Instructors’ Teaching Experience

I’ve only taught this class in a Fictions course in which it was very well received. Rushdie’s storytelling style is light and humorous and subtly complex. This is also a very short novel which can easily be taught in a week and would make a great platform to discuss the use of literature in the lives of students and society. The discussion in my Fictions course on Rushdie’s ending was one of the most dynamic and heated I’ve ever had in a Gen. Ed. Lit. course. Students were very committed to their views about how stories should work, what should be expected of endings, how authors can justify their endings. Haroun has become one of my favorite stories and highly recommend it. [LeDon Sweeney, ledon-sweeney@uiowa.edu]

Classroom Strategies

I had no specific strategies for this novel save for discussion. I divided the reading into four units (I taught a T/TH class and needed to pad the schedule a bit). In each unit, I identified an important theme or idea Rushdie addressed and asked the students to share their views on theme or idea. But, I only did this after we addressed the concerns or points the students had with the text. I think if one were to begin the semester with this text, giving students a set of reading questions would be a good idea. It would help them see beyond the plot and allow you to direct their attention to ways in which an author might hide a provocative discussion in a story. [LeDon Sweeney, ledon-sweeney@uiowa.edu]