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/lit/ - Literature

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3311097 No.3311097[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

You're a high school English teacher: What books/stories do you spend the year teaching your students?
>Gatsby
>The Plague, by Camus
>To Kill a Mockingbird, just to have a woman
>Hamlet, for Shakespeare's sake
>A couple Hemingway short stories, to show that not everything needs 100 pages.

>> No.3311108
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3311108

Finnegan's Wake

>> No.3311109

>>3311108

>'s

>> No.3311119

Henry James,
James Joyce,
Joyce Carol Oates,
Oateson Scott Card

>> No.3311121

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mang, mang

>> No.3311137

Stuff the administration/parents would be upset by.

>> No.3311142

Gatsby
Heart of Darkness
1984
Sun Also Rises
Brothers Karamazov

It's gonna b that e z

>> No.3311145

>>3311097
you do know that high school teachers don't actually get to pick their curriculum, right?

>> No.3311151

>>3311145
Just go with it man.

>> No.3311159

>Infinite Jest
>Shoplifting From American Apparel
>Ulysses

>> No.3311167

>>3311097
Or you could do what my teacher did and just spend the entire year teaching Gatsby. ok, I might be exaggerating. He only spent a SEMESTER on it. It took me 8 years to get over having to write an essay on the blinking light and then appreciate the novel for its greater impact than just its towering symbolism.

>> No.3311168
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3311168

De Sade

>> No.3311181
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3311181

>>3311097
>You're a high school English teacher

>> No.3311184

Nobody who actually knows anything about literature becomes a high school English teacher.

>> No.3311190

>>3311184
>implying he does it because he knows everything about lit
>implying he does it because he loves to teach and gets paid well
>implying he's not putting his talents to good use

>> No.3311222

Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle

>> No.3311230

>>3311190

> Teachers
> Getting paid well

>> No.3311231

Whatever they want.

I'm there to teach them how to read, not to teach them what to read.

>> No.3311261

>>3311222
Looks interesting. May look into it someday

>> No.3311264

>One, No one and One Hundred Thousand

>> No.3311269

>The Sound and the Fury
>Under the Volcano
>The Brothers Karamazov
>Moby-Dick
>One Hundred Years of Solitude

>> No.3311282

>>3311184
>implying this isn't a hypothetical scenario
>implying value judgments regarding this particular career are relevant to the question posed

Here, if you'd prefer:

What list of books do you think would be ideal for an advanced high school english class?

>> No.3311339

>>3311097

no no no no no OP. You don't understand.

>Gatsby

Kids will end up hating it. For evidence I present to you the leagues of highschoolers who read this book not giving two shits about the gilded age or the 20th century for that matter, and end up hating the entirety of modernist literature because of it. Eventually developing a philosophy around that hatred and going on 4chan to post about modernist hacks.

>The Plague, by Camus

Maybe OP, maybe our higschoolers, who are too busy sucking each other's dicks in the middle of class and worrying about who got suspended for wearing a belly button ring, are going to sit down and worry about existentialism.

>To Kill a Mockingbird, just to have a woman

This is probably one of the only accessible options that you have suggested. And you only suggested it for gender diversity. Good job OP, you belong on a school board somewhere.

>Hamlet, for Shakespeare's sake

trust me op, you aren't doing Shakespeare any good by having fucking highschoolers read one of his most difficult and quixotic works. Are you serious? You want them to read the intellectual fucking mind warp that is Hamlet? Most of these kids still get stumped by the philosophical ponderings of spongebob.

> a couple Hemingway short stories

This is more like it OP, but still not there yet. Hemingway is a great writer and one of the most accesable writers of all time for the bang you get out of it. That is, if you lived anywhere near the early to mid 20th century. These kids hear one antiquated word and they are bored to fucking tears. Give them a god damn second before you make them read modernists writers.

>> No.3311383
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3311383

>>3311097
Fuck is wrong with you?
1. You have no idea what other people are like and really believe this.
Or
2. You be trolling, they hatin....

Kids in school should read fun books that will get them interested in reading in the future. If you tell a class to read "deep-classic-stuff" someone will get it and think it's so good but that person would probably read that book anyway. Half of the rest will be put of by reading and then the chance of them spending time reading home alone is now smaller then ever. And the rest of the will not finish the book and look up what to say about it on wikipedia and never read a book again.

So let them read Twilight, Battle Royale, Hunger games, Micke's incest adventure or what ever they like.

>> No.3311397

>>3311184
Just saying my best friend moved to America to teach high school English and I would say he is much more well read and analytical that 95% of the people on this board.

>> No.3311403

Narcissus and Goldmund (or maybe a different Hesse book if that one's 2deep4skool)
A combination of Hamlet and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
A couple stories from The Canterbury Tales
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Great Gatsby
Watership Down


>>3311184
Oddly enough I don't like writing but could probably be a pretty competent english teacher. Though I do agree that the people I know who were interested in being english teachers or taught at my high school (excusing two teachers, one who was let go and the other who couldn't stand working there but clearly loved reading and writing) seemed terrible at it.

>> No.3311404

>>3311339
>kids will hate Gatsby

Beats the hell out of Catcher in the Rye though.

>> No.3311413

>Stranger in a strange land
>Naked Lunch
>Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas

>Get fired

>> No.3311419

>>3311404

This.

"you're going to love this book kids, the main character is just like you."

I fucking hope I wasn't that much of an unbearable cunt as a teenager.

>> No.3311429

>>3311413
And well you should

The kids will probably turn into edgy plebs on their own, they don't need help.

>> No.3311431

>>3311419
You were

>> No.3311440

>>3311431

I know :(

>> No.3311445

>>3311419

I remember reading that bullshit in higschool for summer reading and first day we had a worksheet on it.

first question: "Why do you think that you and so many people of your age identify with Holden."

It's so indicative of antiquated ideas propagated in highschool.

>> No.3311446

>>3311419
You are now, so why wouldn't you have been back then?

>> No.3311450

>>3311097
>You're a high school English teacher
aka, failed novelist

>> No.3311454

>>3311339
I'm a senior (18;inb4 underage b&) and I'm going to read Gatsby this last semester. Should I willfully read it before the time comes?

>> No.3311456

>>3311429
>edgy
>pleb
it's like you want no one to take you seriously
regardless, you have bad taste

>> No.3311457

>>3311445
>summer reading
lelwot

>> No.3311471

>>3311184
Can't speak for public schools, but in private schools, yes they do.

>> No.3311500

>>3311184
The teachers I had junior and senior years actually knew quite a bit about literature. I was quite impressed.

>> No.3311563

In Search of Lost Time (for Seniors)
The Human Comedy (for Juniors)
as much Dostoyevsky as I can get through (for Sophomores)
(one short story by a different author every single day) (for Freshmen)

>> No.3311676

-Ender's Game
-The Metamorphosis
-Lord of the Flies
-The Great Gatsby
-The Left Hand of Darkness
-1984

Maybe a story or two by Borges if it was an AP class.

>> No.3312035

Don't bother with Russians or Joyce in high school. The only kids who would actually read the books would read them regardless of the class.

Faulkner
>As I Lay, Dying
>Absalom, Absalom

>The Invisible Man
>Old Man and the Sea

Moby-Dick is alright, but it takes so long to get through especially in a high school context that it isn't worth it.

>> No.3312056

>the great gatsby
>the good earth
>a doll's house (so feminism can't say bad things about my program)
>salome (to upset the head of the school)
>to kill a mocking bird

>> No.3312106

The Mahabharata in its entirety.

>> No.3312138

I remember my favorite reading assignment was a short story titled The Open Boat by Stephen Crane.

