BlogHer - required reading - Comments

i did a look around

aftercancer — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:52:36 -0500

to see what was being read. To the best of my knowledge it's an annual event.

Baton Rouge is reading Poor Man's Provence

Allegheny County near Pittsburg is reading The Giver

East Lansing Michigan is reading The Soloist

Last year the town I live in read Never Let me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. This year's hasn't been announced yet.

Poor Man's Provence

Kate

I blog at http://www.aftercancernowwhat.com

I had the same problem

ItsyBitsyKC — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:32:45 -0500

I felt like I keep reading the same kind of books. I certainly enjoyed these books, but was still a little bummed that I wasn't really branching out when it comes to reading. To remedy this, I joined a small book club with an assortment of gals with very different tastes in literature. I have been reading books that I wouldn't otherwise pick up, and I know I can pick any book I want when it is my turn to host, without having to worry whether it my group will like it. The idea is to read books that are outside of our comfort zone. Not to mention we always look forward to our little gathering...we always have delicious food and lots of wine :-) It's kind of a girls' night out (or...in).

http://itsybitsykc.blogspot.com/
Twitter: ItsyBitsyKC

What kind of soup?

sassymonkey — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:23:48 -0500

Oh how I hated those kinds of questions. They had nothing to do with the plot, they were just there so the teacher could test whether or not you actually read it. So irritating.

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

Do you think it would work?

sassymonkey — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:11:57 -0500

I always thought that one of the pitfalls of a whole class reading a book is that it's really hard to find a book that all the students in the class will find interesting.

What books have you read for One Book, One Community?

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

I see the benefits of it

sassymonkey — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:05:55 -0500

For example, I don't know that I'd ever have read Oedipus Rex on my own though I can the academic value in it. I don't know that there's any book or story that can engage a whole class of students who are, realistically, at different reading levels and with a wide variety of interests. Or any group of people really. Look a book clubs, not all readers will love the same book. It's tricky, isn't it?

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

I think combos work best

sassymonkey — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:50:18 -0500

Particularly if the whole class doesn't have to read the same book. I think I would have preferred assigned reading if we could have done it in smaller groups.

I suck at pushing beyond my comfort zone when it comes to my reading these days. It's unfortunate because the times I've done it I've found some truly fantastic books. I need to figure out a way to challenge myself in a way that I'll actually do it. Hmmm...

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

Like you, I read ahead

LadyM — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:55:30 -0500

In school, I would also finish books the night they were handed out, and have to go back to re-read just the assigned chapter so that I could answer whatever useless trivia was being asked in the next day's quiz. ("What kind of soup did Mr. Darcy prefer?" and that type of stuff.)

I love the idea mixing in free choice books with assigned reading.

Lady M blogs at http://www.empress-m.com/

I agree with your first

aftercancer — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:26:42 -0500

commenter that a mix is what is needed. I also feel strongly that there is something that comes from reading the same book. Our community participates in One Book, One Community for the adults where a book is read by many in the community and it serves as a community building activity and base for conversation about issues.

Of course, that's for adults but the same could be done in school by grade once or twice a year.

Kate

I blog at http://www.aftercancernowwhat.com

Its got to be done well in either case

mashadutoit — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:05:14 -0500

someone is going on and on about Arthur Dimmesdale and what Nathaniel Hawthorne really meant by naming him that.

That made me smile. But the thing is... if you are going to be a poor teacher, you can make any book boring, and a good teacher is going to be able to find a way to get kids to be excited about the so called boring classics.

Maybe the question is not so much whether books should be prescribed or not, as what happens after that. I think a lot of us have rediscovered some of the books prescribed at school or university by ourselves - and found that they are not nearly as boring as our teachers made them.

I think you can learn the skills of critical thinking and literary analyses from analysing almost any book.

But I think that having a system where good books are accessible to students instead of forcing them to read them would be more likely to nurture a love of reading. You may think, in retrospect, that it was a good thing that you were made to read "Raka" or "Geknelde Land" (those were our South African equivalents) but oh my, that medicine tasted really bad going down at the time.

