BJU Press Blog

teaching literature

The Building Blocks to Teaching Literature

by

teaching literature
If you love reading, you probably get excited about the idea of teaching reading and literature to your children. But literature can be one of the hardest subjects to teach well. The study of literature should open a student’s mind to new cultures, new perspectives, and new ideas. It should give students insight into experiences they aren’t likely to have. And it should challenge students to recognize biblical and unbiblical thinking in what they’re reading. It takes more than just a reading assignment and a list of comprehension questions to accomplish all that.

Teaching Literature with the Terms

Just like with poetry, you’ll need to build a foundation of terms you can use to talk about what your children are reading. Symbolism, satire, and allusion are all tools that writers use to tell their stories. Satire can help readers to reconsider the way they look at the world. Symbolism adds depth and meaning to stories. Allusion adds unity to a literary work by connecting different elements of the story.

Setting the Stage

You’ll also need to set the stage for your children. A writer’s history and family background has a huge influence on his or her literary work. Not only that, but the culture writers live in also affects how and what they write. Perhaps our children’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren will one day study the popularity of dystopian fiction in the late 20th century and early 21st century and what that says about how we think and believe as a culture.

Asking Thinking Questions

Once you’ve equipped your children with the relevant terminology and background, they should really think about what they’ve read. Those questions about who did what in a story are great for determining if your children understood what they read on a surface level, but they don’t get your child thinking about what’s below the surface. Asking what kind of creature Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is isn’t like asking what 499 ÷ 7 is. The math question requires a student to use and apply math skills to show understanding. The literature question only demonstrates recall. As your children progress in reading comprehension, questions should focus less on recall and more on critical thinking development. Focusing on critical thinking questions also helps make reading and literature lessons more interesting.

Confronting Unbiblical Thinking

Sadly, your children will not be able to go their whole lives without reading something that supports an unbiblical worldview. News articles, blogs, and even children’s books will support views you may not agree with—even something innocuous as “it’s ok to tell white lies to not hurt your friend’s feelings.” Those unbiblical concepts won’t be explicitly stated. Your children will need to learn to identify worldview implications so that they can respond appropriately. Studying literature can give your children the perfect opportunity to practice that kind of worldview discernment.

Recognizing God’s Design in Literature

Have you ever read about themes and symbolism in a certain piece of literature and thought “Maybe the author wasn’t thinking that at all”? It’s a tempting—and realistic—thought. As a writer myself, I enjoy using literary tools, but in general, my first priority is telling a good, cohesive story, not burying hidden meanings in what colors I use. But it’s undeniable that there is a unity of design in every work of literature—even if that unity is unintentional or accidental. You can find meaningful symbolism in seemingly random works, and you can trace themes in even the most chaotic literature. No matter how random a work of literature may seem, the image of God in the author—however marred—will come through in the writing. As we’re teaching literature, we can study man’s creative designs, and we can grow to appreciate God’s grand design as the ultimate Creator.

Multicultural Literature Sparks Kingdom Thinking

by

multicultural literature artifacts

Why Should You Teach Multicultural Literature?

We humans can easily get caught up in our own little worlds. This is especially easy to do when life gets busy. However, incorporating multicultural literature into our children’s education is worth the effort because of what it teaches them.

Made in God’s Image

It’s important to teach our children that God made all people in His image (Genesis 1:27). As image-bearers, people from around the world use their gifts to contribute to art and literature, and we can learn from their perspectives.

United in Christ

Additionally, we have brothers and sisters in Christ from around the world! Revelation 7:9 says that “all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb.” Reading multicultural literature provides an opportunity to explain to our children that, even though we may be from different cultures, we still can fellowship with people from around the world and will one day fellowship with them in heaven.

Of course, we can value and learn from multicultural literature even if it is not written by Christians. Knowing that we will share heaven with people from around the world should make us interested in their perspectives.

Bubble Popped, Eyes Opened

Every culture has its strengths and weaknesses that we can learn from. As a junior in high school, I had the opportunity to go on a missions trip to Saint Vincent, an island in the Caribbean. Experiencing the third-world conditions, my little American self felt stretched. But I learned so many valuable lessons from experiencing a different culture.

I experienced the joy of having the connection of Christ with people that I had nothing else in common with. I also learned from the strengths of the island culture. As an American, I was used to structure and time-sensitivity. Yet the island Christians had a good sense of what is ultimately important—people. Timeliness is important, and we should still be conscious of that. But, in the end, people trump time and my agenda. Typically, it’s harder for us to evaluate our own culture since we see it as the norm. But when we contrast it with another culture, it’s easier to separate our cultural traditions from what is actually biblical.

The people there were also thankful for the little things, and was I ever thankful for a bed that didn’t have bugs crawling through it when I got home! In more ways than one, I came back changed: I had a new perspective—a more thankful one. I also had a burden for souls around the world.