I think I learned more about life from that short story than I ever did reading Shakespeare or godawful bores like Gatsby or To Kill a Mocking Bird.

>> No.3312147

>>3311339
I read Gatsby, Mockingbird, and Hamlet in HS and actually enjoyed them quite a bit.

Me? I'd do
-Mother Night
-The Big Sleep
-At the Mountains of Madness/ Call of Cthulu/ Shadow Over Insmouth/ Dunwhich Horror
- Atlas Shrugged
-Heart of Darkness

And then end it off by watching Apocalypse Now, all while entering the class in the local Battle of the Bands and teaching them how to rock.

>> No.3312154
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3312154

Every day of class will begin with a quote from Epictetus' Enchiridion along with a short journal entry. Maybe a "word of the day" too- students could suggest this for the following class on their journal entries.

The reading list.

>Gulliver's Travels
>Candide
>The Sun Also Rises
>A Portrait
>Of Mice and Men
>Fun shorts like Oscar Wilde, The Metamorphosis, a smattering of classical poetry
>Euthyphro, Apology, Crito
>Excerpted philosophic classics: Aristotle's Metaphysics & Nicomachean, Hume's Enquiry, Hobbes' Leviathan, Locke's Essay, Kant's Groundwork, Mill's Utilitarianism, Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, etc
>Othello
>And for the finale, Lolita

This is what I would've liked my High School English class to be- this is one day how I'll teach.

>> No.3312158

>>3312154

Forgot to mention Republic.

>> No.3312284

>>3312154

>HS reading list

i laffed, you are a fucking fool if you think you could teach all that to bunch of illiterate high school kids in 1 term.

bunch of motherfucking dead poets society wannabes up in here.

I would, instead of the same splattering of shit lit that bores HS kids to fucking death and makes them hate reading, try something, I know this is shocking to you faggots, new.

You all have listed the same shit every HS kid in the US is taught, are you guys like reading the list of required reading or some shit?

I would end up have a class full of kids that found something they enjoyed, you all shit pretentious bullshit down there throats and have a lot of daydreaming bored kids that sparknotes the book to pass your test and didn't learn shit, nice going, you're all as big of morons as most HS teachers.

I hope none of you go on to be teachers, cause this is sad.

>> No.3312291

>>3311184
my former public high school Lit. teacher just finished her doctorate last year... She's still working in the public school system and she plans to for the foreseeable future.

>> No.3312296

Prague Cemetery and Mein Kampf

>> No.3312305

“I, Lucifer, Fallen Angel, Prince of Darkness, Bringer of Light, Ruler of Hell, Lord of the Flies, Father of Lies, Apostate Supreme, Tempter of Mankind, Old Serpent, Prince of This World, Seducer, Accuser, Tormentor, Blasphemer, and without doubt Best Fuck in the Seen and Unseen Universe (ask Eve, that minx) have decided—oo-la-la!—to tell all.”

This is the book I would start with. HS kids are bored as fuck, sin, sex, drugs, lightning fast wit and a hilarious story and good writing. They couldn't help but read on with an opening like that.

>One flew other the coocoo's nest
> F450
> Gatspy
>shakespear
>other boring shit the average HS kid cannot or will not read

listing that shit makes you a failure, your job is to teach not to force your shitty boring booklist onto kids.

>> No.3312306

I recommend Gormenghast.

>> No.3312307

Would it be possible, to say, that the kids can choose what they want to read?
Maybe make a class election or some shit and let them read the books that get the most votes?
If not, give them something easy that might be a little thought provoking, but don't give them russian literature or Joyce or some shit. They will hate it and hate reading.

I am from Germany, but in school we had the same dilema a lot of the people in here described. What did we read in school? We read Faust and a lot of other German classics. Hell I liked reading, but even I didn't like most of these books. I mean Faust was interesting, but I didn't get shit (I was 14 or 15 back then) and don't get me started on that shit that was called Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane. I still loved reading and got into classics on my own later on. But give someone that is not interested in reading at all a book that he will simply find boring and he will think reading is boring and most likely will never read anything that is labeled 'a classic' or older than 20 years.

>> No.3312315
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3312315

1984 and team up with the computer science and arts&crafts teachers for stallman propaganda and tinfoil hats.

it will be glorious.

>> No.3312327

50 Shades of Gray

>> No.3312345

>>3312306

>highschoolers
>Gormenghast

it's like you didn't even read the book. kids are fucking dumb and get fuck all out of being educated

>> No.3312348

>>3312345
Oh right, because so many of the suggestions in this thread have been serious.

>> No.3312351

>>3312345
I think he was joking.

>> No.3312354

>Gatsby
>Catcher in the Rye
>Some Canterbury Tales. Wife of Bath's, General Prologue, maybe the Nun Priest's or the Physician's.
>A Hemingway short
>Walden and maybe Civil Disobediance, some Transcendentalist poetry
>A HP Lovecraft short for Halloween. Probably Shadow over Innsmouth.
>Lolita
>A Shakespeare comedy. Twelfth Night? Midsum? Taming of the Shrew?
>mix some rap in there to keep their attention

I'd love to do some of The Divine Comedy and more transcendentalists, but I don't want to shove it on people who I know won't appreciate it.

>> No.3312355

>>3312354
Children will absolutely despise the Catcher in the Rye.

>> No.3312359

>>3312355
Why do you say that?

>> No.3312362

>>3312359
Because they do.

>> No.3312369

>>3312362
My AP class enjoyed it back in the day.

>> No.3312373

>>3312369
You got lucky then.

>> No.3312391

>>3312373
I will not contest that. Itś always nice to learn amongst other engaged students.

>> No.3312407

Assuming I can be a regular literature teacher and not exclusively for English-language works:

-Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Lu Xun short stories
-Ikkyu, Ryokan, Basho, Izumi Shikibu, Ono no Komachi
-Li Ho, Li Po, Tu Fu, Wang Wei, Li Shang-yin
-shortened Ramayana by Narayan
-The Palm-Wine Drinkard
-Sundiata and story by Tayeb Salih
-short stories by Kafka and Walser and Schulz
-Baudelaire & co. poetry
-Hopkins, Rossetti, Byron, Keats, Coleridge poems
-plays by Shakespeare and Marlowe
-poetry of Chaucer, Donne, Spenser, Milton
-Beowulf
-The Tain and Irish folktales, Yeats
-selections from Decameron and Italian folktales
-Song of Solomon, Book of Job
-Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes
-Pre-Socratics, Plato and Aristotle
-Saga of the Volungs and poems from Poetic Edda
-short stories by Gogol, Dosto and Tolstoy
-short stories by Kharms, Chekov, Isaac Babel
-plays of Lorca, Strindberg, Ibsen
-plays of Jarry, Pirandello, Beckett
-essays by Emerson and Thoreau, poetry of Whitman
-stories by O. Henry, Jack London, Hemingway, Salinger
-stories by Raymond Carver, Pancake, Brautigan
-stories by Lugones, Borges, Casares
-stories by Girondo, Ocampo and Marquez
-folktales from Mongolia, Yemen, Burma, Maldives and general Central Asia
-selections from Aesop's Fables, Kalevala, Grimm's Fairy Tales
-selections from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, Lafcadio Hearn, Tales from Arabian Nights
-selections from Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen, Hoffmann

About a week for each, I think that's 31 weeks. Leaving out some time for tests, projects, etc. I think this would be about 50 pages of reading each night.

And if that's too rigorous, make it a two year curriculum, ending the first year with the Book of Job.

>> No.3312419

>>3312407
>50 pages of reading each night

Your students are going to fucking hate you dude.