A combo would be my pick

crousehaus — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:52:24 -0500

I think a combination of teacher picks and free reading would be my perfect world. People are interested in all sorts of different types of reading. There are books that I definitely hated having to read in school, but also, there were many that I might not have picked up on my own. I think some assigned reading and some independant choices would benefit students greatly.

In high school I had a teacher who would give us 3 or 4 books to choose from. That worked out well because some kids would gravitate towards one and then there were the kids who would go beyond their comfort zone and choose something unexpected. I think going beyond your comfort zone is essential in becoming a better reader. I still have to force myself to do this and I'm 35.

I guess I was lucky...

potspoon — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:12:31 -0500

We definitely dissected books, but we really didn't spend too much time on them. I read Catcher in the Rye in middle school as To Kill a Mockingbird. I am glad not to have had to reread them in high school. We did Shakespeare but as Othello and Julius Caesar. I did have to read Beowulf which bored me to tears, but Their Eyes Were Watching God is still one of my favorites. I did learn to hate The Scarlet Letter, however! Overall, I learned about so many genera of American and Western Literature that I never would have known existed otherwise, I think the experience was rather pleasant.

Potspoon!

Agreed

KatieBeez — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:54:37 -0500

There were some books in high school that I hated but that I'm sure I would like if we hadn't dissected them to the nth degree, I completely agree.

What I'm not sure about though, is that we were *supposed* to love the dissection. Critical thinking and other skills aren't necessarily fun but are important nonetheless.

I think I got pretty lucky in high school. English wasn't my favorite subject, and I always put my love of reading and what was taught in English class in two separate categories. Even so, we read many novels that impacted me. And some dark ones also: Sophie's Choice. The Bell Jar, The Crucible. The Scarlet Letter. To Kill a Mocking bird too (which I loved even through the dissection).

Some good news about high school reading

lauriehalseanderson — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:46:24 -0500

Thanks for the terrific post!

I thought I would add some good news to the discussion. At last count, my novel SPEAK was being taught at hundreds of middle schools, high schools, and colleges around the country. It is most frequently assigned as summer reading book between 8th and 9th grades, and is then used as the opening text for 9th grade English classes, but I've seen it in plenty of other grades.

There is a new generation of incredible English teachers who are dedicated to developing curriculum that will keep teens enthusiastic about reading. These people are truly angels. Many of them are members of ALAN (http://www.alan-ya.org/about/), an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English.

There is change a'happening!

Laurie Halse Anderson

http://halseanderson.livejournal.com/

www.writerlady.com

Hear Hear!

jessica.schafer — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:33:58 -0500

I totally agree with you! I love reading, but I hated almost everything I read in English class because analyzing it to pieces took all the fun out of it. It took away the mystery, the "what if". Plus I always found it ridiculous when teachers used the phrase, "What the author intended..." as if we could ever really know! The worst was The Old Man and the Sea in Grade 10. I went to a Christian high school and no kidding, our teacher would not stop going on about how the old man was a Christ figure. Anything that could be read remotely as symbolic was and it just totally killed the novel for me. Thankfully, I got into the AP English class in grade 12 and got to escape the end of chapter quizzes and book reports. We actually got to talk about how what we were reading related to our lives and what themes were universal. It was a much much better English class experience.

I was doing some research on gender differences in learning about a year ago and read about one English teacher at an all boys school who has his students create an exact replica of the Island from Lord of the Flies, rather than doing the quizzes and discussions on theme. It forces his students to read the book really carefully to get details on the Island. His theory is that in reading that closely, the great themes and metaphors of the work will be absorbed as well and eventually come in handy.

In Between Words

http://jessicaschafer.wordpress.com

yep.

kazari — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:03:38 -0500

When I started highschool, i got a real kick out of reading Mid-Summer Nights' Dream with the class. But then the teacher tore it to bits! There was no enjoyment of the language, the rhythm (and the fairies set pieces can be precious close to rap when it comes to rhythm). Just a dissection of the symbolism of the moon, and the forest... I did really badly with the comprehension exercises, and the teacher told me i should read more, maybe Judy Blume.

I was actually reading 'A Christmas Carol' for fun at that point, so I just looked at her like she was an alien. Then I realised that the comprehension was supposed to be a recitation of facts, no opinion. i did better after that.

I think I have a recipe for that...