[Jenna_Bird]

Hi all! As some of you know, I'm a secondary English teacher. I'm starting at a new school this year, working primarily with 10th grade. I just received the list of texts which are used schoolwide for 10th grade courses. They are as follows: To Kill a Mockingbird, Night, A Separate Peace, Julius Caesar, Othello, Lord of the Flies, Ethan Frome, and Antigone/. Now, I know these are all par for the course (har), but I was wondering if anyone, be you a teacher or recent (or even current) student, has any suggesstion as to how to make these texts, well, accessible. While the aforementioned texts are part of the canon of high school literature, they're also a bit...dry. Did anyone have a great experience with these books? A miserable one, perhaps? Please share your thoughts!

Thanks in advance!

-Jenna

[skippy the wonder dog]

I think A Separate Peace is pretty accessible to high school students, no? I liked it at the time.

For Shakespeare, I think it's essential that students see it in performance. My father was a Shakespeare prof, I had him quoted at me daily growing up and also had the benefit of being dragged out to see plays. I can still remember seeing Hamlet in Stratford (UK) at age 11 and being completely caught up in it -- there is no substitute for live theatre.

Okay, you probably don't have access (and budget) to drag the kids to Stratford. But there's always film. Since he wrote plays for performance, I think it essential to see them, not to read them.

Too bad you don't have Romeo and Juliet -- what high school boy can resist Mercutio drunk in the fountain in the Zeffirelli Romeo & Juliet? Or, for that matter, Claire Danes' enormous eyeballs in that other film?

So much for my unhelpful suggestions. I'm glad I don't teach high-school English. Hats off to you, Jenna.

[Jenna_Bird]

Thanks for the words of wisdom, Skippy. I am looking forward to teaching Shakespeare, as I was an acting major before I switched to education. Caesar has always been somewhat of a thorn in my side, teaching wise. I always wind up with a handful of students who have taken Latin, and are lightyears ahead of the rest of the class in terms of pre-learning. Oh, if only it were Richard III. I'll have to keep the performative aspect alive in the classroom, or, at least as much as state standards will allow.

-Jenna

[cochise]

In all honesty I was not much of a reader in high school, especially when I was told I hadto read something.

That being said, I really enjoyed A Separate Peace as well. I actually found the book quite hard to put down and finished it long before the class.

Lord Of The Flies will definitely have all the boys attention, but perhaps lost on the girls. I guess I shouldn't say lost, I mean not of interest.

I remember my teacher in grade 10 giving the class options, we did not have to all read the same book at the exact same time, she gave us a choice of three or four books. That way at least we felt we had some input as to what we were reading.

Other ones of interest back then:

Animal Farm
Romeo & Juliet
The Chrysalids
Hamlet
A Tale Of Two Cities
Mayor of Casterbridge
Lost Horizon

Maybe some of these were not specifically grade 10.............that was many moons ago........... :wink:

[opiated]

when we did Lord of The Flies we had a mock trial with all the characters from the book. It was pretty sweet..I got to play the "bad" guy in the book (clearly I have new dad brain and can't remember his name)
it was a blast, and we got to be creative and I really really enjoyed it

[The Horrible Esthete]

Good luck with Ethan Frome, sweets.

As a student, I'd rather see "chinese water torture" on a syllabus. :nooooo

[Jenna_Bird]

There's a reason I've avoided Wharton both in and out of the classroom. :?

On the upside, I get to teach a creative non-fiction unit! Weee! I'm starting with some writing instruction from Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, which should work well. Anyone else have some good non-fic suggestions?

-Jenna

[skippy the wonder dog]

I'd suggest Hunter S. Thompson, but I don't want you to get fired.

Selections from Annie Dillard? An American Childhood or Pilgrim at Tinker Creek could both offer good options. (Although I'm down on Dillard right now for The Maytrees, which I think sucked.)

[Jenna_Bird]

I haven't read The Maytrees, but I do have Dillard's collection Three, which includes "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek", "An American Childhood" and "The Writing Life". I think that will work well with Lamott, in terms of writing instruction that is good writing in and of itself.

-Jenna

[mojo_mattv]

As a recent high school graduate (two years ago), I found for myself in order to enjoy Shakespeare I had to understand the story. Once that was stressed to me I stopped trying to translate everything into modern day English and began to understand and actually enjoy the plays. With my grade 9 class we had to read R. and J. and it was absolute torture, we were required to just read it out loud in turns, and nobody had the foggiest of what was happening. When I had the plot explained to me periodically as it progressed I started making connections (this unfortunately wasn't until grade 11) and identifying with different characters. I don't know, that's just my two cents.

[grimes]

My memory is a little foggy but I also seem to remember enjoying A Separate Peace and Lord of the Flies. The latter was particularly good because it gave our teacher an excuse to let us watch The Simpsons in class At the time it was just the brief bit at the end of the Kamp Krusty episode, but since then they've done the full spoof episode...

[Phantom51]

I know we watched the movie to Kill a Mockingbird in Class...of course this was after we were to have read the book. It gave us a light at the end of the tunnel when reading it. Althought it was a great book and a great read, it was still nice to know we would see a classic movie afterwards as well.

[skippy the wonder dog]

As a recent high school graduate (two years ago), I found for myself in order to enjoy Shakespeare I had to understand the story.

This is why you have to see Shakespeare, instead of reading it. When you see it, it no longer matters if you understand everything that's said.

In addition to A Separate Peace, I don't think Lord of the Flies need be dry and boring. Nor To Kill a Mockingbird. I liked both of those in high school. These deal with things that have some relevance to kids that age. Maybe part of the problem is that the teachers have read them so many times and know them so well that they become dry and boring?

What I can't fathom, though, is why anyone would put something like Ethan Frome on a high-school syllabus. We're spared that one in Canada -- I had to look it up. Instead, we get shit like Dickens. Is there a conspiracy here to ruin kids' interest in reading? It's the literary equivalent of liver: shut up and eat it, it's good for you.

[joshwayy]

All of those titles bring back great memories. As someone who went through 5 years of college, a double major; with a goal of teaching high school (English or History?), I was always stuck dumb by those who had a propensity to reading- and those who didn't? A love of a good book is one of the biggest joys of my life. I admit that I never taught (for pay), and the amount I read (novels), has diminished more than it should have, but those books are all classics. One thing my high school did that was a big hit was to read The Hobbit and the Trilogy across the four years of school. That set the hook for me...

I could go on and on about my distaste for formalized secondary ed...no knock on your profession of course.. I have all the respect in the world for educators. Have you ever read Ted Sizer's work? His theories were; in the end, the reason why I wanted, and didn't want, to teach. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_o...al_Schools

[The Horrible Esthete]

What I can't fathom, though, is why anyone would put something like Ethan Frome on a high-school syllabus. We're spared that one in Canada -- I had to look it up. Instead, we get shit like Dickens. Is there a conspiracy here to ruin kids' interest in reading? It's the literary equivalent of liver: shut up and eat it, it's good for you.

Precisely.