Why I Went From Teaching Tales
& Legends to Writing Them
By Cheryl Carpinello
As a high school
English teacher for over 20 years, I worked with literally thousands of
students. (Boy, that sounds daunting,
doesn’t it!) Together, we read and discussed stories and poems from around
the world. Authors like Hemingway, Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, Homer,
Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, William Golding, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Joseph Conrad,
T.S. Eliot, William Harding, Chaucer, and Tennyson. And we wrote. Some did more
than others.
I’d always had
avid readers just as I had those students who struggled or refused to read.
Thankfully with the right encouragement, my students wrote. It was reading that
taxed my skills, particularly with my freshmen…until one year.
One of the
anthologies that I’d used had a section on Arthurian Legend. So I thought, why
not? I had stumbled upon a gold mine. My freshmen readers loved exploring the
stories. Even better, my freshmen who struggled with reading sat by themselves
or in small groups to read the stories.
I was elated, but I
had another test for Arthurian Legend…my juniors. Together we travelled through
the ancient stories and plays. They enjoyed these once into them. We always did
these as a whole class. However, my struggling readers still would not read on
their own. Until…you guessed it…I gave them Arthurian stories to read. It
amazes me to this day. The fascination for Arthurian Legend still appeals to so
many. (You can read my blog post Some
Legends Do Live Forever at https://jillsheets.blogspot.com/2018/10/some-legends-do-live-forever-by-cheryl.html.
While I was
thrilled that something encouraged my students to read, there is another reason
why I decided to write Tales & Legends. When introducing the Arthurian
stories, I would ask the kids what they knew about King Arthur. I received a
barrage of information. Then when I asked what they knew about Guinevere, I was
given the same three pieces of information. She married Arthur; she cheated on
him with Lancelot; and she caused the downfall of Camelot. One or two years I
could see getting those answers, but year after year for 10+ years? This was
the deciding point for me.
When I contemplated
retiring, I gave a lot of thought to what I would do. I decided to use the gold
mine I had found so many years before and hopefully help kids not only get
excited about Arthurian Legend, but to get excited about reading. And I decided
to start with Guinevere, a seemingly misunderstood woman from the Legend.
Starting at the elementary school level gave me the opportunity to introduce
kids to a younger, more innocent Guinevere and build on her character.
I would be able
also to reach those Reluctant Readers much sooner. Maybe, just maybe, those
young reluctant readers would become readers by the time they reached the high
school.