>> No.3312423

>>3312407
Would you teach all of those in their original language?

>> No.3312429

>>3312407
That is a ton, and I doubt you'll have time to actually do real teaching for any of it during class. Perhaps at the collegiate level, but not high school.

>> No.3312432

>>3312407
>I have no idea what education is

>> No.3312442

Iliad
Odyssey
Gatsby
Catch 22
War and Peace

>> No.3312443

>>3312429
Yeah, this is actually a modified version of my planed Intro to World literature syllabus. I suppose I should have pruned it for a high school thing.

>>3312423
No. I don't think there's anywhere in the world where all the students I would have could speak a couple dozen languages.

>> No.3312456

>>3312443
Would you show some excerpts from the originals?
I think it would be neat to see what it looked like at first and also to hear it, especially for poetic writings.

>> No.3312458

>>3312442
I like this, covertly creating a generation of anti-war, anti-rich classicists.

>> No.3312465

>>3311097
>50 shades of grey
>Twilight
>The Davinci code
>Fight club
>Mein Kampf

>> No.3312471

Lolita
American Psycho
Mein Kampf
Out-of-context Nietzsche passages.

>> No.3312474

>>3311397
Are you that guy that always posts about how he wants to fuck his best friend?

>> No.3312476

>>3311404
I loved them both when I was in highschool.

>> No.3312479

>>3312471
lol

>> No.3312481

A unit on the Iliad and Beowulf

A unit on 1984 and Brave New World

A unit on War and Peace

A unit on some Hemingway

A unit on Non-fiction (At least one science book, a handful of 20+ page essays, and some Plato and Nietzsche to let the kids express themselves in their pretentious ways through philosophy [not like they'd understand much, but whatever])

Would you have liked me, /lit/?

>> No.3312483

>>3312456
Sure, especially for works like the Poetic Edda, the Ramayana, The Tain, T'ang poets and the Heian and haiku poets. Ones that may be especially foreign to some.

I would likely try to read the Japanese poetry to them, since haiku is spoken in such a particular way. And there are nice recordings of Beowulf in Old English, the T'ang poets being read, the Ramayana recited, etc. I like to think it'll be a very fun class - 100 pages of reading for each class day in a college course doesn't seem unusual for me. That's been about the standard in my lit courses.

But for high school, yeah. The idea to turn it into a two-year one would work better. One hundred pages per week has to be doable.

>> No.3312484

Brian Jacques
J.K.R
Stephen King
Machiavelli

>> No.3312485

>>3312481
Nope.

>> No.3312488

>>3312147
>Lovecraft
Fuck yes! I WISH I started reading Lovecraft as early as highschool. I would have started reading seriously much earlier.

>> No.3312490

>>3312481
I would have hated that. Iliad and Beowulf are fine, but the rest of it, I would have deeply hated you for. Especially 1984 and BNW. and just in general, I think, the lack of continuity across and between different things being read, the lack of focus, would have made me hate that when I was in high school. Or now.

>> No.3312494

>>3312485
Am I the cancer that is destroying our youth?

>> No.3312503

>>3312494
You're better off with easy to read and digest stuff like Slaughterhouse-Five.

>> No.3312504

>>3312490
So, you care more about continuity between lessons than actual content? Why? I'm not trying to be confrontational, but that sounds like the dumbest fucking thing ever. What's wrong with the dystopian literature I presented? You want me to teach the average English class some obscure French and Russian literature, mixed in with some Eastern shit, as long as they are related? Fuck. That.

>> No.3312505

>>3312490
High school lit courses aren't about continuity between readings.
They're about a shotgun approach to exposure, saying, "Here, read these and hopefully you'll like at least one of them."

>> No.3312511

The Grapes of Wrath
Brave New World
Frankenstein
Maybe a biography. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt?

>> No.3312516

>>3312494
I think you just haven't thought about the purpose and nature of education enough, and are just shotgunning some shit that you think kids would like to read and would find valuable with no more thought than that. What you posted was a fine recommended reading list, not a good syllabus.

>>3312504
Because that's how you teach them how to read, that's how you teach them how to analyze and think, that's what you hang the education on.

>>3312505
That wasn't at all my experience in high school and that doesn't seem like something that is valuable to me. I would've absolutely hated my high school literature classes if they were carried out like that, thank God they weren't.

>> No.3312519

>>3312373

I think you must have got unlucky, actually. Most people seem to enjoy it. My class was pretty much split 50/50 on it.

>> No.3312520

Paradise Lost
Divine Comedy
Dianetics
Book of Mormon
Bible
Finningans Wake

>> No.3312528

>>3312520
Hopefully not in that order.

>> No.3312534

>>3312528
wuts wrong wit the order u cheeky cunt

>> No.3312546

>>3312516
>>3312505
I admit, my experience in high school was bent to favor continuity and relation rather than this "shotgun" process you say I am giving. The thing is, I absolutely hated the former process, because the whole curriculum was related throughout the year, yet hardly anything of worth was read/discussed/presented. I had to almost fully rely on myself to discover powerful literature and philosophy and my eventual work (physics) outside of the school system. Yes, my approach is a bit "here; take these; read them; hopefully you aren't a bitch and can discover something useful" but I would have deeply appreciated reading something even as useful as Plato in any one of my Literature classes.

>> No.3312566

>>3312546
In my opinion, itś not even all about finding things that people will like, but exposing students to the variety that there is out there and also important literary concepts.

>> No.3312568

Nothing.

I don't want to hear a bunch of high school dipshits whine about how _________ is "sooooo boring!" or how ___________ "isn't as fun as Harry Potter" or how the protagonist of __________ should "just get over it" or, god help me, say that the themes and symbolism within ___________ are "just being imagined by our teacher."

There's really no point in trying to teach kids who don't care about the curriculum.

>> No.3312581

Catcher in the Rye
Winesburg, Ohio
King Lear
Ms. Dalloway
The Crying of Lot 49
As I Lay Dying

The kind of class I would've loved to have

>> No.3312596

>>3312568
It ruptured my anus when people just bitched about Holden in tCitR. "He is so whiny! He says the same thing a hundred times! I don't even get it! What's the problem?!" Holy. Fuck. That's the fucking point. You are supposed to feel that way (to an extent) about Holden.

>> No.3312601

>>3312546
It sounds like the problem for you was the execution, not the underlying philosophy. I think there's nothing wrong with people reading and getting interested in things outside of class; I think if anything it's kind of necessary, because it's impossible to cover everything that people are going to be interested in and to be universal in that regard, and there are some powerful, influential things that I don't think would do very well in a classroom setting. And I think there's nothing wrong with reading Plato and there's nothing in what I'm advocating that would prevent one from reading Plato; but I think there would need to be a context for reading Plato and a broader relevance besides just "Here's some Plato, okay, now we're reading War and Peace." That's kind of what I'm saying.

>>3312566
I think it's a balance, I just think there needs to be some coherence to the whole thing. If nothing else, because it helps teach literary concepts.

>> No.3312606

>>3312601
true, you have convinced me

>> No.3312627

assuming they have read nothing before (other than trivial litterature) i would probably start with something relevant to today and easy to get into

>> No.3312628

>>3312627
How descriptive.

>> No.3312633

>>3312628
why waste classics on people who won't appreciate them?

save it for later

>> No.3312637

>>3312633
what are some examples of things that are relevant to today and easy to get into

>> No.3312641

>>3312637
how about something like fight club?

it's an easy read and resonates a lot with many teens

>> No.3312646

>>3312641
Does that necessarily mean that it's valuable for them to read?

