Tip of the Tongue and Schema

This week I came down with a severe case of "tip of the tongue" syndrome during our reading discussions. While we were discussing the reading process and breaking down how to read, I found myself grasping for words and sentences to explain what I was doing. Yes, I knew that I took what I read and my brain made it make sense, but I have been doing that for so long that stopping to actively think about the process was difficult to do.

"Ordeal by Cheque" was a great reading adventure and a good break down of the reading process because it required extended use of one's problem solving skills than some typical texts do. I would like to note that the omission of the purpose line that is usually found on checks was a little frustrating because it would have been a huge help, but that is a digression for another day.

Today we followed up our discussion about the reading process by elaborating on the schema that every person has. Even though this discussion ran a little long, it was a great deal of fun. I was excited to learn more about this topic that had been briefly touched on in some of my other courses.

When I think of schema, I think of a bunch of secretaries running around trying to file everything that my brain sees. I do this partially because that is similar to what's actually happening in my brain and partially because the image is funny.

However, we talked a great deal about how our brains synthesize information and assimilate or accommodate the things that we learn. This is all fine and good, but I wonder if perhaps this information should be something that we share with our students. What if, while I'm teaching The Great Gatsby or Looking for Alaska I address the reading process and how students read? It seems that so often we are encouraged to teach our students in this sort of incognito way: teach them literary theory but don't tell them they're using literary theory. Set up lesson plans so your students are participating in the reading process but don't tell them what the process is.

Why?

Why should we not tell our students about literary theory and the reading process? Why should we expect them to be able to read from a marxist or feminist point of view but not ever tell them about how those terms (-ISMS as they are commonly referred to) came to be considered literary theory? Why not tell them about the reading process so they can understand (or, more likely, remember) what it is they're doing when they read?

I do not believe the answers to these questions have anything to do with students not being smart enough to understand what a teacher is teaching them. I believe it has everything to do with shortsightedness and possibly even arrogance of teachers or schools in general. In an article I read for my Discipline of English class, young adult author John Green was interviewed about literature and YA lit in the classroom. One of the things he said about reading and particularly reading the classics (or, perhaps, why adolescents aren't interested in the classics) was that often times adolescents want and need a world that isn't bullshit.

I think this is true of what students also need in their classrooms. English teachers in particular have been pulling the wool over their students eyes about literary theory and the reading process in general for years and I think that in doing so they have alienated a great number of their students. Students know that when a teacher gets up to discuss a text that they are going to throw out some crazy theory and just because the teacher says so and the teacher can kind of back up what she has to say using the text that interpretation becomes the end-all be-all interpretation of the text. Every student who sits in a class where this happens knows it's not realistic.

So why don't we tell our students about some of what goes on behind the veil of teaching? What if we told them about their schema and the reading process? What if we told them about various literary theories (at the high school level, and slowly, because those are a lot to handle from time to time) as they read? What would teachers lose in showing students about themselves and about how they learn?

I am not sure that I have the answers to these questions, but they are something I will consider between now and when I begin teaching (and perhaps even after, if I have not found a solution by then). I do think I would like to share with my students about their schema, though. I think that would be a fair thing to do. Perhaps then, fewer students will struggle with the tips of their tongues.