After Romania, Wales and Belgium, Betwyll reaches Sweden for a new pilot project with a secondary school in Ronneby.
Studying English literature through social reading
In mid-January we will test the TwLetteratura method in Southern Sweden with a pilot project on Betwyll led by prof. Åsa Direnius, English teacher at Gymnasieskolan Knut Hahn in Ronneby. We took the chance to interview her about the project idea and the texts her students will read and comment on.
Why did you choose to try a social reading experiment in your classes?
Reading literature, especially classical literature, is something many of our students struggle with and as a teacher it is very challenging to find ways to motivate them to read for true understanding – not simply reading to be finished with it. Through this project with Betwyll we aim to find a way to make reading enjoyable for the students and create a place for them to meet and share their experiences of the texts. Students who don’t take up verbal space in the classroom can be active and make their opinions heard and hopefully many interesting discussions will occur.
The texts
Which texts will you work on and why?
We have chosen short stories to increase the possibility of a maintained focus in the student’s reading and the texts by Edgar Allen Poe are stories that many students like which will of course help in the process. To increase variation two additional texts have been chosen, one of which is a sonnet by William Shakespeare. It is a short text, however it opens up for a lot of analysis and discussion about the development of the English language.
Here’s our selection of works:
- The Black Cat | Edgar Allan Poe
- The Tell-Tale Heart | Edgar Allan Poe
- The Selfish Giant | Oscar Wilde
- Sonnet 18 | William Shakespeare
Åsa Direnius – I am an English teacher at Knut Hahn upper secondary school in the small town of Ronneby in the south of Sweden. My career as a teacher started in 2009 and these years have given me the opportunity to meet many young people and to guide them on their way towards adulthood. I work hard to find ways to modernize and simplify both the teaching and the learning that takes place in the classroom as well as outside of school. I truly believe in “a lifetime of learning” and that my job is to teach the students how to achieve that
Betwyll, TwLetteratura’s webapp for social reading is available on the App Store or Google Play.