big groan that signals his fear of boredom and difficulty understanding what he is reading. It doesn’t have to be this way. Even though much of the literature that students are introduced to comes from another place and time, it was still produced by a person with a real and interesting life. Make literature fun by making authors human. Basically, put a little drama into the historical part of the lesson.
Most of us don’t learn the juicy parts of the great writers’ lives until we get into college, or maybe even graduate school. Then we sit on the information and don’t pass it along to the kids who hate our classes. If a teacher wants reading, and especially reading literature, to be fun, pass along some juicy, intimate and emotional details about the author. No one writes a great novel from a cold, impersonal place. There’s some kind of profound inspiration there, and there’s a human being who experienced it. Share that. Talk about William Faulkner’s drinking problem. Talk about his personal downfalls and fragilities. Have a gossip session over the lives of the authors of the Lost Generation. The literature will come alive.
Give your students research projects and have them dish the dirt on an assigned literary giant. Take this opportunity to transport the students back to the society and culture of the writer’s day. Maybe even have costume contests where the kids dress up as the author or a character from the literature they are currently reading. Keep it fun and they’ll have a different point of view on literature.