>> No.3312666

>>3311404
Loved Gatsby, couldn't stand Catcher. Sorry, I know it's a good book on it's own merits, but it's not for me.

>> No.3312676

>>3312035
Sure, but nowadays most of them can't get to the good ones with all the clutter of teen fiction in front of them. They'd have to actively search for them, which they never even hear about.

I'd do Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment to get them started.

>> No.3312687
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3312687

>>3312284

You sound the fool to be so illiberal with your tongue... your post is truly cringeworthy. You also gave it away that you haven't read much- if you knew the titles I listed, you would know that they are exciting for a young reader.

Moreover, you have disappointed us all in failing to list some works that would be "new", that wouldn't "..bore HS kids to fucking death and make them hate reading".

I've got a hunch that you are a highschooler who stumbled upon this board from /b/: "pretentious bullshit, motherfucking this, some shit that"... That's giving you the benefit of the doubt.

>> No.3312718

I'd throw in Crime and Punishment, read that in high school, and everyone seemed to get a lot from it.

You can have nice discussions about the ending, about Dostoyevsky's beliefs, etc. The only problem is that it's long, so a lot of students won't read it unless you're in an advanced class.

>> No.3312723

>>3312687
Oh come on, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is exciting for a young reader? I don't necessarily agree with the anon you're responding to but your post was just as out of touch with high school kids as theirs was.

>> No.3312736

>>3312723

Fair enough, pull the portrait. What then? Too much philosophy?

>> No.3312748

What not to teach:
Madame Bovary - your class discussions will dissolve into digressions about feminism and the morality of adultery, and everyone will get emotional and upset, plus it's not a very exciting book for younger readers.

>> No.3312771

>>3312748
Can you imagine in today's classrooms? All those opinionated young women fighting on the sole grounds that they themselves are women?

>> No.3312801

>>3312771
Several years ago, when I was in high school, my teacher tried to teach M. Bovary, and it was just awful.

The people who defended the character were irritating, especially when they pulled out the sexism arguement, but the worst were the guys who revealed that they actually were misogynistic assholes, thus proving the irritating pseudofeminist women right.

>> No.3312818

>>3312801
It's like a play that takes place whenever Bovary's pulled out, but with different actors every time.

I had a similar experience a few years back, but I was one of four guys in a classroom of forty. When the argument started, the teacher just stood there to see what would happen. I argued for the entire hour, but in the end it was a stalemate because of that one guy.

>> No.3312821

>high school teacher

What a life this must be. I wonder what the suicide rates are.

>> No.3312826

>>3312818
Yeah, I guess if you look at the experience of the discussions about the book as the point, then teaching Bovary is very edifying.

>> No.3312829

>>3312687

No where did I say I didn't like those books you fucking twat. I said the average high school kid would fucking hate every book you would teach them.

I know this not because I'm in high school but because I used to be there and remember in my English classes, a good 3/4 of the students didn't give a single fuck about Mice and men or any other shit the teacher required us to read.

I said you list was shit because it would fail to engage students, students who are not engaged are not learning, the philosophy especially would turn off 90% of them in minutes.

When most of these kids have read nothing but hunger games and harry potter, they cannot handle classics and philosophy, that is why I mocked and continue to mock your stupid list of shit tier HS reading books.

Inb4 more ad hominem attacks huehuehue
I read plenty, I've read most of the things listed in this thread but the AVERAGE HIGH SCHOOL student has not and cannot and has no interest in doing so, such is the sad sad state of our educational system that leaves none behind.

Also >>3312305 is me and the book I would start them on. I would also take them to a lib and let them pick there own books, thinking 30-40 people are all going to share an interest in your very very very narrow reading list is foolish.

My HS teachers gave us most of the same shit on these list, I read them in a few days and moved on while the class wallowed threw them for weeks, the amount of content you want to cover as well as the depth is beyond retarded for a HS curriculum, I don't think you understand how stupid and illiterate the general public has become, maybe get off /lit/ every week or 3 and experience the outside world, coming up with crazy /b/ related theories of how I found this place... how fucking sad and lonely are you?

I'm laughing myself to tears at you faggots that think HS kids will actually read anything close to 50 pages a night. Good luck with that teach!

>> No.3312835

>>3312821
High, I'd venture. Did you ever see that episode of Twilight Zone with the college English teacher that was contemplating suicide? Not high school, but if that was college can you imagine high school?

>> No.3312845

>>3312829
The thing I like about this board is the sophistication of the language people use. Even if you are a little riled up, please keep it decent.

>> No.3312846

>>3312829

Angriest post currently on 4chan

>> No.3312851

>>3312845
I'm not riled up, I just like call em like i see em.
Stop being a big baby bitch you big baby bitch.

>> No.3312856

>>3312845
Kindly proceed to fuck your anus quite roughly my good sir.

>> No.3312860

>>3312851
All I'm saying is the English language is beautiful, with so many words to express oneself. All you see nowadays are people using such ugly words to communicate. I assumed you were a little mad because of the lack of punctuation every now and then.

>> No.3312870

>>3312856
>fuck
Quite nice, sire but if thou wouldst fix that glaringly vulgar word in thy statement, I would be thoroughly happy to oblige.

>> No.3312882

One of my high school teachers let us read anything that won an award from groups that he selected. I don't remember any of the groups other than PEN/Faulkner but I thought this was a good approach. All of my friends were reading Grapes of Wrath and I got to read Mao II

>> No.3312885

>>3312860

Laziness explains that. Trolling explains some more, mostly I just think it's funny that so many allegedly "well read" people are copy/pasting the same books highschool kids are already reading, many of which I was assigned to read in school.

Not impressive for a group of people claiming to be so knowledgeable about books, unless you actually think the school system we have is working well, then I just don't know what to tell ya. But good job /lit/ your on par with the average USA Highschool teacher!!! Be proud, you titans of literature, gods of philosophy, be proud.

>> No.3312896
File: 74 KB, 274x357, two_pilgrims.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3312896

You guys are fucking idiots, if you want to teach the fundamentals of thinking in terms of literary theory and close reading, it's not going to happen with the western cannon. No one does the assigned reading aside from the kids who would have done it anyway if it weren't assigned. If you really want to inspire kids to bring literature into their lives and not turn into total plebs, throw them shit they'll actually want to read. And for gods sake, even prep schools can't fit in more than 4-5 books a semester, how the fuck do you think you're going to teach a bunch of stupid fucking highschool scumbags to read the complete works of Joyce/Plato/Arisotle in one fucking term? Here's a realistic list of assigned reading, the only problem would be getting it past the bureaucratic school board.

Summer Reading: 50 Shades of Grey, Fear and Loathing in Vegas. The former could be used to show the basic principles of formalism (i.e, symbolism, changes in diction reflecting "meaning" in the text, close reading principles) while the later is just a fun and pleasurable read.

During the semester: Now that most of them are okay with reading what I tell them, I throw them the "queer classic" A Separate Peace and show them the fundamentals of critical theory, and how we can approach the text from a Marxist, feminist, psychoanlytic, and queer approaches. Most students will enjoy ripping apart an established classic by bringing up latent homosexual themes, and laughs will ensue. End the class with the Importance of Being Earnest to show how fun great literature can be.

>> No.3312904

>>3312885
I would think that many of these were read in high school for a reason, being that they are insightful classics.
Many people in this thread have said that because of the theoretical circumstances, they would not recommend some of these to high schools.

To think less of a work because of the audience alone is a shame. Shakespeare's play were presented to all, educated and uneducated alike, but they are also widely renowned.

