How to prepare for teaching new texts?

You don’t mean working over the summer, do you?

I know- time is a teacher’s currency and once we’ve tasted freedom each July it can be pretty hard to hit a productive groove before September. And yet…

As teachers of text-based courses, we can’t rely on rehashing the same content yearly- and who would want to? The ‘text turnover’ is a golden opportunity: here are some suggestions to help maximise it.

1. Begin with something lightweight

Where would you begin if you weren’t a Classics teacher?

In Our Time podcast?

Robert Harris?

Edith Hall?

The British Museum?

Visit the Let’s talk Classics… menu on the homepage and browse the write-ups of everything consumable in the world of Classics today.

2. Scrap your old notes

A colleague once gave me two ‘pearls’ to bear in mind when teaching texts. The first was to throw away old notes at the end of each year- annotations, summaries etc.- in order to re-discover the text and think freshly about its content.

As a new teacher, I nodded along thinking to myself, ‘Definitely don’t do that.’

But actually, it’s been brilliant advice. Stale knowledge isn’t stimulating for anyone, and secondly, if you are (re-)discovering a text as you teach it you are more able to see through the eyes of your pupils. It’s a richer learning experience on both sides and new perspectives will almost certainly pop out.

3. Plan questions, not answers

It’s a confidence-booster, walking in to your first lesson knowing how you’d answer the obvious essay questions. And what’s wrong with that?

• It’s time-consuming
• It can make you rigid, even determined, in outlook
• You’re more likely to spoon-feed
• It’s not as fun as devising good questions
• You won’t respond real-time with the pupils

Keep your eyes peeled for a pending blog post on ‘How to set a good essay question?’

4. Translate one more time, with feeling

The second ‘pearl’ I collected was this: produce in advance a personal definitive translation of the text you are to teach. This means proceeding sentence by sentence, commentary to hand, in order to arrive at the English you and only you feel to be the most appropriate to the meaning. How your pupils will go on to identify and express that meaning is another question.

Why does two days’ work end up taking up a week?

This is the story of every school holiday for me, and it’s definitely fixable. If only I could practise what I preach to my exam classes each Easter…

1. Identify what time and head-space you can spare: stick to it.
2. Prepare actively: setting quizzes, selecting evidence, translating.
3. Team up with someone: share translations, discuss resources.

What priceless advice would you add?

Let’s get the comment board buzzing!