Author Mentors: Yuri Herrara and Structure

English in the 21st century is a strange beast. For older generations, there will be an awareness that the current subject of English taught in Australia is not the English that was taught 50 (or even 25) years ago. The rise of the new version of English in 1960s and '70s academia, with its focus on culture, contextual elements, and new media, would really only truly be felt in the NSW syllabus circa 2000. 

As someone who finished school in 1997 and then didn't come to teaching until 2010, this shift in the English discipline was a bit of a shock. The English essays I had written in Years 11 and 12 were decidedly formalist - focused on the structural purposes of the text, with the idea that the text was 'closed' and that everything you needed to know could be found within the text alone. Come 2010, The History teacher and Postmodernist in me loved that English had developed into something much more wild - that we can trace contextual elements and examine their impact on the text and audience, and that we can also look at the endless ways in which the same text can be read, or the ways in which the reader brings themselves to the text and reads it differently to their peers. 

But, that said, the English of the 20th century hasn't been replaced by this newer English. The two Englishes live alongside one another in our syllabus; you can see elements of both within the outcomes. You can also see them both within the diverse teaching methods of a powerful workforce of English teachers with their own myriad experience and wisdom. Some English teachers thrive on the idea of alternative readings and context, others prefer examining how a text is constructed and what this means. If you're teaching the bulk of the secondary English syllabus you'd be hard-pressed to completely avoid one side in favour of the other. 

Anyway, my point is that, while Part 1 of this series focused on the author and the role of context in shaping a text, today's entry (Part 2) focuses on the structure of the text. I think it's important that we teach students (without necessarily using fancy words like postmodernism and formalism) that reading and writing is a complex process with different 'ways in'. It works as a form of differentiated practice because some students will react better to a contextual study, whereas others will prefer looking at structural elements.

Structure

The author used for this structure lesson is Yuri Herrera, a really interesting Mexican writer who gained some attention in the 2010s for his novellas. Before looking at an extract from his Romeo & Juliet-inspired text The Transmigration of Bodies, it's useful to prime students by giving them an overview of some of the structures we use when writing. This can be done by checking for understanding with the following activities:

Mechanics. Write a bad example of each of the following:

• Punctuation
• Grammar
• Spelling
• Sentence Structure
• Paragraphs

Techniques. Also called 'literary devices', these are figurative, persuasive, and sound-based techniques used to make an impact on the treader.

• List some examples.

Conventions. The motifs or recurring elements that help the reader identify the type or genre of text.

• Give an example.

Writing Choices. Pick one below and discuss why it's important.

• Word Choice
• Point of View
• Tense
• Themes
• Being conscious of controlling how the reader sees your text

Editing. Pick one of your previous answers and re-write it using one of the methods below.

• Re-reading
• Drafting
• Sharing for feedback
• Using criteria
• Polishing

After these opening activities, have students read an extract from The Transmigration of Bodies and then consider some of the elements that have been used. In particular, ask students to look at its 'mechanics' and techniques by answering the following:

1. Find and highlight the following punctuation: comma, dash, colon, capitalisation of a proper noun. 
2. What reason is each one used for?
3. Explain the impact of the following techniques used by the writer:
1. Repetition of the word 'everyday' three times in one sentence.
2. The irony/dark humour of the line "Occasionally, his teeth fell out."
3. The metaphor "Eyeing (...) with venom."

Authors also used various conventions when writing in their chosen genre. A reader's familiarity with these conventions (also called motifs) allows them to better understand the ideas or style of the story. Have students make notes on three of the motifs featured in the extract (a depressing setting, blood, and a less-than-heroic lead character) and then ask them to identify which of the following genres the text fits into:

• Comedy
• Crime
• Romance
• Science Fiction

The lesson then focuses on writing choices. Herrera has a talent for using verbs in fascinating and memorable ways - ask students to locate the following verbs in the extract:

• Trickled, scamper, cricked, dreaming, managed, fell, buzzing, tethering, attempting, rammed, leaned, sucking, blew. 

Students can then answer the following questions. Some of these break away from a strictly formalist approach but we'll keep that to ourselves.

1. What is the impact of using particular verbs?
2. Whose point of view is the text written from?
3. How does the writer want the reader to think of the main character?
4. How does the writer want the reader to think of the setting?
5. What would you change if you wanted to introduce some more drama in the first paragraph?

The above lesson can be found here in these resources:

• PowerPoint on Structure (this walks students through the lesson step by step).
• Suggested extract.

Acknowledgement: The following material has been adapted and modified specifically for this blog. I would like to acknowledge some of my colleagues - Ashleigh Galea, Lauren Hage, Amra Winter - who also developed some additional material not included here

Authors and Authority

There's a collection of memes that have retained some currency among teenagers these last few years and they're aimed squarely at the not-so-humble English teacher. In the simplest terms, it goes:

AUTHOR: "The curtains were blue"

ENGLISH TEACHER: *Insert analysis that seems over-the-top and ignores the fact that curtains are sometimes just blue*

At some point, sometimes perhaps only on the most symbolic of levels, the English teacher has to do battle with the senior English student as said student asserts that not everything can be analysed from an English standpoint. This debate can be fun and, in a way, plays right into the teacher's hands as it involves students exercising their critical thinking skills and forming independent opinions. In laying groundwork for the Year 11 'Reading to Write' Common Module, however, it also provides an opportunity to talk about something completely different to the merits of metaphor and analysis: the concept of literary authority. 

On this subject, the French semiotician Roland Barthes famously said,

"The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author"

We can use this quote to introduce students to the concepts of post-modernism and literary authority. The idea that an author doesn't get the final say on what they write is a genuinely unsettling question for many students to deal with, and the debates that arise from this can be challenging and disruptive to even the teacher's concept of what English is all about. At the heart of this idea though is something that gets to the very core of our role as teachers...

We teach with the aim of relinquishing our authority as knowledge-holders, and we teach to empower the student to become their own authority on the text. 

This isn't a straight-forward exchange or journey, and the success rate inevitably varies, but if even just one of our students becomes confident and equipped enough to develop a contrary opinion backed by their own judiciously-selected evidence... then this is the apotheosis of teaching, is it not?

Perhaps the quote should be:

"The birth of the student must be at the cost of the death of the teacher"

In engaging teenagers with such a challenging idea it becomes necessary to break it down and develop material that will re-contextualise academic theory within a 21st century adolescent space. I've included a PowerPoint below that went some way towards helping my current Year 11 Advanced English students.

• Slide 1 - Students engage with both sides of the debate via the Roland Barthes quote and one of the previously mentioned memes.
• Slide 2 - Students engage with a popular online meme to break down the idea of looking at a text from multiple points of view. This text, supposedly drawn by a young child, gives a straightforward account of a young student's current home life. In isolation, the text can be viewed as an authentic example of the unreliable narrator - a storyteller who is unwilling or unable to relate the reality of the events around them. The point here is that students are asked to consider four separate ways of 'reading' the text; the ultimate goal being to disrupt/challenge the concept of the author having ultimate authority over the meaning of the text. 
• Slide 3 - Examine a range of statements that reposition the concept of authority and authorship. Students are then asked to assign each statement a score based on how much they are in agreement with it. The class can then decide (argue) over the placement of each statement on a line that shows a spectrum of agreement/non-agreement. [Numeracy in English. Nice!]

Here's the PowerPoint: Authors and Authority.