>> No.3312910

>>3312896
Sounds great, but 50 Shades is horrible from an erotica standpoint. There's a great number of erotic literature that does sexy much better than that.

>> No.3312948

>>3312904

It's not that those books are not great its that they wont be touched by 1/2 the class.

As >>3312896 touched on, kids will simply not read at all if you try to force these works on them.

Get them into reading first, make them like reading as the average student does not.

The goal of this thread was how you would teach a HS class and most of the people in here are teaching the same crap HS reading list that most HS students ignore and never read, doesn't matter how good they are if no one in the class will read it. Not sure if you were all home schooled or 60+ years old but kids hate classics as a general rule.

I LOVE CLASSICS STOP IMPLYING I HATE THEM IM SIMPLY GIVING YOU THE PERSPECTIVE OF HS STUDENTS IN GENERAL. fuck I'm 24 so I don't know shit about HS now a day but I doubt there has been some teenage Renascence in education, I imagine they are even less into reading as iphones/laptops/internet/video games/tv have taken over.
I don't really give a shit about what they read but think it would be better for them all to find a few books they enjoy and to actually read them rather than sleep through class while you mutter about how freaking sweet Joyce is and how hard he makes your cock, they simply do not give a shit. 1 hour a day you have with them, 1/2 of which is spent taking role and telling the little shits to be quiet, I love the enthusiasm you all have for reading and promoting great lit onto a younger generation but the way you go about it will fail horribly just like it is today all over the USA.

I went to a small mostly upper class white high school and it was shameful how bad/borderline illiterate a lot of those people were when we had to read outloud.

>> No.3312961

>>3312910
If I was an English teacher with complete freedom of curricula I'd just assign Japanese eroges.

>> No.3312972

>>3312948
What a surprise it was when the jock had to read aloud, stepping on pronunciation and stumbling on fluidity.

What strange embarrassment when you read and hear the class talking about you, hearing whispers of "showoff" and "What a smartass" throughout.

What a shame when that jock picks a fight with you for showing him up, but won't listen when you just try to explain.

What regret when you were both best friends.

>> No.3312980

Just a bunch of Murakami.

Chicks will dig the sex, dudes will dig the gore.

>> No.3312981

>>3312972
What a regret none of those things happened to me?

What a shame you are projecting

What strange embarrassment must be overcoming you now for typing so many dumb things

No surprise you miss read what i posted and missed every guess about me by miles

>> No.3312994

I like these threads more when we're designing college courses. Much more variety.

>> No.3313001

>>3312981
What luck this is anonymous.

What a wonder you got so aggressive.

What joy I can post whatever I want without losing face.

>> No.3313020

>>3313001
But deep down you know you're a dumbass, so there's that.

>> No.3313028

>>3313020
In the opinion I hold of myself I am not a dumbass. Outside of family and fiancee, other's opinions don't matter. Why do you assume things?

>> No.3313029

>>3312896
50 Shades of Grey, really? I haven't read it, but isn't the book just smuck? I don't want to biased but isn't it just bad bondage / fetish sex in form of a novel?

On the other hand your idea sounds damn nice.

What about asking them what they would be interested to read? Ask them what kind of stuff they like and choose the first book depending on this? There are tons of YA literature out there.

>>3312948
I completely agree with you. I remember when I was in school we mainly read classics. While some of them were interesting to me back then or I might even have liked them, most of them seemed boring to me. I could only imagine what would have happend if anyone would have given us something like James Joyce or DFW or Pynchon...
Yes I read in my free time, but I didn't read classics back then. I discovered classics later in my life and loved them, but there is a time for everything. Crime and Punishment is one of my favorite novels, but in school I would have wanted Rasko do get up and do something and the cop to find out how he did it. Back then the book would have been a boring crime novel and not one of my favorite books. Don't get me even started on Brothers K, War and Peace or Dante's Inferno.
The majority of kids will not like these books and you will make them hate classics. It might be a nice idea to have kids infront of you and tell them how sentence x is a metaphore for what not described through the characters inner monologue while looking at the clouds floating away, but they won't get it and think it is boring.

Give them something easy and fun for starters and slowly approach other stuff, but never go too deep. You want to make them like reading, right? Not wave your dick infront of them cause you understand shit and they don't.

>> No.3313032

>Great Gatsby
>Old Man and The Sea
>To Kill A Mockingbird
>a couple of Katherine Mansfield's short stories
>Heart of Darkness
>Othello
>Shoplifting from American Apparel

keep it simple, people.

>> No.3313041

>>3313029
Not that guy, but 50 Shades is pretty bad. It's not even good erotic material and the sexy material is basically "An Easy Light Introduction to Almost Bondage"

>> No.3313047

>>3312896

flawed, but the best suggestion ITT.
the retarded symbolist-centric microanalyses of literature highschools seem to be obsessed with must be replaced.

Not only does the current approach put most kids off reading; it makes it fucking easy for slackers with a bit of natural intuition (read: myself and a fair few classmates) to bullshit their way through essays.

The basics of critical theory need to be taught.

>> No.3313050

>>3313032
Is that the order you would keep it in? There has to be some easing into things for high schools today.

>> No.3313053

>>3313041
intentionally making the horniest/easiest distracted people in the world read that "over summer" can't be a good idea, 1/2 way through summer they would just be fucking each other like rabbits and stop reading.

>> No.3313055

>>3313029
That poster here. Yes, 50 Shades of grey is god awful, but it would get kids to read, especially if they were income freshman. (Crazy Mr. Anon assigned us erotica and a book about drugs for summer reading. I heard he even fingers her vagoo!) Getting people talking about the class outside of class is the first step. Plus, even despite the fact that it's completely masturbatory and horribly written, it is rich in symbolism (names have meaning, objects have meaning, potential for a Christ figure interpretation) and is perfect for displaying close reading techniques. Also, it's more interesting than 90% of YA fiction, which is honestly pure shit IMO.

>> No.3313061

>>3313050

oh, good point. No, I didn't write those down in any particular order.

>> No.3313070

>>3313055
>it's more interesting than 90% of YA fiction, which is honestly pure shit IMO.
You're pretty alright.
I'd let them know at the end of the year that it was just for that and then offhandedly recommend some good erotic stuff.

>>3313053
I'd give an incredibly hard test on the first day and tell them to take good notes. Every one gets a different copy of the test. Everyone.

>> No.3313071

>>3313028
I said deep down, look deeper, then deeperer.
I assume nothing, every human is a dumbass, why do you assume I'm assuming things?

>> No.3313073

Hamlet

For the entire year.

>> No.3313080

>>3313071
You assume I know that every human is a dumbass.

>> No.3313087

>>3313073
I would murder you if I was in your class. Then I'd write some quotes from the play in your blood, on the wall I murdered you next to.

>> No.3313091

American Literature. To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, As I Lay Dying, Moby Dick, Hemmingway and Hawthorne short stories. I dunno, I assume I'd do it chronologically, but yeah.

And Great Gatsby for the climax.

>> No.3313095

This thread makes it painfully obvious that most of /lit/ has read less than 100 books in their lifetime.

>> No.3313103

Assuming 1 semester in a senior class

George Orwell's Essay's (How the poor die, down the mine, shooting an elephant, a hanging, politics and the english language, why I write)

1984

The Handmaid's Tale

Hamlet

Death of a Salesman followed immediately by

Gatsby

and finally Portnoy's Complaint (lel)

>> No.3313106

>>3313080
No, I told you that, dumbass. You assume I assumed because of that very fact.

>> No.3313111

>>3313106
Then you win. I'm tired and want to sleep. Goodnight.

>> No.3313121

>>3313111
Good night anon.

