School children are one of the most reasoning on the globe. They are ready to talk on any topic, ask the most unforeseen questions and admire things that an adult would not even pay attention to. However, provoking their reaction is quite difficult, and this skill is not given to every teacher.
Point of view practices
To teach a child to express his thoughts and aspirations is one of the most important tasks of a teacher, with which he must somehow cope. There are a number of techniques, the correct application of which will form a full-fledged personality, able to discuss on a variety of topics.
Examples include seminar lessons and dialogue forms, optional reading circles during which discussions of works take place, and the organization of discussions during the most ordinary lessons. However, the most reliable, time-tested and hundreds of generations of schoolchildren method is still the usual school essay.
What interests schoolchildren
Of course, the choice of topics for this kind of work primarily depends on the curriculum provided by the Ministry of Education. The teacher always abides in strictly established frameworks in which you have to find a place for creativity.
The lion's share of works for this reason is devoted to topics that are not so interesting for modern students. In language lessons, this is usually a description of reproductions of pictures or an exposition of listened texts. In the lessons of literature, more attention is paid to the analysis of works, the description of heroes and the creative comparison of oneself with the characters of a book.
Favorite among school-age children has always been and, perhaps, will be an essay about love.
Why exactly this topic?
For many, this interest of students in this topic seems rather strange. It is difficult to speak about such a deep, mysterious and complex phenomenon even for adults, not to mention teenagers and children of primary school age. Nevertheless, an essay on love always causes great excitement and a desire for work, which especially pleases teachers.
What caused the interest in a similar topic among the younger generation? First of all, one should not forget about the environment in which the child grows. From childhood, he is surrounded by the love of the family. An example of this feeling is constantly before his eyes. In addition, according to statistics, every third essay on the love of a younger schoolboy is a creative interpretation of the plots of fairy tales, cartoons and stories that he has come across in one way or another.
Finally, attention should be paid to the very literature to be studied. All of it is about this wonderful feeling to a greater or lesser extent, which, of course, is understood by children. The composition of love gives them the opportunity to systematize, comprehend the knowledge gained as a result of reading the work, touch their deepest meaning and become a little older for some time, which is important for the younger generation.
What to choose
Naturally, in this case, each teacher faces the question of choosing a work for which a creative essay should be written. Most often, an essay on a love story is written based on the works of O. Henry or, for example, the story of A.S. Pushkin’s “Blizzard”, however , such works as “War and Peace” and, of course, Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” enjoy no less popularity. The composition on the topic of love is attractive to the teacher from the point of view of the teacher that the choice of material for him is extremely large.
The complexity of the task
If with the works listed above there are absolutely no problems when writing an essay, then in the case of others, a simple task becomes a “task with an asterisk” and takes on a completely new connotation.
Having finished studying Chekhov’s story “On Love”, writing an essay is much more difficult than, for example, expressing your opinion about Ostrovsky ’s “Bride” or Pushkin’s poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. In this case, the student faces a much more complex problem, aesthetic and ethical standards are shifted, moving the child to understanding and reasoning.
Chekhov specifics
When reading this work, the student has completely different ideas about this topic, he is faced with deeper questions. Complication, layering of the context turns creative work into a very special composition. Chekhov's “On Love” is a work in which the vulgarity and versatility of human life is revealed. Along with simple and understandable phenomena, far more complex situations are revealed to the student, deep conflicts are unfolding.
This necessitates an explanation of how to write such an essay. Chekhov's “On Love” requires a special approach, the explanation of which is the main task of the teacher. First of all, he should focus the attention of schoolchildren in the depths of the problems of the story, and direct their thought to its most important aspects.
No less important is the demonstration of sad irony with which the author describes the situations that are revealed in this work. This is necessary, first of all, in order to show the students the specifics, the uniqueness of the chosen topic, and to provide a guideline for understanding.
An essay on this work should be based on the student’s own reasoning, his vision of the situation, his point of view on the ratio of purity and vulgarity in the story.
An essay on the story "About Love" should be given exclusively in high school, when the child's consciousness is sufficiently formed to comprehend the problems of the work. From the ninth to tenth grade, children are much more attentive to details, notice moments that were not available to them before. Schoolchildren with much greater interest are exploring a seemingly familiar topic. They sometimes come to the most unpredictable conclusions.
Despite all the lightness and transparency of Chekhov’s syllable, his works can literally turn the reader’s world upside down. That is why it is so important to acquaint children with the legacy of this great master of the story from school.