It does get a little complicated, however when you consider:
- School starts on Thursday.
- I am teaching 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade classes.
- Most of my teacher stuff is more jr. high oriented.
So, here's where you step in to help me plan 4 different year long curriculums without losing my mind (as much). Please, please, please comment on this post and tell me which books you read in high school and which grades you read them in. And, if you really loved or hated them you could mention that too. Thank you internet friends!
Also, I really do want to thank everyone who has been so supportive and optimistic this summer. I kept expecting to find myself in the depths of despair, but there was always someone there to keep me going. And I very much appreciate that.
11 comments:
Books I read in high school.
Please remember that I have an insanely good memory and this is a subject that's near and dear to my heart.
Freshman Year--The Odyssey; Romeo & Julliet; lot's of grammar dealing mostly with Greek Roots and the Mrs. Thistlebottom method. The Greek Roots really built my vocab and increased my understanding of language, but teaching them would be difficult if you didn't have an immediate source for them.
Sophomore Year--Julius Caesar, The House on Mango Street; The Lord of the Flies; A Tale of Two Cities; Of Mice and Men; Choose your on novel and present on it--mine was A Separate Peace, one guy did Billy Budd, that's all I remember. (This was Enriched English II, not regular English II). We did a lot of writing, and we did a poetry unit covering William Carlos William's "The Red Wheel Barrow," Gwendolyn Brook's "We Real Cool," and at least four others (maybe an e.e. cummings?). We would read a poem and then "emulate the style of the poet" (This is the class where I learned to pull out BS.) This was a great class. We read a lot. We wrote a lot (including my first research paper). We did a lot of peer review and presentation work. Our teacher, Mrs. Judith Towse Roberts, was eccentric (to put it mildly), but she expected a lot of us and we were glad to give it to her because we loved her.
Junior year--One semester Expository Writng, which was actually quite painful because of the harsh standards for mechanics in the papers. One semester American Literature. We studied The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby and some other stuff (must have studied something else). We watched movies for both of these, and we had to do a portfolio of American Literary History. And Carson McGhee tried to cheat off of my Grapes of Wrath test and I totally tattled on him.
Senior Year--This was Comp 110, which earned college credit through UMKC. The first semester we focused on writing (four shorter papers). Mrs. Wagner was not specific enough about her wishes here. She passed out rubrics instead of discussing voice, style, flow and the difference between an academic essay and a piece of good, autobiographical prose. We did a hard-core unit on research papers complete with intense MLA training (we had to write proper MLA citations for all 42 MLA citation circumstances and get them PERFECT!). Then we actually started researching and Mrs. Wagner was kind enough to teach us the format and then tell us to let the paper drive it's own focus home (i.e. don't try force your sources to prove something they don't actually prove). It was really where I learned to write. After this we focused on literature (finally!). We read Othello, by which I mean Mrs. Wagner made us read along while listening to a tape (no bueno, just make the kids read aloud--they'll pay better attention and maybe enjoy it more). We did novel units in small groups (again with presentations). I did The Joy Luck Club. One group did Huck Finn and the LOTR (or The Hobbit. Another did A Clockwork Orange--that might have been a little too mature for high school audiences. Most classes did 1984 this year. We also did a poetry unit in which the focus was on analysis. I'm pretty sure we did some Sylvia Plath here, but I'm not positive. Our final this term was a portfolio of everything we'd written throughout high school (the department kept files on us that hung out in our english teacher's classroom each year). We also had to write college adminissions essays, I think.
So yeah, that's a fairly detailed account of my high school English experience. If you want more details or have further questions, let me know.
Oh man. I wish I could remember all I read. I think that To Kill a Mockingbird and P & P were in 9th. 10th grade included The Scarlet Letter... The Crucible. 11th: Lord of the Flies and 1984, I think. Somewhere in 11th or 12th we read Rand's The Fountainhead. I'll let you know if I can remember more.
Congrats on getting a job!
First of all, congratulations on getting the job! Woo hoo! High Five! *cheers*
Alrighty, well, first I have to recommend "The Book Whisperer" for YOU to read. There's a little blurb about it on my blog that explains why it will help you in your quest. I think you already agree with most of her sentiments, but she has really good advice for English teachers.