>>3313095
judging from this enlightening post you have read 0 books, piss off nigger or show us how you would teach you shit posting faggot.

inb4
>DFW and GR
kill yourself

>> No.3313122

>>3313095

how so?
you're seeing the same recommendations repeatedly because they're classics- of course most of the recommendations will be taken from the western canon. What would you teach to highschoolers, anon?

>> No.3313123

>Gatsby
>High school

Pretentious faggots, all of you. That book fucking stinks.

>> No.3313125

>>3313087
You would get an A

>> No.3313128

>>3313123

it's required reading in most western curricula.
I thought it was fucking brilliant in highschool.

Stick to novellas. That's the key for holding kids' attentions.

>> No.3313129

>>3313123

You're still using the term 'pretentious faggot' to raise yourself on a pedestal. You're not allowed an opinion.

>> No.3313133

I would probably have them read Dr. Seuss, considering the literary skill of the average public schooled kid.

>> No.3313136

>>3313125
Thanks.

>> No.3313139

>>3313129
I don't care what people think of me, Gatsby is just, objectively, the most over-rated book in history. Its followers are beyond pretentious. Pretentious is putting it lightly.

>> No.3313142

>>3313133
Tell them they know nothing, then give them the book and make them study it. They'll crave higher level reading. High school kids are like women, pretend you don't want to give it to them and they'll want it.

>> No.3313146

>>3313139

You're still ironically using the term 'objective' to spew opinions without demonstration. Stop it.

>> No.3313150

>>3313142

>dat reductive generalization

Read a book, please.

>> No.3313155

>>3313146
I'm not using it ironically. Its objectively over-rated, shoveled shit.

>> No.3313161

>>3313155

Go and explain how an arbitrary metric based on arbitrary mores and consensus is 'objective' for the class.

>> No.3313166

>>3313161
Fuck you, you're not my dad

>> No.3313167

>>3313166

How do you know, kid?

>> No.3313170

>>3313150
The generalization was based on experience. I'll specify. Many stupid high school students are like many airheaded bimbos in the sense that they are likely to want something if you deny them it.

>> No.3313171

>>3313167
I can see him from here

>> No.3313173

The Handmaid's Tale - Atwood
Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut
White Noise - Delillo
Persepolis - Satrapi
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Dick
Macbeth - Shakespeare
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Kesey

>Possible candidates:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Thompson
The Stranger - Camus
Wise Blood - O'Connor
Lolita - Nabokov

There would also be a good amount of short fiction interspersed as well.

>> No.3313182

>>3313170

>conflating all women with airheaded bimbos
>conflating experience with universal qualifiers

>> No.3313186
File: 394 KB, 460x443, a haiku about finals.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3313186

On the other side, I believe that books such as Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Roadside Picnic are much better for exposing the youth of today to literary works.

>> No.3313188

>>3313182
>Implying all women aren't airheaded bimbos

>> No.3313190

can we please have some variety in this thread please

someone pretend you're teaching something besides American literature

>> No.3313192

>>3313182
>>conflating all women with airheaded bimbos
seems reasonable to me

>> No.3313193

>>3313188
>>3313192

I miss being a child.

>> No.3313195

>>3313186
>>3313190
I put in some Russian literature...

>> No.3313198

>>3313193
No, you obviously miss your balls.

>> No.3313199

>>3313182
I said I'd specify, so no, I'm not conflating all women with airheaded bimbos.
Also, if you have no personal rules, what surprise lies in wait for when people would break them?

>> No.3313207

>>3313199

There's a difference between common sense and projection of values where they don't belong

>>3313198

Got a healthy pink pair right here. Feel free to gargle on them.

>> No.3313219

>>3313207
>common sense
>personal rules
I don't see the connection here, pal. Besides, if you see most women behaving like airheaded bimbos all your life, you start to make some assumptions. I don't know where you live, but such is life in Vegas.

>> No.3313223

>>3313207
What's their average diameter?

>> No.3313228

>>3313219

>Vegas

Shocking. Most human beings are airheads, I'll agree. It has nothing to do with being female.

>> No.3313236

>>3313223
Not that guy/girl but I have a question. Is caffeine supposed to make a size difference? When I go without coffee, which I drink frequently, they are a little on the small side. When I go without, they gorge like they would pop and make my dick look smaller.

>> No.3313237
File: 146 KB, 1008x400, iliadwhatigot.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3313237

>>3311184
Well, as a high school English teacher, I can say that I know a fuckton about literature. Will have my Masters soon and may move on to a PhD or MFA depending.

Anywho, I teach a ridiculous variety of literature. I teach both Gifted and non-accelerated classes daily, honestly wish I taught just Gifted, so I have a hell of an assortment. Teaching Gifted gives me wiggleroom to teach whatever the hell that I want so long as I can BS its relation to our grade level expectations. My students form love-hate relationships towards me when I teach Hermann Hesse. Some adore Hesse, some despise him. It's always very entertaining.

>> No.3313242

>>3313228
I see. Well I don't hang around those much, so I wouldn't know.

>> No.3313244

>>3313236
Caffeine increases blood flow.

>> No.3313246

>>3313173
>Lolita
Wait until they're twenty-something so they can fully appreciate the book.

>> No.3313250

>>3313246
>Fully appreciate dog-shit

>> No.3313253

>>3313244
Interesting...
I'll ask my doctor tomorrow. Thank you.

>> No.3313257

>>3313228
>It has nothing to do with being female.
ya it does

>> No.3313258

wtf? This is all shit. So far in my AP English class we've done...
Crime and Punishment
The Inferno
Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth
A Doll's House
The Jungle
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
AND we had to read the Fountainhead over Christmas break

You jelly fags because you all ready shitty Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451 in your high school classes while I get to read top tier shit like Solzhenitsyn and Dante

>> No.3313263

>>3313258
>top tier
>Dante
How's high school elitism treating you?

>> No.3313264

>>3313246

Agreed. Can't be a proper pedo until you're pushing 30.

>> No.3313266

>>3313258
Out of curiosity, how many of your peers are keeping up in your class? Even some of the most brilliant seniors I teach would have a nervous breakdown reading that much in a semester while also taking courses like Calculus and Physics AP. I teach almost that much in my senior classes first semester but your list seems like a bit too rushed to appreciate each work.

Also, I'm so sorry you had to read The Fountainhead over your vacation.

>> No.3313269

>>3313258
>we had to read the Fountainhead
my sides

>> No.3313276

>>3313263

more like

>they only read the inferno

high school babbies can't into dante

>> No.3313283

>>3313258
I read All the Pretty Horses, 1984, Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, The Trial, and Lord of the Flies in my AP english class a few years back. Plus a few others I can't recall. I enjoyed most of them but I hated LotF to death, and AtPH wasn't/isn't my favorite McCarthy novel

>> No.3313285

>>3313266
hah its not bad. Anyways I go to a private school that's pretty top notch, so I'd say the majority of the students are above average. It's some what of a struggle to keep up sometimes but we manage. It's also a lot better then reading like 4 shitty books a semester too

>> No.3313294 [DELETED] 

All the novels on the syllabus for my AP Lit class are contemporary (joined by two Shakespeare plays). It's certainly different.

Wise Blood - O'Connor
Atonement - McEwan
Othello
Sula - Morrison
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Hosseini
Taming of the Shrew

>> No.3313296

>>3313258
>Bragging about reading Ayn Rand

>> No.3313297

>Honours English class in public catholic school
>Hamlet
>Angelas Ashes
>Half a dozen short stories
>Got a 90
>Got in to U of T for a STEM program

Get fucked book faggots, didn't even read Angelas Ashes past Frank beating his mother after getting drunk like a lightweight pussy.

