School Reading Assignments

[zombie_chinchilla]

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.

[Stinkin' Fascist]

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.

[Lost_InPlace]

I personally hated english lessons at school, I never got into the books we were forced to read because it was so distrupted and I always found them a little mundane so the idea of reading in my own time and then having to endure a second reading didnt appeal much. Out of all the books we were made to study Of Mice and Men was the only one I would give a second reading.

[Fran]

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.

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.

[Ploo!]

One of my English teachers was really cool, instead of her giving us a book she just told us to read any book we want and do a review on it. She was the one of the best teachers i had and she left the term after i started school.

[StephenKingman]

Any book that i read for my last two years in high school (or Leaving Cert over in Ireland) i found really very boring and unappealing, of course a huge part of that was that i was 17, knew very little about the world and was just forced to read it to pass an exam. Im sure if i went back now and read books like Hamlet, Othello and Merchant of Venice i would view them with a different eye.

Mind you, Philadelphia Here i Come (remember that Fran?) will always ne slow and turgid....

[Fran]

Mind you, Philadelphia Here i Come (remember that Fran?) will always ne slow and turgid....

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)
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.

[Alexa12345]

If you like reading no book will be boring, even if you are obliged to read it for school. Also, this "obligation" of reading..you notice it if you think of it, so..try not to think, just read and you may discover that you like it. Try to find the things that you like in the books.

[Kandacetoner]

i have always enjoyed the books i had to read for school. Night was a very good book and so was lovely bones. I did like when we read old english subjects, because the teacher was there to help you understand what was going on and how to understand the old english.

[Ducky]

One of our T-Shirt designs is 'I survived college required reading. ...barely" that my wife thought up.

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."

[nursemom77]

I think that schools should do more to encourage children to read what they WANT to read. I totally understand that certain reading should be required, such as classics, etc. However, I also think that children should be encouraged to read what they love, and should be taught that reading is a therapeutic and pleasurable hobbie.

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]

I don't think that the fact that I "had" to read them for school made me enjoy some of the bad ones any less, but reading for school did allow me to discover a lot of great books.

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.

[Elphaba]

I think it all depends on the teacher. I loved "Crime and Punishment" and I don't think I would enjoy it the same without the philosophical and historic background my great teacher gave me.

[Carusmm]

School almost killed Shakespeare for me: silly questions lead to silly answers.

[Aspasia]

School almost killed Shakespeare for me: silly questions lead to silly answers.

I can definitely relate. Shakespeare in school seemed such a bore, but I have developed somewhat of an appreciation for it since.