Last winter , for instance , my ninth graders prepared Faulkner ’ s “ Barn Burning ” for discussion . At home , they read the story and used their journals to record observations and to raise questions they would bring to class . Meanwhile , I prepared by rereading the story , refreshing my memory on detail and structure so that my ears would be freshly tuned to the day ’ s discussion . The table is also my workplace , so I am usually sitting there when the students arrive . That was the case on this particular day .
Eric andTom are the first to enter . Before they even sit down , one asks the other , What is wrong with thisAbner guy ? Is he a pyromaniac ? They laugh , but they have opened up a possibility . By the time every seat is filled , the initial questions — addressed to each other — have transformed into observations . Abner is clearly the center of the story they read . They want to know what makes him act the way he does , and they begin to gather details : Look here , Mitch says , he strikes his son without emotion . Mitch reads the passage , notices the language . His classmates are listening hard . I am listening , too . This is a dance of their own making . Yeah , he hits Sarty just like he hits his mule . They turn to that page and compare the language of the two passages .
Together they have defined their project : to make sense of Abner Snopes . And because it ’ s their project , they are engaged in its progress . He doesn ’ t seem quite human , Rebecca observes , He ’ s always described as dark and flat , like a silhouette and expressionless . Where is that ? Tom asks . There is more flipping of pages , more reading from the text . Ella leans forward : I ’ m thinking about those little fires he builds whenever they ’ re camping , she says . Do you think they ’ re related to his coldness ? Before long , several classmates agree that Abner is terrified of his own emotion and keeps it tamped down — like those little fires . They talk about how controlling he is , how cold-blooded . And then Lilly asks , Do you guys think he ’ s envious ? And she reads a line in which the narrator tells us that Abner is envious .
Toward the end of class , several students have suggested that Abner Snopes is a man outside society who lives by his own rules . By the time they leave the room they have serious concerns about his humanity ; they still have questions they want to pursue . They ’ ll be back . And since it is their project , they ’ ll be prepared .
A LISTENING PEDAGOGY In my old , teacher-centered classroom , I would have been the one posing all these content-oriented questions ; Iwould have been calling their attention to the details of the text . My assumptionwould have been that the students ’ interests were the same as mine , and I would have been badly mistaken .
Sarty is the character who catches my interest in this story . Why wouldn ’ t he catch theirs as well ? He ’ s young , they ’ re young . In my early practice , I would have come into class with questions and passages ear-marked so that we could have a thorough discussion of the character ofAbner ’ s son . I would have given them my reading of the story and I would have missed theirs altogether .
So where was I in this , most recent , discussion of “ Barn Burning ”? I was there , of course : I had work to do . I was trying to listen to them in the way that Eleanor had
When I ’ m working well , I speak maybe four times in a 50-minute period . Such teaching requires continual self-discipline : my own enthusiasms are sometimes hard to contain . Put another way : my ego is always ready to get between the students and their explorations .
listened to me : I was inquiring into their thinking . My remarks may have sounded something like this : Pyromaniac ? What makes you think so ? Or , Can you say more about those small fires ? Or , Help me understand what you mean by “ emotionless .” I was giving them time , too , and the freedom to slip into silence . My students and I are comfortable with silence . Often , a classmate ’ s luminous remark will send us all searching , noodling in the dark . Perching before the next flight .
When I ’ m working well , I speak maybe four times in a 50-minute period — and I try to make those remarks brief . Such teaching requires continual self-discipline : I will admit that my own enthusiasms are sometimes hard to contain . My interests and interpretations — my understanding — continually threaten to burst into the open . Put another way : my ego is always ready to get between the students and their explorations — like a robber breaking in upon their thoughts . I must be vigilant . To practice a pedagogy of critical exploration , a listening pedagogy , the teacher must be ready to stand out of the way .
The important story is the one constructed out of the relationship between each student and the work at hand . If you listen closely , you can hear it being built .
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