>> No.3313312

>>3313258
>>3313283
>Lord of the Flies
>The Jungle
>Macbeth

I'm surprised those are considered AP-level, Lord of the Flies in particular. In my area we read that one in either eighth grade or freshman year of high school. The Jungle falls apart halfway through and Macbeth is short and easy for Shakespeare.

>> No.3313320

>>3313263
>>3313269
>>3313296
It's all great, seeing as I come out of high school better versed in literature than most English majors I know

>> No.3313346

>>3311145
States usually have a standard list, but the high school teacher can choose out of that list (it's a big one). Usually they will coordinate with other teachers to have a similar set of books (or completely different) to compare teaching and classes.

I read in high school, out of the ones listed so far by people:
>Gatsby
>To Kill A Mockingbird
>Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, and Othello
>Hemingway short stories (part of anthology textbook)
>Heart of Darkness
>Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

I can tell you that the books my peers least liked haven't even been mentioned. They hated (I don't like them either):
>Pride and Prejudice (fuck this book)
>Scarlet Letter

Oh, we also read Billy Budd, but I hated it. It was absolutely terrible. I got halfway through before I just gave up and started cheating.

>> No.3313356

>Great Gatsby
>Hamlet
>Some Hemingway
>Crime & Punishment or Brothers Karamazov
>Maybe a McCarthy novel
>Greco-Roman classics
>Assorted poetry from around the world

>> No.3313374

The curriculum for my seniors (British Lit):

Beowulf
Grendel
Excerpts from other epic poetry
Selections of the Canterbury Tales
A unit on King Arthur from the early histories to modern satires
Selections of Paradise Lost and Utopia
Renaissance poetry (metaphysical, cavalier, etc)
Hamlet
Book 1 of Gulliver's Travels
Candide
Russian short stories (because they need to be taught)
Importance of Being Earnest (purely for the shits and giggles)
The Wasteland and other Modern poetry
Kafka unit

Somewhere in the spring a 2,000+ word research paper. So am I a decent teacher?

>> No.3313392

>>3313374
It's not British lit, but it's a decent spread.

>> No.3313407

>>3313374
The majority is, I just use titles like Candide to add reflection on whatever genre/theme/whatever I'm teaching. The curriculum in my school system calls senior year "World Literature" in general but it's definitely more geared to British lit... so I teach World Lit properly to my sophomores instead.

>> No.3313415

>>3313407
What's the reading list like for the Sophomores?

>> No.3313426

this promises to actually be a useful thread for probably 80 percent of this board some time in the next 10 years

seriously though, what's the break down on /lit/ as far as back up plans if the whole novelist thing doesnt work out? how many of you are actually taking measures to possibly be high school teachers?

>> No.3313444

>>3313415
(mostly Ancient) World Lit - Old Testament, proverbs and tales from numerous cultures from Africa to Japan
Siddhartha - Hesse
Greek and Roman philosophy
Oedipus Rex
Julius Caesar
Macbeth (these three plays are linked together on the themes of fate and kingship)
Poetry (sonnets)
Fahrenheit 451 and Sci-Fi stories
*First year that I'm teaching Do Androids Dream..*
Great Gatsby or Demian (depends on what the class favors)
Frankenstein and Horror stories

I'm just not much of a reader of contemporary World Lit, while I favor mythology.

>> No.3313451

>>3313415
My Sophomore reading list was really light because there's a big writing test everyone takes at the end of 10th grade in my state. My teacher basically made us write essays all year. And there's no AP sophomore/freshman course.

But we read Night by Elie Wiesel and other nonfiction books.

>> No.3313455

>>3313426
As someone who has taught for five years, let me warn you, it is goddamn near impossible to write while you teach. Stephen King states in his autobiography that the only job he had that killed his writing was being a teacher. Especially if you are an introvert, the 7+ hours of extroversion daily causes this horrible mindnumbing death by the end of the day. I'm earning my MA right now and just getting short stories out is a struggle because it's like my creativity has been killed. So, if you have a love of teaching, I say go for it, but you won't get much writing done at least until the summer.

>> No.3313480

>>3313444
>reading better shit than we did in AP Lit

Why.

>> No.3313483

>decay of the American dream
>Gatsby
>not Revolutionary Road

>> No.3313489

>>3313258
but i got laid in school HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

>> No.3313490
File: 6 KB, 223x251, 1352584206247.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3313490

>>3313451
>Night
>Non-fiction

>> No.3313498

>>3311419
Holden isn't an unbearable cunt, you completely missed the point.

>> No.3313493

>>3313426
I have never planned to be a novelist. I've always been a reader, and teaching is one of my greatest loves in life.

I already plan to be a high school teacher for a bit, after getting my teaching certification in the summer. When I finish my MA, I want to become a literature professor at one of the small colleges around my area, but I know I'll likely remain a high school teacher for a while. I'm fairly excited about it.

>> No.3313501

>>3313480
Probably because I'm teaching Gifted so I don't have to teach to the AP test. If anything I try to test my students' ethical and moral beliefs while also making them write essays until they viciously hate me by the end of the year. But damn do they ever know how to write a college-level essay by their junior years. And kick the ass of standardized testing as well.

>> No.3313508

>>3313493
I pray that you have dedicated students. My non-accelerated students are atrocious. I police them for more of the class period than actually teach them. There's, unfortunately, a good reason why new teachers are getting out of the field on average by their fifth year.

>> No.3313513

>>3313320

>Knows english majors
>in highschool
>private school

mmhmm I bet you hang out with all the really smart college kids and all the hot college girls swing by your school to fuck you I bet. I sure do.

>> No.3313544

>>3313508
I have a really big family, and I'm close with a lot of my younger cousins who attend the high schools in my area. From what I hear from them, their English classes don't seem to be the hellholes I hear about online - the teacher isn't treated like shit, the students don't act out in class. Not everyone does the reading, but there are always a handful who offer up questions/comments. Which is hopefully going to give me a bit to work with.

>> No.3313563

>>3313544
Is it a smaller school? I teach at a school of 1800 so we have a hell of a spectrum of students. I unfortunately spend half of my day with kids who are third year freshmen and ask me mid-lesson if I've smoked weed. Not even an inter-city school either.

>> No.3313574

>>3311097
If you think TGG was a book worthy of being discussed a year after its publishing, please rethink your knowledge of literature. Literally the Twilight of the 20's. Kid's brains are rotted enough, do you really think they need pointless pretentious soap-operas in their curriculum?

>> No.3313595

>>3313574
I see value in it because it is a question of finding the integrity and true character in a world of materialism. While I think some of the dilemmas faced are not quite yet relatable to teenagers, the issue of materialism is perhaps even more important with today's youth than in the past.

>> No.3313607

>>3313563
Ah yeah, all the ones around here are much smaller. My graduating class had 120 students.

I get you about the third year freshman - I have a sister who did nothing through her three years of freshman classes except drink liquor in the bathrooms. There was a really low threshold for throwing people in special education classes when I was attending though. Being held back twice, failing a certain number of classes, even just being in ISS/detention for too much of the year put you in an entirely different school building for special needs. I'm hoping all that's still in effect, though I bet the special school is death to teachers.

>> No.3313627

>>3313607
Oh no. We test like crazy for people to enter SPED classes... and even then, usually people just get accommodations because we try to keep as many kids in the general populace so they aren't alienated (a good change, for the most part).

Our SPED teachers would probably all quit if this ever happened because they have more than enough kids with severe mental and emotional issues on top of learning disabilities to deal with.

