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Anonymous wrote:While I am no fan of OP's classroom model, my 10th grader who's taking challenge math, science and social studies classes would be thrilled to have a class where he can coast by selecting easy books that he "loves." He'd have more time to engage in his other classes that require more depth. He'd be happy to have OP as a teacher.

Interesting you think I’m a big enough bozo to be like “sure you can read The Boxcar Children” in 10th grade. Again, there is NO WAY for anyone to glean an entire pedagogy from this one thread. Obviously the kids would have to propose a title, why they selected it, and I would have veto power if it were inappropriate (Twilight, 50 Shades of Gray) or way below grade level or like 50 pages long.

The anti teacher sentiment that is replete across the rest of DCUM makes tons of sense now though. You guys really do think we are idiots! It’s a wonder you send your kids to school at all since you can do it so much better.

Well, this thread has increased the likelihood of me homeschooling by several percentage points!

Hope OP isn’t representative of a new wave of teachers...

Yep, one of the newer teachers with all her new age crap.

Don't worry, I am a teacher (I'm 30, so I am still 'young' but have been teaching 9 years). She sounds like a first through third year teacher, and like she probably is really hated by her whole staff. She is the type who speaks up and argues at faculty meetings, who defies the curriculum and the parents and admin, and then feels scorned and like she was treated unfairly. There has been one or two every year. Don't worry, she'll chill out or quit.

Anonymous wrote:Lurker NP here.

OP, this is just food for thought. Your responses here on this thread seem to be hypocritical considering what you are advocating in your classroom. In your classroom, you are giving wider choice for reading material and discussion in order to get themes across and teach critical thinking from what is read.

On this thread, you are actually trying to focus the discussion only in the direction you want it to be, exactly focused on what you are trying to get. Unfortunately, on a public open discussion board like DCUM it is virtually impossible to keep the peanut gallery narrowly focused on just one topic or question. Since it is a discussion board, there are natural diversions and tangents in conversation and people will pick up on that. In addition, people will choose how they want to answer your question even if it is in a different direction than you are guiding.

So your are giving more freedom of choice and response to your students and less freedom of choice and response to the discussion board, which frankly is hopeless. A better choice for you is to let people respond as they want and just pick the responses that are helpful to you and your focus and ignore or move on from the responses that are not focused for you. It might be helpful to other people, like the other teachers who are on the thread or to other parents who may find some of the comments useful.

But your response to the people who are not doing exactly what you want are brusque and rude, despite what you seem to think. So be more polite and just opt not to respond to those responses that don't fit your desired focus.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am a college literature professor at a very good school and I have several close friends who are high school English teachers. I understand that your/their job is harder than mine in many ways: I don't have to work very hard simply to engage my students. I can assume a certain level, not just of literacy, but of critical analysis skills. I take for granted my students' commitment to the coursework and to the educational endeavor in general. I realize that your students and goals are different.

That said, I am bothered by how dismissive you are of so many responses. You call on the "latest research" as though it were an irrefutable authority when these are all questions that teachers wrestle with and will continue to wrestle with for years to come.

Personally, I believe that the goal of any language arts instructor, or high school English teacher, or college literature professor should be to teach certain skills, to ensure that students can analyze difficult texts (whether it's a canonical work, an opinion article, or a political speech), and can put together a coherent argument. It is our job to challenge students -- to try to prepare them a little bit for the challenge that is life. If the students are going to read (maybe only part of...) of a few books per year, they should be books vetted and carefully chosen by YOU (the most prepared person in the room!). Every part of the classics can be analyzed, questioned, critiqued, deconstructed -- as you do that, you both deal with the difficult issues instead of avoiding them and teach students how to deal with them in life.

I admire you for being so thoughtful in your approach to teaching but I don't see how you can get a consistently good discussion or how you can consistently teach important skills
with this format.

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

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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.

That is the silliest thing I’ve read in a long time and completely makes my point. -PP