As the time approaches for me to enter the classroom, I am reading everything I can get my hands on to help me out. I am reading a book called In the Middle by Nancy Atwell, and Atwell advises teachers to let their students immerse themselves in books that they enjoy instead of imposing their own reading choices on the class. I really want to create an atmosphere where reading is not a chore, but a joy. Idealistic I know, but I prefer idealism to being jaded. The problem is that because of the school I went to, I have no real idea of good adolescent literature - books that are literary and relevant to the lives of students without being boring. So, I need your help. Make a list of some of the books you read in middle school and high school that meant something to you, or that you just enjoyed reading, and send it to me. I am going to get a library of your recommendations together and have it available in my classroom. I am curious which books will wind up repeatedly on the lists.
Thanks for your help!
8 comments:
All of the S.E. Hinton books. I think I read them all in middle school, and when I was teaching reading, the kids were still reading them. Although you are teaching in a high school and these books do not have a very high reading level, they are still a good thing to have around. I will comment later with a more complete list.
Does the school have books that are required? My high school did. We HAD to read some and then there was another list of "approved" books that we could also read for class.
Although this is high school, it is in an area with high poverty and high drop-out rates so I am looking for books that may be below level, but not too simple. I think that even though these kids may not be great readers, their lives will be more complicated than a middle-school kid. Thanks for the Hinton suggestion and I look forward to your list.
The only two books that I remember reading are Little Women and Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume (this was more middle school than high school). I also loved Wuthering Heights. I know I read more, I just forgot. Good luck, you are going to be such a good teacher!
I enjoyed Island of the Blue Dolphins and Sing Down the Moon. When I was young, I read a lot of crap like the Fear Street series. I doubt that's cool nowadays though.
I also liked to go through the banned books list and read those.(my school didn't have a banned list. It was just a list of books that some schools banned for language--usually the use of the "N" word or adult themes like suicide and sex.) Things like Ordinary People, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. I felt like I was being naughty and bucking the system.
I also had a teacher who had mandatory reading every English class. She didn't care what we read, as long as we read something. You could bring your own reading material or if you forgot it (or are poor and don't have any), she had a small "library" in the class. I liked that.
Another teacher made us write a quick summary on a note card for each book we read. We got a star to put by our name and once you read so many books, you got a prize. I guess that might be kind of kiddy for high school though. However, I think all students like to get prizes.
Hey Alicia! I can't remember anything I read last week, much less middle school! I know i'm a sorry excuse for an English major, but thats what happens when you read 100's of pages of boring law stuff every day. I'll put my nose to the grindstone and try to remember something for you.
Okay, I think they will be able to relate to the S.E. Hinton books. I also noticed that "The Pigman" and other books by Paul Zindel were very popular. Most of his books are for young adults and deal with "real" themes.
I used to really like Francesca Block, but those themes can get pretty dark: drugs, teenage sex, etc, so you may have to be careful with those. However, they are interesting and captivating.
Lois Lowry has some books that are geared towards older readers, like "The Giver". We did it as a class in 8th grade, but I think there are enough interesting themes that would carry over to high schoolers. It is also a good segueway into "Brave New World" or "1984", which were fun to discuss.
I'll keep trying to come up with stuff, if you'd like. I hope this helps!
In high school I loved The Awakening, The Dubliners, Fahrenheit 451 and Alas, Babylon. I also found my love for Pat Conroy's books in high school.
For some reason I can't rememeber anything I read in middle school
(except the R.L. Stine books but those were hardly educational and I think I loved them so much because my Mom didn't want me to read anything like that! I think she wished I was still reading Sweet Valley, Baby sitters club, or the Box car children)
In 10th grade our teacher gave us a book list each month... we could either pick one off the list or read a book off the New York Times best seller list. I picked what I thought was a mystery off the NYT List. It ended up being one of those cheesie romance books and I discovered how many ways you could describe a man's "throbing memeber"
Nice idea with this site its better than most of the rubbish I come across.
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