The kids who are capable but keep screwing up I'd be happy to see thrown into an empty warehouse to look at the wall all day. They can have all their books if they feel motivated to do something, but their presence in my class is counterproductive so why have them in there causing disruptions if they won't bother to attempt to listen and learn?

>> No.3313647

>>3313451
You must have gone to school in Mississippi

>> No.3313717

I currently teach AP Literature, and my curriculum looks like this

>Grapes of Wrath (Summer Reading)
>Crying of Lot 49
>The Awakening
>Go Tell it on the Mountain
>The Kite Runner
>Hamlet
>Importance of Being Ernest
>Death of a Salesman
>Streetcar Named Desire

>> No.3313748

>>3311145
Since I teach an AP class I pretty much get to pick mine. However I do have to follow certain guidelines and I have to fight the district for some titles (it took me forever to get Crying of Lot 49 in my class) When I taught American Lit I had to go by the curriculum, so you're right. Thank god the woman who wrote the curriculum for American Lit wasn't an idiot and knew something about the canon.

>> No.3313752

>>3313647
NC, but I'd not be surprised if other states do the same thing

>> No.3313759

>>3313752
It must be a southeastern thing. Fuck all those essays ese.

>> No.3313761
File: 25 KB, 200x318, William-Faulkner-as-I-lay-dying.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3313761

I had to read this son of a bitch
Captcha: You cashl

>> No.3313788

>>3313451
Ugh, I'm sorry. In the school I teach there is a lot of emphasis on writing for state tests in 9th and 10th grade. Now, there isn't a problem with an emphasis on writing, of course, but when our state standards are so incredibly low, it's not teaching our kids anything. It's not until they get to 11th grade when they start to learn critical reading

>> No.3313800

>>3313508
Yeah, it's awful. I'm fortunate enough to only teach AP and Honors classes. Man, the general ed. teachers at my school get hell.

>> No.3313818

>>3313800
Is it possible if a teacher likes a students effort enough, even if he/she sucks, they can get comped to Honors or AP. Say, if the faculty knows that student should not have to bear with the kids in his/her CP class.

>> No.3313821

In high school, my favorites were:

Freshman year: Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm
Sophomore year: Oedipus Rex, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Midsummer's Night's Dream
Junior year: Huckleberry Finn
Senior year: Hamlet, Brave New World, some random stuff by Kafka (Like the Metamorphosis), Heart of Darkness, Secret Sharer

>> No.3313826

>>3313821
Also, I hated Scarlet Letter and The Awakening so much that I just have to say, right now, how much I hated them.

>> No.3313832

>>3313826
anyone know if "the road" is a good read.
Summary: a boy and his (father?) survive through a wasteland.

>> No.3313838

>>3313818
Yes, I get a few of them every few. There are some who have great potential and go into my honors classes.The kids who are very intellectual but don't necessarily have the motivation to do anything are the ones I actually connect with the most. Sometimes it doesn't work out, though. Every now and again I'll have to say to a student that he doesn't belong in a College Prep class, even though he really hates being in general classes.

>> No.3313854

>The Grapes of Wrath
>Great Expectations
>To Kill a Mockingbird
>Nine Stories
>Siddartha
>The Importance of Being Earnest

Probably a bit all over the place, but they were books I read around HS age, and I think they serve pretty well.

Although if I had complete control over my curriculum, I'd probably pick one or two books from the above list, and poll my students on their interests and what they care about at the beginning of the year. Because as important as a well-rounded reading list is, it's more important that kids are reading *at all.*

>> No.3313871

For an AP Lit class, I would choose the following:

The Sun Also Rises
Heart of Darkness
The Stranger
Sound and the Fury
Notes from Underground
The Awakening
Hamlet

Nothing special. The better variety, the more likely students will actually do shit.

>> No.3313964

>>3313832
I personally hated "The Road". I could have easily have been a short story with nothing lost.

>> No.3314090

>>3311142
>>3311269
>>3311413
>>3312154

My niggers.

>> No.3314142

>Atlas Shrugged
>The Anarchists Cookbook
>The 120 Days of Sodom
>Candide
>King Lear

>> No.3314761
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3314761

>>3311097
>art of war
>book of five rings
>poetic edda/norse myth
>tolkien books

>> No.3314933
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3314933

Do you people really think that other people will like to read what you are suggesting? Do you think they will get it?
Most people will just be put of by reading.
So sad that you people really are this egoistic and only pick out books that only a select few will like and get. And you know what? they would read it anyway so what's the point of forcing HS to read them?
Maybe you don't want people to read if they don't get books in HS?

Please rethink it and keep in mind that if you choose easier fun books more people might read in the future.

>> No.3314967

>>3314933
Aren't books of mythology and folktales fun? Stories with lots of scatological jokes? Fairly explicit love poetry? Dragon-slaying, forced prostitution, ghost sex, alcohol addiction, King Ubu generally + all the general madness and murder and intrigue? When I summarize some of the works from my list to my nieces/nephews and sisters still in high school, they always act eager to read them. I guess they may be the few that would have anyway, but I can't imagine there's a person who find none of it fun.

>> No.3315275
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3315275

>>3314967
Yes but it also depends on how the book is written. And you hare making a basic mistake, most people in HS don't read books, which makes the ones you know who different, it means that they are not part of the norm and therefor are not a good example.

"but I can't imagine there's a person who find none of it fun."

This sums it all up, I worked as a cleaner for industries to have money for school. Lots of people never read any books, people from my age up to 60. And they were cleaners, electricians, welders, technicians and they make up most of society. The majority of the people don't read and if they do it's about their favorite football player who gave out his biography or twilight.

Have you lived a sheltered life or something? How many of your friends are cleaners? Welders? Do you think your circle of friends represents all walks of life?

I know my friends are not part of the norm but I always keep that in the back of my head even if I forget it from time to time.

>> No.3315295

>>3315275

if you're looking to spread literature to the underclass well uh, good luck with that

>> No.3315353

>>3314933
>school is supposed to be easy and fun

>> No.3315861

really depends on what grade

>> No.3316095

The Great Gatsby. If only because the language is so beautiful I still mouth it to myself sometimes.

Beloved, because Faulkner is too dense for highschoolers.

Breakfast of Champions or Slaughterhouse 5. Vonnegut teaches you too much about life to ignore.

Some excerpts of Thoreau

The man in the High Castle or Neuromancer- Because science fiction is horribly underrepresented, and it has had some really impactful authors. Also, highschoolers will love you forever for doing Neuromancer.

Hamlet, because there does need to be -some- shakespeare in there

This is a short list I guess. I think you can be pretty loose in what you choose as long as you can teach through it. I really dislike people who choose literature that actively occludes understanding and learning of concepts. Density is not desirable for teaching night illiterate kids how to appreciate and visual literature so they can enjoy it.

>> No.3316188

>>3311383
So true, that someone is usually me. The rest of my classmates will usually groan and whine about how boring the books are.

But seriously, unless OP is teaching a honors/AP class that will most likely be interested in literature, stick will simple and more controversial choices. (e.g. A Clockwork Orange)

>> No.3316195

>>3311403
Are you kidding me, very few high schoolers will ever touch (or know) James Joyce.

>> No.3316202

>>3311676
That's more like it.

>> No.3316211

>>3314142
HAHAHHAA

>> No.3316275

>>3313139
Objectively, I think you're a dumbass.

>> No.3316312

>>3316195
>implying Portrait isn't already on many high school syllabuses

>> No.3316333

Please use some Kurt Vonnegut. Maybe Slaughterhouse 5 or Breakfast of Champions.