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  • Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

    If you majored in English in college, I don't really wanna hear your response to this question (actually, that's not true; I do want to hear it, but please state up front that you were an Enlish major). I am very interested, however, in responses from everyone else. Of all the things you were made to read, in intermediate school or high school or college, fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose, what stands out the most, and why? Is there something some teacher made you read that you still look back upon with some fondness?

    I get the answer to this question all the time, even though I never really ask. When I'm meeting folks and they find out I'm an English teacher, I often get told how much they hated English...except for ______________.

    There are two or three titles that fill that blank more often than the others; there is one that I especially hear mentioned with great frequency.

    So please: What was it for you? And if you can spare a few moments to consider why, why?

    I already know a lot of you will be tempted to say, "I never read a thing in intermediate or high school; I BSed my way through all my classes and got As, and look how great my life turned out." Yes, I congratulate you, but that's not the topic at hand. So if you'd like to begin a thread about the uselessness of assigned reading or about the complete irrelevance of the Dead White Guys we English teachers are so in love with, please do.

    Here, though, I'd appreciate a candid answer to the question: What one (or two) assigned readings have stuck with you?
    But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
    GrouchyTeacher.com

  • #2
    Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

    I'll have to ponder this a bit. I took one English class in college where the instructor was quirky and occasionally profane and recommended titles that I'd never have found on my own (as she specifically shunned the Dickenses and Hemingways and Thoreaus). I remember liking the stuff, but I'm also dismayed to find I can't remember a single title.

    The fact that I still remember "The Good Earth" and "Of Mice and Men," meanwhile, may ultimately illustrate exactly why classics are dubbed classics.

    If y'all need help seeing a fairly good compilation of the titles that frequently turned up on English class reading lists, here's one from the Unabashed Librarian: What To Read Before 101.

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    • #3
      Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

      In high school (and even today) I am a pretty bad speller so I tried as much as possible to not to sign up for writing classes. There was a English class in the 10th or 11th grade that you read books and do a short summary of what you read.

      Most of the books I read during that class were mostly non-classic sci-fi books. One of them was the novelation of the movie Silent Running, which happened to show up on Kauai on the movie theaters after I read the book.

      In college I avoid taking older English Lit so I missed Shakespear but I read Heart of Darkness since it was modern English Lit.

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      • #4
        Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

        Originally posted by scrivener View Post
        I'd appreciate a candid answer to the question: What one (or two) assigned readings have stuck with you?
        Okay. My most memorable assigned reading ("assigned" being the operative term), without any doubt or hesitation, was Tolstoy's "War And Peace." Written in the mid 1800s, it's about Russian life during the Napoleanic era. Hideously and excruciatingly boring, and at somewhere around 1,500 pages long, it took forever to finish reading. Somehow I persevered and did finish it, but thankfully couldn't remember much about it at all. Probably a subconscious defense mechanism.
        Is that what you meant by "stuck with you"?
        That was in college, not high school, so I doubt that's an answer that helps you as a high school teacher, Scriv. Don't ever assign "War And Peace" unless you're seriously PO'd at a student.
        .
        .

        That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

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        • #5
          Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

          Nothing jumps to mind at the moment. I suppose a "Modest Proposal" was one I'd list simply because it taught me the concept that the narrator of the piece isn't necessarily really reflecting the author's true thoughts.

          I think the thing that stuck with me the most was more what was being taught. I had a real hard time dealing with the what and why behind things. I'd just read the story "on the surface" and never really taking things any deeper.

          One of the interesting things was that the same concepts applied to movies. After finally "getting it" I saw Flashdance and "got it". (OK, so that's not the height of literary work , but the fact I could see it on a different level was quite a revelation to me at the time.) I could see past the script and understand this story was summed up with "you have to chase your dreams or you die" and explain the experience of the main character's friends and how they related to that idea. Unfortunately the hard won skill seems to have died somewhere along the way, since I can't recall having a similar experience since then.
          Last edited by GeckoGeek; December 26, 2007, 05:48 PM.

