Says Victoria:

Although this doesn't really go with the theme of books discussed, Rachelle you talk about your brother having to call you for help with Animal Farm...what do you think about having GT english students read books WAY above their reading level? Is it helpful because it pushes them to reach beyond what they currently know and understand, think outsie their box if you will? Or is it instead detrimental to their overall strength as a student becuase the books they are reading are so far above their level that they can't appreciace or even really understand them?

I remember this happening to an exent with me. There were so many books that we read in middle school that I not only didn't understand; but as result, I didn't like them. Many of those books are the very books you have discussed here: Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, 1984, Canterbury Tales, Beowolf, and even To Kill a Mocking Bird and Shakespeare. It wasen't until I got into high school and for some of them college, that I decieded that I should give them another chance and reread them. How many students do that though? With reading rates falling and kids becomming more and more interested in other forms of entertainment; what happens to the kids who just never learn to appreciate that kind of literature? They give such interesting commentary on history, what happens if they never hear it?

Also, does forcing our students to read literature they are not cognativitly ready for encourage or discourage reading? If, as educators, we are supposed to be promoting reading, wouldn't it be more advantageous to select books more on their level and save the heavy reading for high school and college? I'm all for pushing students to be the best they can be, however if they can't grasp the novels put in front of them then doesn't that risk turning them off to reading in general?

(if you can't tell...I'm a teacher :))

Stuff I read in school: Their eyes were watching Gd, Frankenstein, Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, Biography of Malcom X, America Day by Day...... etc. ("Etcetera? Etcetera?? Is that some sort of secret code??")




Stuff I read on my own: Vanity Fair, The Golden Compass, pasta recipes, The Three Little Bears, the backs of DVDs, fashion blogs, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. As soon as I have time to finish it anyway.
Hmmmmm. Good thing I read in school or I'd be pretty vapid.



I don't think its likely that kids are going to read Canterbury tales on their own, regardless of what happened in their 6th grade english class. Though I'm sure my 7th grade self would come up behind me and smack me with The Yearling (aka HEAVIEST BOOK EVER), I think its great that our teachers force as we cry and wail, on paid of death, to read Crime and Punishment (which was sort of like a crime. And a punishment) because eventually we might return to those books because we know we have the intellectual capacity to handle them. The kids reading these books are in GT classes, and probably read lots of other stuff anyway. Just because I hated A Separate Peace (mostly because he dies at the end - whoops. sorry) didn't stop me from reading Harry Potter. And the few people who would have been 'turned off' from reading wouldn't have been one of the ones who go back to read stuff later anyway. I never would have read half the stuff I did if I hadn't had to. Turns out I love Le Mis. Almost as much as I love Shakespeare. It kind of helps that Joseph Finnes is really really hot. But I digress. Forced reading good, no reading "baaaad". Reading this type of book in middle school helps prepare you for stuff like Tale of Two cities, aka The Most Confusing Book I Ever Remember Reading, and Siddhartha. Imagine reading THAT after reading "See Spot Run" in junior high. Even if you don't understand the books, as I usually didin't or even still don't, my vocabulary improved and I could tell people that I had read all this intellectual stuff.

What about the selection of the books themselves? I'm thinking about what gets on the lists and what doesn't and why? What do people freak out about their kids reading? brave New World? When is it right to expose kids to literature with that kind of content? Is America reading the right books? Other countries? Harry Potter and Twilight? Holy rollers vs. soccer moms and pre-teens. Who decides what we read in school, what we choose to read on our own? What constitutes and "American Classic" and why? What should we be reading? What gets published and what doesn't.
Banned books v. boycotted books? Nothing really gets banned in the US anymore (First Amendment). Half the stuff we read in secondary school USED to be banned - Fahreheiht 451, Brave New World, Animals Farm, Grapes of Wrath (I know!!). but literature gets essentially banned in different ways - boycotted by groups against free speech, certain ideals presented in the books, pro-religion, anti-religion, whatever. Thoughts?