Literary+Theory+Professional+Reflection

Literary Theory was designed to be a study of critical approaches to literary and other texts. During the semester, the focus was primarily on more contemporary theories and the application of those theories to different texts. As an English Education major, I was also asked to "reflect and develop effective teaching practices and strategies" related to the content I taught in school. I took Literary Theory as an undergrad early on in my classes for my English major, and I was more than thrilled to take it again. The first go-around with theory, I was intrigued, but I felt like I was always treading water. As a graduate student, not only did I get to hone my knowledge of the content of literary theory (**Standard 2**) through the completion of abstracts and class discussions, but I also had the opportunity to apply the information that I learned as a student by creating a unit plan based around students using literary theory and write two essays using literary theory to analyze a text. I had never thought of asking my students to use literary theory, but now that I have successfully used it with every group of students I have taught (because of my unit plan), I have encouraged my colleagues to attempt to use literary theory in their classrooms (**Standard 1**). This class also became a spring board for my major assignment in Young Adult Literature, as I was assigned to create a research-based unit that paired a young adult novel with a non-fiction text, all based on a literary theory. Without the direction of my first unit plan revolving around literary theory, I wouldn't have been able to see the value that lies in using literary theory for the "critical reading, writing, and thinking" skills (**Standard 4)** it promotes with students.