Who's ready for the weekend?! I know I am! I'm introducing a new(ish) feature for Fridays to re-cap the week's posts & to propose a question for my followers. Feel free to get involved by linking up at the bottom. If not, I'd love to read your responses in the comments. Thanks!
This Friday's Question:
Required Reading: Which book from your school days
do you remember reading & enjoying? Is there a book published now
that you'd like to see in today's curriculum for kids?
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This is the soon-to-be Reading teacher coming out in me with this week's question :) Right now I am taking a Literacy class which is basically teaching me how to teach reading to my future students (FYI: I want to teach middle school). I've been thinking a lot about the books I read in school and how they did or did not have an impact on my reading life as a child. I think it's so important to find that RIGHT book for each child in order to engage them in reading. Usually when a child is forced or required to read something, they simply don't want to. As a future teacher my goal is to open up that spectrum and introduce more books to more kids.
I was a child who did not like to read. I know, shocking. So the only reading these youthful eyes did were what was required of me. Fortunately there's two books that stand out the most when I think back to my middle school/high school English class days. They are:
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton & The Great Gatsby by F. ScottFitzgerald
I'm not sure they'd have the same impact on students today as they did back in.... well let's just say it was awhile ago :) haha. I think it's important for children to read about events that occurred in the past; however, they don't always hold a child's interest for long. These two books may feel too distant to today's student. If I were to choose something a little more current for my classroom today I would definitely have these books on my shelf:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins & Speak by Laurie Halse-Anderson
Both of these books portray excellent writing, in my opinion. Obviously they would need to be in an age-appropriate classroom though. The best part about getting kids to read is getting them to talk about what they read. If the book tends to be highly engaging and provokes thoughtful responses, then I think it's a good fit for any classroom.
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I still need to read Speak! I've heard NOTHING but great things about it.
ReplyDeleteI liked The Great Gatsby back in the day. With the movie coming out, I've been thinking of rereading it.
I had the worst time trying to remember what I read in school. But I do think The Outsiders was required reading when I was a child, too. I know I read all of S.E. Hinton's books because I wanted to be just like her - having written a novel by the time I was 17 - but I think The Outsiders was mandatory. Thanks for the remind!
ReplyDeleteThe Outsiders may be too distant, unless of course they remake the movie and kids get interested all over again. And I couldn't choke down Gatsby when I was a kid or an adult so I could see it not being a favorite for a reluctant reader.
I really must read THG if it's a recommend for school reads though. Great picks! Sorry for the long comment! Happy Friday! :)
Great picks for today's curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI think both The Hunger Games and Speak are good choices to add to required reading.
I agree! The Hunger Games and Speak are perfect, Chica!
ReplyDeleteI had to read The Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet, Emma, Little Women, Jane Eyre, The Outsiders, (Some of these were choices out of a list)hmmmm..... that's all that's coming to mind right now :o]
I think you make a good point about having on your shelves more mainstream selections to grab the students' attention. Books like HG and Twilight have rekindled that love of reading in a lot of people and I believe the same holds true for children.
ReplyDeleteI think Hunger Games is a great choice for classroom reading. I loved Speak, but I feel like it is a personal book that should take you on a personal journey and isn't one that I'd want to read aloud in class.
ReplyDeleteWe did all of our required reading by reading aloud in class. I wonder if this is the norm or more independent reading is and should be more incorporated.
There were tons of classics (Shakespeare, Bronte etc) as required reading when I was younger - I wish there had been some more contemporary choices.
ReplyDeleteI hated reading in school too, but now that I'm not forced to it's awesome!
ReplyDeleteGood choices for books they should be reading, they were both great reads :)
I haven't read Speak but I agree 100% with The Hunger Games. Loved that book!
ReplyDeleteI'm participating in my first TGIF, I hope you'll drop by and see mine.
http://notyourmothersbookblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/friday-hops-february-24-2012.html
I've always loved to read, but don't remember particularly enjoying ANY assigned reading in HS. I think I just hate being told what to read. The Hunger Games has DEFinitely taken public schools by storm! When I left Baltimore, it seemed like every middle school teacher I knew there was doing a THG unit. And Speak is just phenomenal. Laurie Halse Anderson is a queen!
