Never grew up dreaming I would write for a living
WHEN you choose to assist learners you should be prepared for any eventualities like going forward and backwards. You do this to satisfy the learners’ needs. This does not matter whether you assisted the same learner in the immediate past week or a long time ago. I say this because one learner is in a state of panic after having been studying a wrong literature set book and is a couple of months before the final public examinations arrive.
The question is, “What do I do now?” The blame game is in the air which will solve nothing. The ideal solution is for the affected learner and the like to get up and get the right set book. There is still some time even though it seems very short for anything to be done. Obviously, the natural reaction is to panic, but, do not let your brains go into disarray. Relax and grab the correct set book and start reading. Take your time and do not rush. According to experts they stumble those that run fast.
Read the text throughout for the first time in the usual way. Go over it for the second time. In cases where you are fortunate the text gives an introduction, chapter summaries or questions after each chapter, you go over them and you are likely to get the gist or basic meaning of the text. You are already doing a crash programme so make sure you go over those chapter summaries to understand the plot. Thereafter move on and try to understand characters.
All these activities can be done within a short space of time. Faced with such a predicament learners can be helped through provision of extra lessons. This is where extra help is needed unlike when learners engage in extra lessons throughout their junior and senior school levels. As stated earlier on this page, extra lessons are unnecessary to some learners except that they enjoy being out avoiding household chores.
Being caught up in unfortunate circumstances as stated above should not be an excuse for a poor performance in the examinations because it is now a change of text only. The methods of studying the text have not changed except where the learner needs to be reminded the basics. My assumption is that at this juncture you have learnt how to write about a long text in detail and as a whole. You have learnt to make valid points about characters and themes in the text.
Show that you understand the relevant contexts and give a personal response to the text and build this into your writing. Make sure you continue reading the text so as to acquaint yourself with details so that you can select them from the text and comment on them in response to your task. This might mean referring to particular events in the plot or things the characters say and do. You should also be able to back up your points with short quotations and write about the effects of the language.
These points might appear relevant in the long term and not for somebody trying to catch up with time, the bottom line is for the learner to remember them so as to score high marks in the examination regardless of the mishap. Today’s literature questions come in essay and passage-based form. Learners might decide to concentrate on passagebased questions only to find them difficult to answer. Of course, passage-based questions appear easier to answer as they give the learner some knowledge of where in the text they appear.
However, the trick questions might not require information given there. At times questions demand knowledge of what takes place before or after that. Learners with little knowledge of the text are disadvantaged. They should make sure they approach such questions cautiously. Having said all this on this particular subject, it could be worthwhile to go over these reminders for the learners who might have missed out on earlier articles.
When learners study a chosen text, they might look at how it presents a particular way of life and how this reflects or influences the way they think about their own. They might discover situations that seem unfamiliar. However, they are also likely to recognise similarities in the hopes and dreams shared by people around the world.
In different texts, maybe according to cultures, learners might witness a world of harshness and struggle. They might be shocked by prejudice and injustice. They might admire how people cope with racism and marvel at how people stand up to loss and tragedy. They should think of the texts they are studying and look at the openings of the novel they are studying. When looking at openings they should think about the following questions:
“How does the story start? What is the first paragraph or page made up of? How are you drawn into the story? What holds your attention? How much does the writer tell you? Is it possible to tell how the story will develop?” When writing about characters, you should try to think about how particular characters are important to the text as a whole. Who are the main characters of the story? What strikes you about them? Are there interesting conflicts and relationships between the characters?
For views link with charlesdube14058@ gmail.com or sms to 0772113207. I DID not want to be a writer, especially a writer for theatre. I wanted to be a lawyer. Well, most of the people I grew up with wanted to be lawyers though we all had never seen a lawyer, or been to a courtroom or knew exactly what lawyers did. But one thing we all knew was that being a lawyer sounded en vogue, and sophisticated. I remember a day during secondary school when one teacher asked us what we all wanted to do when we finished school. More than half of us said we wanted to be lawyers. The teacher was very happy. He said we were all an ambitious lot. Sadly, no one in that class went on to become a lawyer.
I did not want to be a writer, especially for the theatre. English was not my best subject at school, neither was it my favourite. Weaving words into magical sentences was not a hobby of mine. I always assumed one would get serious indigestion from “eating” too much words. I was a science student. Mathematics was my thing. I solved equations for fun and crammed formulas the way a pastor’s kid enjoys cramming Bible verses. I loved numbers and was more comfortable in science labs. My parents and teachers thought my future was in science or business.
I did not want to be a writer. What normal person, with a chance of doing anything better, could take up something so unrequited? Something so “thankless”. The truth is I grew up among a group of young people who all wanted to be part of a recognised and respectable profession. Doctor. Engineer. Lawyer. Accountant. Teacher. Then teachers commanded a lot of respect. (It is only now that lack of respect for the teaching profession has reduced it to a laughable occupation.) We all dreamt about respectable professions. And writing or theatre was not part of those dreams. Not until A-level.
I did not want to be a writer, especially for the theatre until I saw my own brother on stage, in a school play and what his performance did to the audience. Ironically, the same brother went on to pursue a career in medicine and I became a writer and thespian. My earlier exposure to theatre was nowhere near a professional stage. It was only after my O-levels that I experienced professional theatre and it’s life altering qualities. However, the loads of amateur performances I was exposed to in the townships were powerful enough to plant a serious interest for good storytelling and theatre in me. This interest later grew into a serious passion. Interestingly, the writing that formed most of these amateur performances was not sophisticated at all. Neither was it pompous or pretentious. It was not even from famous or successful writers. It was writing that sought to communicate local stories and not necessarily to show off the writer’s education or masterly of the English language. That, I think, was my first attraction to writing for theatre — I wanted to communicate, to tell everyday stories about the people I met and the places they lived, and how their environment helped or collided with their dreams.
Who was it that said art is a drug? The opium of the mind. For me art has not been a drug but rather a window to escape the numbing realities my generation has been subjected to. Art, and particularly theatre, has been that booming voice I use to articulate the fears and dreams, mostly failed dreams, of my generation. For me art, though not as rewarding as I would want it to be, has given me the much needed balance. I always wonder where I would be if it had not been for my writing. It was only when I had started writing and being published that I started serious interacting with works of serious writers like Ngugi, Wole Soyinka, Ama Ata Aidoo, Mbongeni Ngema, Zakes Mda, Chenjerai Hove and many others.
For young aspiring writers out there. You don’t have to be the best writer to succeed. All you need is passion and constant practice. We are story people and the world out there is waiting for more stories. More importantly there are now too many platform for storytellers. Go for it!