School Reading Assignments
- zombie_chinchilla
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School Reading Assignments
I personally don't believe reading for school completely ruins a book. I don't think it helps, since you have to read it and stay alert about what happens, rather than relax and indulge yourself in it.
I read The Giver by Lois Lowry last year for school, and thought it was great. I recommend it. One I unfortunately hated was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I think, since we took it so slow, I found it very drudging and boring.
- Stinkin' Fascist
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See these books like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Shakespeare ones, and Of Mice and Men are way way way before our times.
Kids can't relate to them whatsoever, it doesn't help that in many of them you have to decipher the words and break them down; it's a foreign English.
I read somewhere that they're trying to do away with Of Mice and Men being mandatory literature in schools due to the content; racism, derrogatory actions towards women, etc.
If it was mandatory that students pick a book at their reading level and have it approved by their teacher then that would be so so so much better.
Or to have them vote on a book as a whole; if they end up not liking it then it's all on them and they'll learn to pick a better suited one by the time the next vote comes around.
Schools have the right idea, they just go about it the wrong way.
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- Fran
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I'm surprised you say that you could'nt relate to the books you mention .... racism, discrimination, misogyny, poverty, power etc And all the themes in Shakespeare ... revenge, love, hate etc surely every bit as relevant today as when those books were written.Stinkin' Fascist wrote:It really depends on the book.
See these books like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, Shakespeare ones, and Of Mice and Men are way way way before our times.
Kids can't relate to them whatsoever, it doesn't help that in many of them you have to decipher the words and break them down; it's a foreign English.
I read somewhere that they're trying to do away with Of Mice and Men being mandatory literature in schools due to the content; racism, derrogatory actions towards women, etc.
If it was mandatory that students pick a book at their reading level and have it approved by their teacher then that would be so so so much better.
Or to have them vote on a book as a whole; if they end up not liking it then it's all on them and they'll learn to pick a better suited one by the time the next vote comes around.
Schools have the right idea, they just go about it the wrong way.
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- StephenKingman
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Mind you, Philadelphia Here i Come (remember that Fran?) will always ne slow and turgid....
- Fran
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Sure do .... but now I'm a huge fan of Brian Friel & I've seen Philadelphia at least 4 times on stage (and that was by choice not because I was compelled)StephenKingman wrote:Mind you, Philadelphia Here i Come (remember that Fran?) will always ne slow and turgid....
So I don't know what that says but I definitely did find Literature at 3rd level way more inspirational even though most of the reading was again not what I would have chosen myself ... but I suppose that is the whole point of education.
Agree with you age probably has something to do with it.
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- Ducky
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We're both voracious readers, but like to do it at a leisurely pace, and take from them what we take from them, you know?
Stinkin' Fascist had a good point with; "...it doesn't help that in many of them you have to decipher the words and break them down; it's a foreign English."
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I have a 9 year old boy and a 12 year old girl. It is very important to me to make sure that my children are raised to love reading, because I believe it enriches their lives so much, as well as makes education easier and communication skills stronger.
I have very strong feelings on this issue, because I can personally remember loving to read as a teenager, UNTIL I had a certain English teacher that forced so many back to back novels on us until there was no time left for me to read anything but assigned reading.
Also, in my children's school, the teachers focus primarily on RC (reading counts) points. The major drawback to this is that there is only a narrow selection of books that are eligible for RC tests and points. This has led to my children having to pass up books that they really want to read (for example: my 9 year old loves "Goosebumps" books) in favor of assigned RC books so that they can reach preset RC point goals for each grading period. This promotes reading as an ASSIGNMENT and does nothing to promote reading as a LIFELONG SKILL. I see this as a disservice to my children and have allowed my kids to rebell slightly against this program. As a result, my children have read MORE books than most of their classmates, and enjoy reading as a part of their daily lives.
- Aspasia
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I also absolutely love The Giver. I also really liked Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM. I really disliked To Kill a Mockingbird and All Quiet on the Western Front though.