撰写Recently, I like to watch the writers’ writing talks. The creative psychology and writing methods they talked about are very enlightening to the text interpretation in Chinese teaching. Novelists create characters, although they have the right to outline the characters, but in fact, in the process of writing, the characters they write have their own will, and the fate of the characters is not entirely in the hands of the writers.
The same is true of education and teaching, which should follow the laws of education and teaching rather than the teachers’ own will. When I write, the first draft is often a stroke of the pen, focusing on recording thinking; The second draft adjusts the structural framework and theme angle; Only the third draft can polish sentences and correct words. The advantage of this writing experience is that it can guide students’ exercises from the writer’s point of view, and it can also interpret the text from the perspective of creative psychology and writing methods. No matter how to instruct or lecture, there is often a discovery that "there is another village".
Writer Lu Yao described his experience at the beginning of writing "Ordinary World" in his essay "Morning Begins at Noon": "The three-day failure mainly lies in the fact that my thoughts were so brave that I wanted to thunder and lightning at the beginning. In fact, for such a large-scale work, which master makes a big fuss at the beginning … Not only should you enter calmly at the beginning, but the general layout of the book should also follow this principle. "
A calm beginning is both a skill and an art, and so is teaching. Classroom lead-in can be a little calmer, gradually enter the main body of the teaching link, and then make waves. If there is a surge of passion from the beginning, what kind of climax will the emotions behind it push? Will 40-minute climax bring aesthetic fatigue and emotional decline? Good teaching should lead thinking to the depths silently, not deliberately.
Reading many famous teachers’ classroom records, I found that their classroom introduction is often dull, and I feel that there is connotation in dullness after careful tasting. Once, when I took my students to an open class, I carefully crafted the lead-in language. Later, I asked myself: Is this how I usually lead in class? If you don’t talk like this at ordinary times and talk like this when you meet an open class, will the students think the teacher is putting on an act? I am ashamed of this thought, and then I will go to the public class as usual. The effect is not discounted, but it is smoother because it is true and natural.
I still remember that when I made a report as a academic leader that year, because of my ordinary image and few words, I was not concerned at first. During the presentation, my Mandarin was accurate and fluent, and the contents of the workshop were rich and unique. Many teachers raised their heads to listen attentively and gave a knowing smile. After the meeting, many colleagues called me a "small universe explosion". Perhaps, this is the effect of being plain first and then stunning, which leaves a deeper impression on people.
The writer’s creation and teaching methods are similar to the principle of being a man. The still water is deep, and sometimes the inner waves stir people’s hearts longer and more powerfully.
Yang Zhijun, a writer who won the 11th Mao Dun Literature Prize for Snow Mountain, once said, "I know that the literary obligation in this life is to build the ideal of’ human’ and the human coordinates of life and death, honor and disgrace, beauty and ugliness, love and hate." When I read this passage, I was teaching the classical Chinese Biography of Qu Yuan, Biography of Su Wu and On the Qin Dynasty. Aren’t Sima Qian, Qu Yuan, Jia Yi and Su Wu just building their ideals about human beings? Their mental state and life choices in the face of the conflict between ideal and reality are not only monuments in the long history, but also giants in literary aesthetics. To this end, I set "the echo of history and the ideal of’ man’" as the humanistic theme of unit teaching, to guide students to think about the topic of the meaning of life in the historical and cultural context, and to cultivate students’ thinking ability and aesthetic ability.
A responsible writer must have his own creative pursuit, that is, "literary obligation in this life." Similarly, a responsible teacher should also have his own educational and teaching pursuit-the educational obligation in this life. With the help of literature, I am willing to work hard to cultivate a complete and ideal person.
(The author is a middle school affiliated to Northwestern Polytechnical University)
China Teachers’ Newspaper, 9th edition, November 29th, 2023.
Author: Liu Ya