Noughts and Crosses

She does not understand why the older and well-known authors are not being read in high school. Prose uses a personal experience from her son’s sophomore English class. He had to read a “weeper and former bestseller by Judith Guest” (424), about a dysfunctional family dealing with a teenage son’s suicide attempt. “No instructor has ever asked my sons to read Alice Munro, who writes so lucidly and beautifully about the hypersensitivity that makes adolescence a hell,”(424). She again mentions books she approves of that should be read in English classes.

Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to

I have never been as comfortable with people made of flesh and bone than I have been with those made of words. Whatever information I lose in the contours of the human face, I have no trouble locating in the unchanging, permanent text of a book. There is something about literature that felt safe to me; the worlds created within far more welcoming to little girls with problems fitting in than the one outside the pages. For this reason, fiction, from Harry Potter to The Book Thief, has remained my greatest passion ever since I learned to read.

From start to finish, English this year had been unlike any other I had. From start to finish, each and every book had a deeper meaning than I, before, could possibly resolve from the text. The exposure I had to this deeper level of thinking forever changed the way I see literature. Less about “what” than “why”, Literature distinguishes a meaningful story from another. While what makes a book “good” is different for everyone, what makes a story meaningful is what it teaches. Each book I read this year had a story and logic behind it. Every story was real enough to have actually happened because the plot points are supported with real speculation backed up by the nature of humanity. I, personally, have never gone as deep into literature as I have this year, giving me a new appreciation for the genius behind the speculation these books present.

Dana Gioia persuades her audience through a mix of emotions. With a lack of reading, young adults are missing out on the joys and challenges of literature.They are bypassing the cultural, emotional, and historical benefits of books and works of literature. By doing this, they are damaging their civic, personal, and economic health.

Children’s literature is an effective teaching tool for children but also a way for children to escape their daily lives through fantasy. Didactic material can be used to teach life lessons, manners and morals where subversive and fantasy genres can allow children to release from daily expectations and allows an outlet for their large imaginations.

In the article “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” (1999), Francine Prose asserts that high school English teachers are teaching classic novels so insultingly that their students actually end up loathing reading altogether. Prose supports her assertion by asking what it even means to be educated, informing the reader that the same boring novels are still being taught in classrooms twenty years later, and explaining how teaching methods have plummeted to the point where every teacher has their students relate experiences back to themselves. The author’s purpose is to question whether English classes are even needed anymore in order to not only understand but to enjoy classic literature. The author writes in a contemptuous tone towards parents

NOTE: These must be completed at home, before coming to class. Those highlighted in blue are not for HW. We will rotate within groups for this role.

I viewed reading as a chore, was often unenthused, and would mostly annotate on the overarching themes without gathering any meaning from them. Books were merely a series of words printed on paper. This school year, however, I began to understand the allure reading has to offer. I have grown to appreciate reading and the insights a book can offer. When reading our numerous texts, I was able to live vicariously through the characters of the books and relate aspects of their lives to my own. Because all of the books from English I pertain to coming of age, I was able to not only learn about maturation as a process, but understand how it pertains to my own life. Through protagonists such as Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye or Esperanza from The House on Mango Street, I learned about my “misguided desire to preserve childhood innocence” and to empower feminism similar to Holden and Esperanza respectively (Heart of Gold, Raghuram). Gradually, I have finally developed the ability to relate to novels and its characters amidst writing my own story.Whether it be thematic elements or the details of a case I am working on, I have become more observant to even the most trivial details. Now when I read, I not only look at the themes, motifs, and symbols, but also repeated phrases or situations that parallel each others as well as the symbolic meaning behind some ambiguous phrases or scenes. Reading now, in contrast to last summer, is a

Each of the concepts in the article, “Books for Young Readers” addresses the goal of student interest and engagement in reading. The section, “Ways of Reading” talks about balancing the personal and pedagogical responses to reading, which is not easy to achieve. Laura Jimenez and Kristin Mcilhagga are refreshingly open and honest in discussing their lesson on children’s historical fiction where they used the graphic novel, Storm in the Barn, by Matt Phelan. The book served their pedagogical objectives, but neither Lisa nor Kristin liked the book themselves and their students noticed. When asked if they liked the book, they had to admit that they did not. Educators must put themselves in their students’ position when seeking interesting and

Reading has the power to broaden my perspective, expand my mind, and take me on an adventure far away from reality. Unsurprisingly, I am very enthusiastic about reading and it has earned its title as my favorite pastime. Admittedly, before this class, I usually chose to read my favorite genre, fictional novels, and would only read nonfiction books on occasion. This was due to my illusory belief that only a work of fiction would have the power to whisk me off into another world and evoke powerful emotions. However, after the first three lessons, I was challenged to read literature from all kinds of different genres, including speeches. I was astounded by how much I enjoyed all of the different works of literature. They were able to take me on an adventure, regardless of the genre.

“If you don’t turn in your reading logs on time,” cackled my 2nd grade teacher, who will be addressed as Mrs. N, “You’ll have to turn your sticks, and you will have to stay in from recess and read The Boxcar Children.” This was blasphemy. Was there no safe haven from the evils of reading? This was the third recess of the week destroyed by those vile compositions. My love of reading had been torn to proverbial shreds, until 7th grade, when it was reborn with the help of a creative, inspiring teacher named Mrs. Caudill.

The power and freedom that lies between the pages of novels has the ability to transport the readers to a new world, impart a wealth of knowledge to them, offer a new perspective, and so much more. The only limit on novel are the covers that bind them, the ideas within them can be cherished and shared forever. Although written in 1837, Emerson’s quote, “Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst” still holds true today. An avid reader or skilled author wields unparalleled power, power that can be used for a myriad of good, or infinite evil.

Literary education is seen by many as the inculcation in students of the kind of sensitivity to literature which allows discrimination of the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’. When we have achieved defined capacities of judgment, then we have acquired a literary competence… (p. 16).

As a student transitions from surface level reading to a more analytical reading, it is important to give them a book that is easy to understand on a surface level but has complex characters with interesting relationships. Fifth graders are expected to be able to read and comprehend literature, and Bridge to Terabithia provides complex emotions and themes that can be examined critically. For a fifth grader in Alabama, it is require that the skill to compare and contrast characters is present. Bridge to Terabithia provides many unique characters for the student to use, for example Jess and Leslie are great friends but they are fundamental different people. Another point the curriculum outlines is the ability to identify the way characters react to challenges, and Bridge to Terabithia common challenges that children might be able to relate to like bullying. Through the identification of different challenges in the book, the topic of internal versus external challenges can be introduced.