Lori, it has been a long time since i was 14-16 yrs old:) let me think, first of all, i was way past YA by that pont, but still not getting the full message from the "big books" I think that is when I read melville, michener, faulkner, twain (beyond huck and sawyer) finished my dickens, though christmas carol was earlier, but all of that was free reading. certainly if to kill a mockingbird hasnt already been read by 9th grade, and maybe a shakespeare, midsummers nights dream was my favorite of the time, thouh, again, i missed half of it, i loved one flew over the coockoos nest, but that was pop lit at the time, i would say faulkner, rand, joyce catha, greene and du maurier and fitzgerald should all be optional reading, but not forced, as they are too precious to be spoiled by forced reading, so are some of the others, but i doubt you can ruin tkam by requiring it! Mama Day is a truly great book as is The Bean Trees and Song of Solomon, and Paradise, if you wanna throw in soem contemporary Am Lit. i have loved beowulf since i was about 5, but that is because it was a family tradition for my eng prof uncle to tell it o the children as a holiday story:)
I think any book that you love and can share that love with your students will be fine, i think any book that they feel like you are telling them what it means, what they are supposed to get, these are things that destroy a book. it may be the essence of teaching gin some circles, but telling me the symbolism, the "Conversation" the writer is having with previous writers, the "meaning" of what he/she is trying to say, all make me hate a book.
then again, i am not a teacher, just love books. to me.
posted 2 months ago. ( reply )