Anonymous wrote:My 7th and 4th grade daughters read a ton for pleasure and relaxation. Examples of 7th graders books - Homecoming, Dicey’s Song, Akata Witch, Akata Warrior, Satellite, some biographies
Anonymous wrote:The Hate U Give would be an amazing choice for them to read AND deals with the same themes of Mockingbird in a much better, more relevant way.
This thread has really been illuminating. Specifically because I trust kids to own their reading choices and pick books that matter to them and would like to give them that freedom I’m seen as “berating” them (?) and, paradoxically, NOT trusting them. I explicitly do trust them to pick what’s best *for them*. If Mockingbird works for Kid A, great. If THUG works for Kid B, great! But I didn’t make either kid pick either book. Truly surprising to me that parents would see kids getting ownership over their education like this and think “that’s terrible, she should make them read (see: Sparknote) Crime and Punishment.”
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:pp and teen has read so far in addition to required reading:
Death on the Nile
The Song of Achilles
Tom Sawyer
Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave
Would you recommend this? I have to buy a book for a humanities magnet student to start this week.
DH read, enjoyed, and gave to kids to read. DS 16 liked it. He likes history. I haven't read it yet.
Anonymous wrote:OP, I’m sorry your thread got derailed. I suspect anti-teacher bias. This is the time of year that DCUM sharpens its claws for teachers. I think if you had asked “Does you teen read purely for pleasure?”, people would have assumed you were a parent and given you a simple answer. Sometimes on DCUM, less explanation is best.
Anonymous wrote:Hi! It’s me, the high school English teacher. Gearing up for another year back. I’m playing around with my curriculum this year and thinking I will do no whole- class texts this year and instead give the kids a genre or general requirement and then have them choose a book within those parameters. So, for instance, if I say a book by a BIPOC author, they can choose any book that interests them as long as it was written by someone who is Black, Indigenous, or otherwise a person of color. All our mini lessons, essential questions, tasks will revolve around that type of book so what they are reading specifically won’t matter- they’ll be able to apply it all to their individual text.
Here’s my question to you: can you tell me honestly if your kid actually read for pleasure this summer and if so, what they read? Don’t be selective about answering only if your kid did, it helps me to know if they didn’t as well. Getting kids to read for pleasure is a huge struggle and I’m tailoring my curriculum to hopefully help them do more of that without the whole “we are going to read this tedious old book from 1945 and beat it to death” thing. It’s a good jumping off point for me to know whether the kids are reading books of their choice when they’re able or if they’re not reading at home either since getting them to think of reading as a valuable pastime they should consider doing for enjoyment is, well, hard.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:pp and teen has read so far in addition to required reading:
Death on the Nile
The Song of Achilles
Tom Sawyer
Never Caught: The Washington's Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave
Would you recommend this? I have to buy a book for a humanities magnet student to start this week.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why can't their be a suggested list to choose from BUT if the kid wants to deviate from that, they have to propose a) the book, b) how it meets the teaching objective for the unit/assignment? This would seem to meet the needs of people who are demanding required reading and kids who have strong preferences as to what they want to read.
I'm a voracious reader. Even i had a LOT of trouble with "assigned" reading in school. It had nothing with comprehension but I just hated the books - i couldn't relate to them, they weren't interesting . . . and it makes it hard to like a class and to like reading in that instance.
I'm no teacher. So this may not be a good "method" but it seems reasonable. Plus, it give control to the student and forces them to really think about a book that deviates from the list.
My two cents.
I wonder if these parents asked their kids how they felt about this what they would hear. The PARENTS want “classic” required reading. But I teach kids and the kids... usually don’t.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Oh, and also, I would never try to have a conversation with a friend about the specific merits of a given article without reading the article. The content, sure — “oh yes, Charles Mann argues that the population of the Americas before Columbus was much larger than we thought” but not “Charles Mann has this beautifully lyrical description of Amazonia...” (I’d immediately go “ooh lemme see.”)
And what if- hear me out- this exact thing happens to kids and they go “wait let me read that” and then they too are doing extra reading just because they were curious.
I mean, great, but you’re making it sound like the best thing that could come out of your class are kids reading on their own, which as the kid who would have preferred to read her own book in the library than go to English class (and whose kid is the same!) makes me wonder why it should be a required course. But that’s cool, I was already pretty sold on a classical curriculum for my kids.
I think you are missing the point. English class is not about reading the book. One can do that on their own. It's about dissecting and discussing the book. You know, critical thinking. That's why it's a required course. It has never been about the reading part.
No, I don't think PP was missing the point. I think OP is missing the point. To OP, the point of English class is to read the book and 'love reading.'
No, the books are actually beside the point which is why I don’t need to control what they pick. The point of English class is to connect with humanity, honor someone else’s voice and lived experience, hone your own writing and voice to tell your story, understand your world.