Narrative, narratives and point of view: notes for an explicit teaching of literature

Abstract

This paper presents a proposal to teach literature based on explicit teaching as a way to provide more effective learning for modern foreign languages students who have difficulties in reading and writing as well as little practice in reading literary texts. Initially, the proposal is aimed at college education, but it can also be adopted at all levels. It has shown positive results for children, youth and adults, especially for those with learning difficulties, as demonstrated by recent works of Steve Bissonnette, Clermont Gauthier and other researchers. Focused on the teacher, it does not depend on great changes in school environments or any additional investments. Based on the discoveries of cognitive psychology made since the 1950s, it can be an answer to Brazilian students’ limitations in the field of reading, which were evidenced by the most recent results of the Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa), part of which is presented in this paper. The paper is divided in two parts. The first one presents a contextualization of the current situation of the teaching of literature, by tracing a brief history of Western education, as well as of the place of literature in schools since Classical Antiquity. In the second part, it presents the first stage of what a class based on explicit teaching would be like. It presents the preparation phase, with emphasis on the appropriation of the necessary content (theories of point of view), as well as a brief script of a class, which includes activities that respect learners’ working memory. As a way of developing students’ critical sense, students are encouraged to relate the class content (the short story “The house of Astérion”, by Jorge Luis Borges, and the narrative category of point of view) to the popular notion of narrative in the way it has been disseminated in social media, thus bringing the study of literature and the students' daily experience closer together.