Voice notes, 1

I have decided to try something new. When I get one of my inspirative moments, when the muse hath descended and left a spoor of golden brilliance, instead of grabbing pen and paper and using one to write on the other (details are hazy) I tried a voice transcription. Now I just have to go back to the spoken word vomit that I had my phone type up, polish the grammar and, boom, blog post.

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I'm a high school English teacher I struggle with how to teach novels. Many older teachers preferred to teach chapter by chapter and they passed this along to the teachers they mentor assigning students a chapter or two chapters with a quiz and then a pause while students discuss what has happened and what might happen in the future I believe that this might have been a valid and useful tool for two reasons if you go back far enough. I can't support any of this but here's my thought reason number one in the olden days of old back when everything was old and America was young and some things were new not everybody had the book so the book probably had to be broken up and chapters passed around until everybody had a chance to read it then another one could be passed around while groups know what's going on and develop ideas some are still waiting to get it and then they get the ideas that are more fully flushed out after they read it informed by the discussion of their peers and it cycles and more people can be involved in Reading different stages of the book at different paces that's just a crazy Theory but that's not really what I think is going on here I think that in the past reading only bit by bit was a way teachers used to keep students in suspense when they had no other way of having access to the resolution of plot points. Now it's so easy to get the entire story so quickly asking students to read bit by bit is useless because they just as quickly can look up the entire story summarized for them by chat GPT So reading little by little was a great technique when the kids had no other way of finding out what happens in the story no internet not even necessarily any radio or TV if you go back far enough all they had was the opportunity to read and that time might be very limited so have them read one chapter you can have a great discussion about one chapter and then people can read the next and they'll be excited excited because there's no other way that they're learning how this story turns out now students can get anything anytime they want it so teachers can't be concerned with building suspense by withholding information from students nothing is withheld they can find out anything you said and stuff you didn't say also.

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ok, I need to work on dictating punctuation. I shall now rework this -- isn't process grand?

I'm a high school English teacher and I struggle with how to teach novels.

Many older teachers preferred to teach chapter by chapter, and they pass this along to the teachers they mentor, assigning students a chapter or two chapters followed by a quiz and then a pause while students discuss what has happened and what might happen in the future.

I believe that this might have been a valid and useful tool for two reasons if you go back far enough. I can't support any of this but here's my thought:

1. Reason number one -- in the olden days of old back when everything was old and America was young and some things were new, not everybody had the book so the book probably had to be broken up and chapters passed around until everybody had a chance to read it.  Then another section could be passed around; while groups know what's going on and develop ideas some are still waiting to get it and then they get the ideas that are more fully flushed out after they read it informed by the discussion of their peers. It cycles and more people can be involved in discussions as they read different stages of the book at different paces. That's just a crazy theory but that's not really what I think is going on here.

2. I think that in the past reading only bit by bit was a way teachers used to keep students in suspense because students had no other way of having access to the resolution of plot points. Now it's so easy to get the entire story so quickly that asking students to read bit by bit is useless! They can, just as quickly, look up the entire story or have it summarized for them by chat GPT. Reading little by little was a great technique when the kids had no other way of finding out what happens in the story: no internet, not even necessarily any radio or TV, if you go back far enough. All they had was the opportunity to read and even that time might be very limited, so by having them read one chapter you can have a great discussion about one chapter and then people can read the next and they'll be excited - excited because there's no other way for them to learn how this story turns out.

Now students can get anything anytime they want it, so teachers can't be concerned with building suspense by withholding information from students. Nothing is withheld; they can find out anything you said and stuff you didn't say also.