When my pupils find out that I'm a writer, there is a general air of fascination for a while. They Google my books and ask if they can buy them on Amazon (they can, but - by and large - they don't) and want to know why I need to teach if I'm a published author. The answer is simple, of course: when I'm doing well, I break even as an author, I never make actual money. But recently I've realised that being an English teacher is something I would continue even if I had a sudden jackpot win on the lottery. I love my job. Take today for example: I got to teach Seamus Heaney's Digging to a group of S1s, held a mock trial for Dr Frankenstein with my S3s, read a chapter of The Graveyard Book with my S2s, and - perhaps best of all - began the analysis of M.R. James' A Warning to the Curious with my S4 class. Who wouldn't want that job? I think writers make great English teachers - and editors make even better ones! We are used to spotting little details here an...
Of course, when I volunteered to write a blog for #HistFicThursdays, it was bound to be Gothic-based. All the pupils at school know now that, if they get me for English, they will be studying some Gothic Horror at some point!
I have just taught my first full year of National 5, and the text I selected for the pupils’ Critical Essay (worth 20% of the overall grade) was A Warning to the Curious by the great M. R. James. There are so many fascinating things which can be said about the text: Paxton as a tragic hero; the setting of the First World War and how that is woven in throughout the text; the themes of revenge and respect for beliefs; the many examples of foreshadowing throughout…
But teaching a group of teenagers to love (or, more realistically, to understand) M. R. James is not without its challenges. He writes in that wonderfully lyrical style which is key to the Gothic genre and, even for his time, he was using language which was perhaps slightly old-fashioned. Therefore, some of the language can be slightly challenging.
I knew I wanted the pupils to access the text as easily as possible, so I decided that the best way to do that was to read it to them, rather than expect them to read it themselves at the introduction. However, I do have a tendency to lose my voice during the day’s teaching, so I turned to audiobooks instead. Fortunately, there is a wonderful audiobook version of A Warning to the Curious, recorded by the eternally-lovely Michael Horden. His bumbling-English-gent voice makes sense of the complicated language in A Warning to the Curious, making it sound as though the language belongs to the everyday.
Another class studied The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe. I applied the same rule, and this time found a recording by one of my heroes: Sir Christopher Lee. What could be better than listening to one of Poe’s classic tales being told by another master of the horror genre?
In both instances, I found the pupils benefitted from the audiobooks. It may not be entirely accurate to say that every one of them enjoyed the stories (it is impossible to please everyone!) but their understanding was aided by hearing the story told aloud in a voice which they could believe belonged to the narrator.
And audiobooks are not just great for school. I spent a happy early-morning lying in bed one Saturday listening to the recordings of Rats and Wailing Well which were (quite recently) created for the BBC. Audiobooks are convenient and accessible, but they also help to create the characters themselves and bring the author’s vision to life. And there are some truly wonderful recordings of some of the most classic tales to have been part of English Literature.
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