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          • #6
            Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

            english major here.

            i'd assume that most english majors would pick one of shakespeare's works in answer to your question. in my case, it would specifically be hamlet because it can be enjoyed on so many levels, including the most base ("country matters"). hey, it's literary-elitist and dirty at the same time!

            i also really enjoyed jane eyre. jane's character really appealed to me. i may not have been an orphan, but i was an only child, often chided by my strict mother. i admired jane's fortitude. i hoped that one day, i would blaze my own path to success & happiness and somewhere along the way, find my own mr. rochester. it was the first book with a female main character that didn't seem to promote feminist values but was all the while actually denigrating them (as chaucer's wife of bath's tale does, for example). and what girl doesn't like a romance? ever since having to read it in 9th grade, i pick jane eyre up at least once every five years and reread it.
            superbia (pride), avaritia (greed), luxuria (lust), invidia (envy), gula (gluttony), ira (wrath) & acedia (sloth)--the seven deadly sins.

            "when you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: the people i deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly..."--meditations, marcus aurelius (make sure you read the rest of the passage, ya lazy wankers!)

            nothing humiliates like the truth.--me, in conversation w/mixedplatebroker re 3rd party, 2009-11-11, 1213

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            • #7
              Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

              most memorable book in high school? easy: romeo and juliet. why? cuz we all watched this old version of the classic

              http://www.amazon.com/Romeo-Juliet-L.../dp/0792165055

              and every guy's jaw dropped when olivia hussey appeared on screen!

              in college, it was Homer's The Odyssey. why? well, certainly not cuz of the many, many characters. kinda hard to keep track of this person and that person and this god and that god, but the one part that i loved was the ending where Odysseus returns but disguised as a beggar, etc, etc.

              and you're asking cuz you're curious or is there something else going on?
              525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear. 525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?

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              • #8
                Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

                Originally posted by scrivener View Post
                If you majored in English in college, I don't really wanna hear your response to this question (actually, that's not true; I do want to hear it, but please state up front that you were an Enlish major). I am very interested, however, in responses from everyone else. Of all the things you were made to read, in intermediate school or high school or college, fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose, what stands out the most, and why? Is there something some teacher made you read that you still look back upon with some fondness?

                I get the answer to this question all the time, even though I never really ask. When I'm meeting folks and they find out I'm an English teacher, I often get told how much they hated English...except for ______________.
                Sorry, had to point out the spelling error (with all due respect of course - hey how often do I get the chance......) And......I'm floored - you get people who say they hated English? I thought that was just for physics. So.... do they literally take a few steps back from you and get an anguished look on their faces?

                But to answer your question........ there are many that stick out. "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift (?) is definitely up there. But so is anything by Shakespeare (I'm a closet renfest freak). Whuthering Heights was another. I seem to be having brain freeze - can't remember titles right now. "To Kill a Mockingbird" was one I always liked. But I'm an avid reader - so some of my favorite "classics" weren't necessarily assigned (I don't think - school was a while ago ) "Gone With the Wind", Sherlock Holmes series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ummmm....... I know there's more, but can't recall any titles.

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                • #9
                  Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

                  I have been an avid reader since childhood, so my voracious taste for the printed word preceded school (not just high school - I could read before kindergarten.)

                  But it was an assignment to read works of Robert Frost that helped me to grasp the concept of using poetry to express emotion or to create an environment in a reader's mind.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

                    Dalton Trumbo’s “Johnny Got His Gun” has stuck with me for many reasons:

                    1. It wasn’t assigned, but I chose to read something opposite of what was assigned for no good reason except to be rebellious. I was successful in pleading my case to read the book, avoiding any type of disciplinary actions. I wasn’t concerned about my teacher grading my report, she was a fair person.

                    2. Overall a happy person, during the week or so that it took me to read the book, I found myself in a constant state of frustration and irritation. It was then that I learned something about myself. I become so involved with the characters that I read, it takes me some time to disassociate and return to what’s actually going on around me.

