what should I read next?

[kara_called]

I finished The Red Tent late last night (it was fabulous!), so now it's time to start a new one (I feel weird if my bookmark is idle).  I'm getting started on my "big plans," the huge obtuse ones I use to plot out my entire school year.  I'm anxious because I've never taught more than two lessons in a senior class and now I have to come up with a

Comments

[quiet_tears_]

hey there, wow, i know you are a FANTASTIC teacher! great books..i picked the ones that i remember reading in school, but i really don't know which ones would be best! i could, however, pick out amazing 3rd grade books. haha...

[kara_called]

Thanks. I've pretty much decided to teach all the ones listed for my seniors, and I'm still trying to decide what 3-4 novels the Pre-AP sophs will read in addition to what the regulars read.

Here in a few years I'll be asking for book recommendations for Jaden. While I do ok with literature and so-so with contemporary works, I am lost when it comes to books for younger kiddos!

[kara_called]

Yes! Thomas Hardy's works are a good suggestion. I have Tess on my shelf right now. I'll have to consider them too!

[lilisin]

Yes. "Tess of the d'Ubervilles" was an excellent book indeed. That was the book I read as my individual project when I was in English IV AP, I remember. And it was actually ended up being the book I wrote an essay for on the exam.

[blowup_dollie]

Hi over here from bookish

The only book out of the first category I've read is Of Mice and Men which I absolutely abhor. In the second one I'd definitely go with Great Expectations (it's a little dry, but a good learning tool for a class). I'm not really the biggest fan of The Heart of Darkness.

Some books I would suggest for a foreign lit class are; Othello (the only Shakespearean play I like), Beowulf (has a lot of action to keep they guys in the class interested and it's one of my favourites), and Oedipus Rex (oh so ironic).

And if it's american lit, (which I kind of dislike) I'd recommend The Jungle (rough reading, but is entirely worth it), The Crucible (about the salem witch trials, great play), and Ethan Frome (another book if you'd like to teach irony).

[kara_called]

It seems as though people either love or hate Of Mice and Men, and I'm really leaning toward Great Expectations because they don't read it in English I.

English IV is a British lit. class. They will definitely be reading Beowulf and I'm pairing Oedipus with Antigone with my English II. I'm considering Twelfth Night because it's not a tragedy. By the time they graduate they will have read: Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth (and Twelfth Night if I include it). And I appreciate your suggestions for American lit., but I don't teach it, unfortunately. American lit. is my favorite!

[pukingtoreador]

Frankenstein in awesome. Alost, I haven't read any of the other ones.^_^;

[lilisin]

Out of the English II class you have listed I only read "A Separate Peace" and it was okay but not life-changing.
I think, if I remember correctly (I know they were at least read in some point in high school), I read "1984", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Jane Eyre" and they were all excellent for the curriculum. When it comes to these type of classics, you really can't go wrong.

And, well, I know that English AP classes are all based on American and British lit (although they like to pretend it's more by calling it "foreign lit") but I hated the fact that we never got to go past the states and England. Since your English 2 class is a Pre-AP class and they don't have to take the exam, why not introduce another culture? Or have an assignment where the students can choose a book from France, Germany, Japan or I don't know. Wherever. And then they can do a compare and contrast paper with some of the works they've already read. Just a thought.