The Weight of the Words

Since one of the key elements of active learning is to encourage students to work outside the regular class meeting, the better to enable them to work together on assignments when they gather in the classroom, I always want to incorporate a recitation assignment in my literature classes. Many years ago I had students to recite texts in class, almost always poetry, and in part I did this because most students didn’t know how to read poetry out loud (nor probably in their head). They didn’t understand enjambment, for example, and so they would pause every time they reached the margin. I quickly discovered, however, that apart from the intense anxiety a few felt about reading aloud in front of their peers, there were also others who had other reading impediments that it was best not to publicize even with the best of intentions. I abandoned this element quickly.

When learning management systems like Blackboard and Canvas came along, I had an opportunity to restore recitation since these platforms allow students to either upload audio and video files or to record them within the site. More to the point, they were set up so that I would be the sole audience for the recordings, eliminating most of the anxiety or embarrassment. I could no longer spot check recitations, but though not inconsequential, I never considered elocution the most important part of a formal recitation. But this brings up a good point: what are the recitations for?

One of the early lessons I learned as a teacher is not to assume students automatically see the value in everything that we ask them to do. In this case, then, I wanted just a simple statement included in the recitation instructions that offered a reason for the assignment, with its two components. I ask the students first to choose a reading selection from our syllabus, perhaps a few paragraphs of prose or a few stanzas of poetry, to read aloud and record. It should be four to five minutes long, and I recommend that they practice and time themselves first. In addition to their recorded recitation, I ask them to submit a brief interpretation or contextualization of the text they choose to record. I then explain that the objective of this assignment is to accustom them further to close reading and analysis and to appreciate literature as performance. This last point was reinforced for me during a recent round of recitation grading when I came across this student response: "Reading this myself has made me actually feel the weight of the words written in a way I don’t think I would have felt had I not read them out loud."