Okay, grade appropriate stuff, huh? From what I remember, the stuff I did in Senior year was only marginally different than the stuff I did Freshman year, and that had more to do with the different teachers. I don't think there are very many books that are appropriate for a senior to read that aren't for a freshman. It just depends on how you discuss them. We did a lot of Shakespeare my Freshman year, but my teacher that year was horrible, and she also made us read tons of Steinbeck. I swear this woman had a crush on John Steinbeck, and it was creepy.
In my sophomore class we had a list of books to choose from and a certain number of book reports we had to finish by the end of the year. Naturally this thrilled me, because it meant I got to pick the books I wanted, but for most of the rest of my class, it meant that everyone read the Crucible, because it was short. Now, I've never read the Crucible, but I've heard it's kind of awful, especially if you're 15-16. So don't make them read that, I guess.
Um, as far as what books I read... Let's see. Lord of the Flies (creepy book), Tale of Two Cities (we watched a movie adaptation, and I loved it- the book and the movie), The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (aagggh!), The Last Unicorn (I coerced my sophomore teacher into letting me read this since I had gone through everything else I liked on that list), Three Musketeers (way fun read- this is the kind of book that will convince high school students that "classics" are not always boring, and that long books are not always evil), 1984 (loved it, but it was a depressing read), Animal Farm (see above), Walden (I really liked that one, not least because we read it all the way through fast, and then went slowly chapter by chapter a second time), and of course, lots of Shakespeare. I've heard it said that Julius Caesar is the most boring Shakespeare play, and also the most taught in schools because it's short and doesn't have a lot of ribald jokes in it. You will win the hearts of your students if you explain the dirty jokes, or at least use an edition that explains them for you. (You know, if you feel like that's a good use of class time.)
Much more than that, I can't say. Don't be afraid to teach something that's not on the "Book You Have To Read" list. There are a lot of books I've read that enriched my life ten times more than reading The Jungle or Lord of the Flies ever did. If you teach a book you love, I'm sure it will inspire your students to love it too (or at least pay attention). I'm sure you'll do wonderful in your new job! I am so happy for you! *hug*
Love,
Amy
I am so excited for you!!! So very, very, very excited.
9th: Romeo and Juliet. Hated it. To Kill a Mockingbird. Loved it.
10th: Scarlet Letter (or was that 11th?). Okay. A Shakespeare play I don't remember at all . . . Of Mice and Men, which I enjoyed.
11th: I don't remember 11th grade English. Great Gatsby, I think. I liked it.
12th: I don't remember 12th grade English either.
Books I wish I would have read in high school:
Frankenstein, A Dickens novel, probably A Tale of Two Cities, The Book Thief (new, but excellent--read it in college), more poetry (particularly Wordsworth, Dickinson, and Spencer), Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, Galileo (the play), Speak, and LOTS more short stories, including The Yellow Wallpaper, short stories by Gabrile Garcia Marquez, Isaac Asimov, Hills Like White Elephants, A James Joyce short story (just one, no more), An Egdar Allen Poe story or two, and etc.
Here is Shannon Hale's recommendations for a reading list for high school:
http://www.squeetus.com/stage/shannon_recc_read.html
It's really, really good.
My 10th grade English teacher stressed British Lit A LOT. She did something called cultural allusions (I think there's a book you can buy on it) she'd give us a list of allusions she thought were good for us to know, and then we'd study it and have quizzes on it. I disliked the quizzes, but later on as I realized how helpful knowing all the allusions used in t.v., games, everyday speech and where they came from was awesome. I recommend it :).
I think we read Wives and Daughters in High School (gag! but the movie was enjoyable) ummm ... The Count of Monte Cristo abridged, Thomas Beckett, a bit of the Canterbury Tales, and we memorized poems ... a lot of poems. (We wrote poems too, which I really liked)
That's all I've got ... good luck love! Let me know if you need anything ... OH! I still might even have the cultural allusion packets in my basement at home!
Oh my gosh! how exciting! I read everything you did but I'll try to think of some. Good luck and don't panic you'll be great. You've been an english teacher your whole life! I know because I was there with you for a lot of it and no one could be better for the job! Wow! I'm so happy for you!