ReplyDeleteSeeing a lot of THG for today's reading. I agree, excellent writing. And yes, age appropriate. I read Outsiders in HS, but not for school. And with more teachers like you, I'm sure kids will start getting better books to read.
ReplyDeleteGreat question! I had to read the Great Gatsby too, but not the Outsiders. Speak would be a good one!
ReplyDeleteGreat choices Ginger! I am glad to see you loved The Great Gatsby too!! I don'y remember ever reading The Outsiders. I think that might just be the one my son and I read. I already let him read The Hunger Games and he loved it! Speak is amazing too.
ReplyDeleteI never read the Outsiders. How did I miss that one? I loved the Great Gatsby. The movie THE ARTIST has the same feel. In that 1920's way.
ReplyDeletei loved "the outsiders" -- i think i read it when i was 12, and it wasn't required reading, but it made me read all of ms. hinton's books. that's an incredible story. love Pony Boy and Johnny. great pick!
ReplyDeletei couldn't get through "The Great Gatsby", which also wasn't required reading, but i know it's a classic and has something important to say, but i just can't do it. :(
The Outsiders was one of those books I never appreciated until I was older, like A Prayer for Owen Meany or anything written by Salinger. The Great Gatsby, I don't remember much about anymore but I am looking forward to the movie adaptation later this year!
ReplyDeleteBoth The Hunger Games and Speak would have been great to have in high school. Really anything. I sort of went to school way before YA became a well read genre.
Brilliant picks!
I pretty much gave up reading when I hit 13 years old, so I had a hard time remembering anything I read in school! I did end up remembering one though. And I had nothing insightful to contribute to the second part of the question, lol.
ReplyDeleteI read The Outsiders in 8th grade and really liked it too. I remember thinking I wouldn't, because at that time I only wanted to read romantic books, but it really surprised me. My coworker recently read it to her 7th grade advisory class and they LOVED it. Some even checked it out after to read it again! That is one of the best feelings you can have as a teacher, knowing you made a connection like that.
ReplyDeleteI really have to agree on both The Outsiders and The Great Gatsby. Those are still two of my favorite reads from school along with To Kill a Mockingbird and The Bell Jar.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone had to read The Great Gatsby. It's on my list too!
ReplyDeleteI'm studying to be an english teacher, and in my YA Lit class last semester we learned how to use Speak in a classroom! I actually created a whole Unit of Study about bullying and used Speak in it :)
ReplyDeleteMy TGIF
I love Speak so much. I really do believe it would be a wonderful addition to every high school curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI've never read The Great Gatsby or Speak (yeah I'm ashamed), but I know how much I loved The Outsiders as a middle schooler! Such an amazing book and glad to see The Hunger Games on your list. =)
ReplyDeleteMy commenting is off to a late start today, which makes me sad. But I'm here now and totally ready to catch up!
ReplyDeleteI've read The Great Gatsby, but that was a while back, and I may need a refresher on it. I've also read and loved The Hunger Games. It would be a novel that inspired discussions in the classroom and there is just so much you could learn from reading it.
I've not read The Outsiders, but Speak is actually the next, next book in my list of books to read. It looks like it's going to be an amazing read and I cannot wait to experience it for myself.
By the way, I think it's amazing that you're going to be a teacher! I wanted to teach when I was younger, but I don't think I have the patience or the drive for it. I'm very certain you'll be a wonderful one!
I haven't read the Outsiders, but all three of your other picks are some of my favorite books ever. I may have to move The Outsiders up on my reading list. :) Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI read a whole bunch as a kid but then stopped when I was a teenager and have only started reading really regularly in the past few years. I never read The Outsiders (although I went to high school in Tulsa so you'd think I would have had to read that...) but I want to someday! And Speak is also on my TBR list. First time participating in this meme. It's great and thanks for hosting! ;)
ReplyDeleteI think The Hunger Games would do a fantastic job of getting kids interested in reading. It has a good moral, but it's also interesting, which is something you don't really see these days.
ReplyDeleteFABS question, G! Per usual, of course.
ReplyDeleteI remember loving The Great Gatsby as well. My favorite required reading was definitely Lord of the Flies. Sucks to your assmar, Piggy!