School Reading Assignments

[Carusmm]

I found English Literature so boring as it was taught in high school that I took up drinking, it left me that dispirited.

[Gemhandley]

I think it does and doesn't. School completely ruined shakespeare for me as we only ever seemed to read the first 3 or 4 acts so we never found out how they ended lol.

On the other hand though we read the silver sword when i was in 1st year and loved the book.

I didnt read To Kill a Mockingbird at school which is possibly why its my favourite book as i read it in my own time. Was hugely dissappointed with Of Mice and Men was expecting so much more from it.

[Carusmm]

The school system is built on a bell curve with the average being on top.

[Kayau]

I'm a kid in school, around seventh grade in American standards, or year eight or whatever in Britain.

In my school, we must read at least 5 compulsory books and 15 selected Chinese books per year. We are tested on three compulsory books and we write a report for the other two. We write a quick report for each of the 15 books.

As for English, we read books that our teachers rate according to diffuculty and length. Very long books carry 5 marks; very short ones carry 1 etc. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was 3. Even Persuasion was only 4. We must accumulate 40 marks by the end of the year.

My Chinese teacher said she doesn't like book reports either, because reading is a hobby and should not be work. However, she has to make us do the reports because the school and government require it.

I personally believe that the systems used in my school at least are workable. The school picks appropriate compulsory books. For example, I'm reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms for school, which is quite nice. In fact, last year we got to read a humorous novel. It was awesome.

[Carusmm]

Kayau, I am most impressed. But do you think that literature is taught at the expense of the sciences at your school? If not, you must be very hardworking. But as they say, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." If one is to turn out good citizens, one must allow the young their fun. Therefore, Kayau, go hard at whatever you do. The same sage advice is in the Bible as well somewhere, which is further proof if you need it that I am right to say said.

[Mairin]

Some of my most favorite books I read for a school assignment: The Invisible Man, 1984, A Brave New World, Animal Farm, the list goes on.

[Ama Idim]

School reading were really good. I believe I got to appreciate Shakespeare because of this and also poetry. I really liked most of the books.

[KN17488]

I think they do not complete ruin the book. I think it can be kind of annoying especially when you want to read head, but you know you shouldn’t because of quizzes and all. Some of the best ones I have read are, The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Giver. I do not think I would even have considered some of these if it wasn’t for school. Some of the ones that were kind of boring and I did not care for was Animal Farm. It was just weird and all. It was kind of cool though because I was taking a history class at the time of reading this book and I was learning about the Russian Revolution well reading it so it kind of helped in a way, but also bored me by learning it twice a day.

[maiamalanee]

Reading assignments were such a pain for me. I think that's why I actually didn't like reading when I was younger. Assigned reading gets you thinking differently. "Oh, I have to read this book so that I can get a good grade." I prefer to read a book that I don't have to answer silly questions about or write a three-page book report on.
The only thing I like about assigned reading is that it helped me to grow my reading list, and I ended up reading some of my favorite books.

[P Reefer]

What are your thoughts on them? Do you really believe that reading for school completely ruins the book for you? What are some books you read for school and loved? What are some you hated?

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.

I read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne at my tertiary level education and I absolutely loved these narratives. Both remain indelible works with the most endearing characters I have encountered.

[khusnick]

I don't always want to do the reading when I'm told to even though I love books, but I've found that, for some books, the reading experience can greatly improve from reading it for a class. I would have hated a lot of books that I've read if I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of other people about them while I was reading them.

[rave_2]

I think it depends on what kind of book and how good a teacher/professor is good at teaching that certain book. Last school year, I had a professor who loved giving out silly quizzes to "make sure we did the reading," and I ended up not enjoying the reading since I would be too busy looking for whatever's important enough to memorize.

[KRay93]

Everything depends on the teachers and what kind of readings they ask for. In my primary school, I had to read the first two Sherlock Holmes books, The Little Prince, The Raven, Don Quixote, an adapted version of The Iliad and The Odyssey. In high school, I had a different kind of readings, but I also came across One Hundred Years of Solitude and Animal Farm, so, in my case, they helped a lot to feed my passion for books...

[Heidi_9]

I feel summer reading books are dredded and that’s why students end up hating a book that very well could’ve been one they enjoyed. I personally didn’t enjoy sleeping freshmen never lie, I felt it was stupid and wasn’t a very captivating novel. Although on the other hand I did enjoy books such as the face on the milk carton and the perks of being a wallflower. Both of these books kept me interested and always had something interesting going on.

[Dael Reader]

I think reading for school is much like riding for a book club. Whether you like the book or not, you will surely benefit from the discussion that you'll have with others. You get a chance to state your own case for or against the book. You get to share your own perspective and learn from the perspective of others. And if there is something about the book you really didn't get, you have someone to ask!