Whether you send your child on a missions trip or not, you can still teach them some of these valuable lessons through other people’s literature and art.

How Can You Incorporate Multicultural Literature?

Even if you see the value of incorporating multicultural literature, it may seem like an intimidating goal. BJU Press has taken that stress away by making available excellent resources that can guide your child through diverse literature from a biblical worldview perspective.

I was especially impressed with Excursions in Literature and American Literature. In Excursions, each unit starts out with art from a different culture for your child to evaluate, a biblical worldview summary, and “thinking zones” at the end of each story to promote critical thinking. For example, the first unit is about friends, so the artwork highlights three girlfriends. It was painted by an artist from Trinidad. Your child then evaluates their friendship by observing the art and answering some questions provided in the textbook. Next, your child reads about what friendship is from a biblical perspective, where it originated, and who the ultimate friend is—Christ.

In our American Literature textbook, your child will read excerpts from slaves like Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass to Harlem Renaissance poets including Langston Hughes and Countée Cullen. He will also experience life from Asian American perspectives like Li-Young Lee and Amy Tan and Latino American perspectives like Sandra Cisneros—all in light of a biblical worldview.

The Teacher’s Editions of these books are also extremely valuable in helping you navigate these different cultures. As you embark on this journey of educating your child, BJU Press is committed to supporting you along the way.

Are You Promoting Kingdom Thinking?

As we learn from image-bearers around the world, our perspectives broaden, and we are reminded of what heaven will be like—beautifully diverse and united in Christ.

• • • • •

Stephanie holds a bachelor’s in English education, and her favorite type of literature is multicultural literature. She is passionate about helping people know and defend their faith and is currently working on a master’s in Christian apologetics. In her free time, Stephanie enjoys spending time with her husband, crafting, and reading apologetics books, particularly works by C. S. Lewis.

Literary History: The Missing Links of Literature

by

literary history library
Do you ever feel that, even if your child is doing well in literature, he’s not actually benefiting from it? Literature was always my best subject, but there were many aspects of literature that didn’t always connect for me. I always thought the stories were interesting enough in themselves without all the historical detail. Most discussions about literary history seemed to come from the dustiest and most disused corners of the library.

It’s easy to unintentionally let literature become an island subject. Math almost demands a constant connection to reality, and science and history don’t exist without the real world. But for readers and nonreaders alike, literature can seem like a complete subject with just the stories themselves.

But literature means much more when you understand who the author is and where he or she is coming from.

Understanding Literary History Deepens Meaning

For example, take Jack London. Though London is better known for his novels Call of the Wild and White Fang, your child will study his short story “The Law of Life” in American Literature. In “The Law of Life,” the story follows Koskoosh, an old man who accepts that it’s his time to die. He can no longer contribute to his tribe, so he passively waits for the end. His tribe always leaves the elders behind to die.

I’ve never liked London’s writing because everyone always seems to die, even the dogs. But your perspective on London’s writing changes when you approach it knowing some important history.

London worked hard his whole life, whether he was writing or working in a factory. But no matter what he did, he found little success. His best-known works are all from this period of his life. His efforts to raise himself above the station of his birth largely failed for much of his life. He finally began publishing in leading magazines in the early 1900s. London lived during the height of the progressive movement in the United States and when On the Origin of Species was gaining ground in academic communities. As a result, Darwinism and the beginnings of the American socialist movement were big influences on him.

Knowing these facts, the meaning of “The Law of Life” changes subtly. It’s not just a simple story about an old man giving in to death. Instead, it becomes a statement about how a man, as little more than an animal himself, should accept the inevitability of his death. He once was able to live and contribute, but since he is no longer able, he has no purpose. He must die.

Countering Literary Ideologies Sharpens Thinking

Literature is an ideal vehicle for teaching beliefs. In a story, the author gets to tell everything from one side, and it all makes sense. But without an understanding of literary history, a child may not always see the truth about what he’s reading. After all, from a certain point of view, London’s beliefs about life and death make sense. You should replace a tool once it’s broken or too old to work, shouldn’t you? Animals are often put to sleep once they become too old and sick, aren’t they?

Looking at literature from a historical perspective gives you an opportunity to discuss many of the beliefs that authors have poured into their writings. Once your child is able to recognize the false beliefs that contribute to an idea, he should also learn how to counter them from a correct biblical worldview. Our response to Jack London’s beliefs could be to point out that people are neither tools nor animals. God cherishes the souls of His image-bearers, no matter what they’re physically capable of.

If your child learns to make connections between authors and their backgrounds and beliefs and learns how to assess the beliefs he encounters, he’ll be better equipped to face similar issues in other media, such as movies, TV shows, and even music.