How Can English Teachers Make Class More "real" For Students?

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Uncle Roy mounted two old saddles on the cultivator, strapped Tommy and me in, signaled the mule to begin, and we became Breitling Replica rodeo hands breaking the back of the sod. Mule manure smelled pungent on disk tines, rows of soil formed in front as we bucked that bronco backwards.

Our faces smiled through masks of sweat and mud, our muscles jarred into spasms, our voices hoarse from yelling. The sun counted down the afternoon; crows crossed above dust clouds, buzzards wound a coil in the sky, soil loosened its muster, smooth enough for sowing. Uncle Roy, dead this week at ninety-two, Tommy and me too old and soft for plowing, the sun still counting.
— Bill Brown

Bill Brown teaches at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. His recent work appears in English Journal, Tennessee English Journal, Appalachian Journal, Prairie Schooner, Connecticut Review, The Texas Poetry Review, Poem, Atlanta Review, and Bayou. His new long collection, Late Winter, was released by Iris Press in March 2008.

To most students, ...
... English is a subject that seems boring and unrealistic. Making seemingly boring things more exciting can help make English more real. Although English teachers are required to follow a curriculum, there are still ways to add personality and exuberance to their teaching styles.

One of the dullest assignments in English class is writing cover letters and resumes. The traditional way of doing this is simply writing the paper, passing it in, and getting a grade on your grammar and punctuation. A good way to make this more real would be for teachers to pair students together, and have them play out a scenario where one would be the interviewer and one would be the interviewee. Oral skills and knowing how to do an interview are important to obtaining a job in the real world.

Another boring, unreal subject in English class is reading Shakespeare plays. A way that teachers could make Shakespeare more real would be to take students to an actual play. This would help students make sense of Shakespearean language. Also, teachers could get students to act out scenes from the play themselves. That would put students in the footsteps of characters from the play.

Whether writing resumes or reading plays, students will always have something to complain about. They think that the things they do in English class are unnecessary, and that they will never have to use them again Cartier Pasha Replica in the "real" world. What students don't realize is that we use what we learn in English class every day: when we're applying for a job, doing an interview, reading a book, or even watching a movie. Although they seem boring and pointless at the time, we will carry the things we learn in English class with us for the rest of our lives. All it takes is an interesting teacher with exciting and realistic teaching abilities to help students apply English class to the "real" world around them.