Oh my gosh! Good luck, sweetie! What a crazy adventure. You can totally do it!
Book lists, mine and Scott's combined (what I can remember, which isn't much):
9th--The Odyssey (both of us), Romeo & Juliet (both of us), Animal Farm, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
10th (Honors)--Antigone, Merchant of Venice (both of us), Fahrenheit 451 (highly recommended!), Of Mice and Men (both of us), The Stranger, A Separate Peace (Scott)
11th (Honors)--The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms, The Scarlet Letter (Scott), Huckleberry Finn, The Grapes of Wrath, Hamlet, Stargirl (in my A.P. American History class), A Separate Peace (Cathryn)
12th (A.P. Literature)--The Scarlet Letter (Cathryn), Their Eyes Were Watching God, Heart of Darkness (both of us), Cry the Beloved Country, Things Fall Apart, Beowulf, Jane Eyre/Wuthering Heights/Sense and Sensibility/Pride and Prejudice (picked one), Brave New World, Lord of the Flies (both of us)
I guess I kind of had a bad attitude, because I hated pretty much everything we read except Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451, and Hamlet--and I had already read Hamlet twice on my own by the time we did it in class. :(
Hopefully that's a little bit of a start. Don't forget that your hands are tied based on what books you can get class sets of, usually based on what hasn't been claimed at the school or at the district warehouse (this is what I'm fighting now--we're a new charter school, so there are zero class sets at all). And of course, what the other teachers & grades teach all influence what you can do. GOOD LUCK!!
For American Lit we did My Antonia, all the poets like Walt Whitman and Robert Frost, The Great Gatsby, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Steinbeck.
Then I took a creative writing class in 12th grade (this is not actually going to help you) and we only read books that had been made into movies and were lame. Like Field of Dreams and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and crap like that.
9th grade we did Romeo and Juliet (and then watched W.S.Story. Random.) King Lear, The Odyssey, and I can't actually remember anything else.
I wish I would've read Jane Eyre and TKAMockingbird. My teacher that had us read all the poetry had us read each poem three times to ourselves and then in groups of 4 we'd get assigned a part of the poem to explain to the class and it helped a ton with actually understanding the poem.
Good luck. And I'm not blog stalking you. I promise.
Freshman:
Romeo & Juliet, Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Sophomore:
Julius Caesar, Night by Elie Weisel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (could have read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie).
Junior:
The Crucible by Arthur Miller, And individually assigned books from the "Canon of Classic English Literature." I read Pride and Prejudice. That much I know. We also did a short story unit. We read Rip Van Winkle. We also studied the parts of speech extensively that year.
Senior:
Large Poetry Unit. John Keaton? Gwedolyn Brooks? William Carlos William's? Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, we studied allusions and archetypes, and read Hamlet.
Congrats on the job Aubrey! Good luck!
Thank you all so much! Your ideas and information have been really helpful!
Dear Aubrey,
I like you a lot! I think it's great that you got that job! I know you already started school and stuff, but oh well.
9th- (I actually think I read these in 7th or 8th) The Giver (loved), And Then There Were None(so good), Romeo and Juliet (love it, although the movie we watched was so lame.) TKAM- still one of my most favorite books. Some short stories like The Lady or the Tiger, and some Edgar Allen Poe.
10th- House on Mango street (lame) Silas Marner (thought it was great, that's where I learned about opium...) Of Mice and Men (loved it)
11th- we did a ton of poetry this year. A Raisin in the Sun (pretty good) Scarlet Letter (interesting) The Great Gatsby (love) The Phantom of the Opera (better than the movie.) We also did a billion research papers it felt like... I really liked when we got to choose our own books.
12th- Things fall Apart (harder to get into, but good) The Joy Luck Club (love it) Dante's Inferno (weird) The Yellow Wallpaper (creepiest book ever, but I love it...you'll have to ask Kami about her slunking lizard.)
Yeah I'm sure there are more, but that's what I can think of for now.
I'm so excited that you get to teach!
ps you should have some of your students read Shannon Hale's books like Goose Girl and Princess Academy, cause they are amazing!
Good luck!
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