Page 150 - Getting of the fence

Chapter 6
Caitlin (School A, 37 years teaching experience)
Caitlin felt that the Comprehensive Approach legitimized her teaching practice (assimilation) because it explicated her somewhat intuitive literature didactics, making it altogether more visible. The awareness she gained increased her confidence when teaching literature and she felt more capable to explain to her students why literature was part of the curriculum. But, most of all, Caitlin experienced the Comprehensive Approach as a confirmation of how she had always taught literature. Caitlin indicated that the Language approach was not part of her regular repertoire and due to lack of time was not really part of her lessons. Despite this experience regarding time spent the Language approach, the Language approach played a part of her literature lessons, albeit small (7% in year 1 and 6% in year 2). Caitlin did indicate that she was more conscious of her use of the target language in year 2. The differences between the time Caitlin spent on the four approaches in year 1 and year 2 was, in fact, small for each of the approaches (average of 3% difference). In both years, about half of her lesson time was spent on the Text approach and a quarter of the time was spent on the Reader approach
Fred (School C, 8 years teaching experience)
Although Fred was convinced about the Comprehensive Approach, which he felt allowed for a strong and integrated curriculum, the most insightful aspect for him was enriching his literature curriculum via learning objectives (assimilation). Even though he was aware of the importance of referring to learning objectives at the start of each lesson already in year 1, he did so consciously in year 2 every single lesson. This way of enriching his lessons had a positive effect on his attitude towards literature teaching in the sense of confidence and ease because he felt he could now really justify his curriculum. Participating in this research project contributed to his inner drive to become a better teacher and to have a more efficient programme. Fred’s focus on structure instead of increasing variety was, not surprisingly, also visible in the time spent on the four approaches: the difference between
148