Reply to 10th Grade English Required Reading: what's your curriculum?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]1984
The Hate U Give
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Short Stories/Book TBA
The Kite Runner
[/quote]

Gosh, another bad list. Who doesn’t love Kite Runner, and I thoroughly enjoyed ELIC. But, let’s be honest these are books to read for pleasure. I was under the assumption that high school reading selections are supposed to expose our children to works that they would not read otherwise because of their difficulty,  challenging themes or inaccessibility? In fact, English class is supposed to teach high schoolers *how* to read & analyze challenging books.  Not read & analyze easy books. [/quote]

No, it’s not. HS English is supposed to get to kids to want to read novels and encourage engagement . It doesn’t have to be Beowulf. How boring. [/quote]

From my perspective as a parent, I want them to read, be engaged, and improve their writing. Engaging, relatable text is far more likely to elicit engagement in the writing process than many of the classics.[/quote]

Did your kids read "Captain Underpants" in elementary school as well?  What you read is just as important is that you read (especially for writing).  School should be the place to engage the kids, we agree on that.  But reading and discussing in school should be focused on exposing kids to the beautiful, true and deep.  Things that have been valued as the basis of our shared discourse, not the "Book of the Month Club."  The kids have a teacher to help them see how to make these books exciting and relevant to them.  If that isn't happening, it is either poor teaching, the fact that they are reading books far above their reading and cultural literacy or the fact that kids have not been taught to develop their attention span.  All of these speak poorly of both our educational system and our parenting. [/quote]

Meh, I'm not sure I entirely agree. I see your point about exposing them to the beautiful, etc. But, in reality, it doesn't really happen for most kids. It's just tedious reading about ancient people and things (I personally like many of them -save Shakespeare, for reasons noted upthread- but I am def in the minority of adults I know. I think teachers often don't make it exciting or interesting (and that is not a criticism, I do think that is hard). And, also, they get stuck teaching the same, old, dusty titles just b/c that is how it always has been done. There are lots of contemporary stories that will have similar (or different but more relevant) theme that are more engaging for kids, and more apt to keep their attention.[/quote]

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