Theory+Through+a+Strategic+Lens

Jessica Leatham (Fall 2010). I did my project on teaching literary theories in the classroom. Although many people feel that teaching theory at a high school level is overwhelming (both for students and for teachers), teaching these theories as reading strategies can help students see their reading from multiple perspectives. Many have suggested that applying literary theory to literature is much like trying on different pairs of glasses. When you look through a pair of green-shaded glasses, suddenly all the green things stand out. When you look through a pair of red glasses, all the red things around you stand out. As teachers, we can teach our students that using different literary theories is like trying on different pairs of glasses--each new lens allows you to see something in the text that was already there before, but was enhanced when you looked at it with a different perspective.