                    3. This book initiated some of the deepest conversations between my friends and myself, questioning the our religious beliefs that we were raised in, if we were pro-euthanasia, if it were ok to have double standards. Good memories, good times.

                    Richard Bach’s “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” is probably my all-time favorite and definitely recommend it to all ages. I still read it on occasion as a reminder, a little nudge of confidence. I keep a copy of Bach’s “Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah” on my nightstand. Illusions wasn’t assigned, but Jonathan was some time between 4th - 6th grade.

                    “Get Up and Bar the Door” is also a favorite that has stuck with me for over 20 years. I’m not even sure who wrote it, but it makes me laugh. At the time it was assigned, it reminded me of my parents, grandparents just ‘bout every couple in my family. Today, I must admit there are times in my own relationship that I am reminded of this.

                    I wouldn’t say I’m a lover and not a fighter, but I had a deep appreciation when I first was assigned to read Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty” especially more so today since I have an actual person to dedicate it too.

                    And that’s my answer.

                    I have a friend, English major and now an English high school teacher whose answer would be Richard Adams “Watership Down.” He read that book on his own probably once a year since we were in 5th or 6th grade.

                    Hope this helps.
                    ___
                    "Be god to each other."

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                    • #11
                      Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

                      in intermediate school, short stories seem to be the order of the day, especially those that focused on that "coming of age" theme. Two that stick out in my mind are Flowers for Algernon and The Lottery. FfA blew me away; prior to reading it, I had never taken into account the author's gift of genius, yet the "smart parts" of that story compelled my mind to dwell there. I recalled that experience when I learned that a person can fake any behavior or character, but cannot pretend a brilliance beyond him (so said some dead Mediterranean dude).

                      pax

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                      • #12
                        Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

                        Thanks for the thoughtful replies so far. It's all helpful, but books that were actually assigned by a teacher are what I'm focusing on, so that kind of input is a lot MORE helpful.
                        But I'm disturbed! I'm depressed! I'm inadequate! I GOT IT ALL! (George Costanza)
                        GrouchyTeacher.com

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

                          O Pioneers! by Willa Cather. It was on an optional list in high school, but required in college. Also, Lord of the Flies.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

                            In my grad school years I was in an MFA writing program, which was part of the English department. However, it wasn’t considered an English degree, strictly speaking. In fact, we considered ourselves somewhat anti-academic. We were all very much into contemporary writers, avant-garde writers, writers who were trying to do new things. Like Ryan’s description of one of his teachers (post #2 above), we shunned the classics (i.e. Dickens, but not so much Hemingway). For that reason, we were given a list of 32 books that we should have read—books by Cervantes, Thackeray, Flaubert, Dreiser, Faulkner, Malcolm Lowry, to mention just a few. (How’s that for assigned reading?) The reasoning behind this was that you needed a solid background in literature in order to have any meaningful discussion and awareness about writing (your own and others).

                            At the end of our two-year program, we had an informal survey of which books from the list surprised us. The hands-down choice was Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. For some reason, most of us were not assigned this book in high school or as an undergraduate. We found it surprisingly contemporary and fresh, despite the fact that it was written in the 1890s.

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                            • #15
                              Re: Assigned Reading: What Stands Out?

                              me=English major

                              I read a lot of things I liked, even assigned readings, but I cannot seem to recall many exact titles right now. I am senile.

                              high school:

                              The Scarlet Ibis (short story) because the story was one of the first that I read where people were not all bad or all good and the main characters weren't particularly appealing but the story was still a good story.


                              college:

                              The writings of Jorge Luis Borges because his works presented to me for the first time the challenge of writing complex and compelling stories in as fewer words and because he often explored the idea of too much knowledge leading to madness.

                              Rhinoceros by Ionesco because of the description of the transformation of people.

                              Sylvia Plath's works because it fascinated me that someone so self destructive could also be so creative.

                              I've been lucky enough to have a few truly memorable English teachers. One in high school who was really tough on us (to help prepare us for college, she said) but who remains a good friend even though I graduated long ago. English professors who shared their time and knowledge and their own writings generously.

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