What are currently reading?

I'm reading many things!

A Gathering of Shadows by Victoria Schwab

All of This Is True by Lygia Day Peñaflor (This one was actually unplanned, as it is not actually released for another month, but I got selected to read an e-ARC of it for free...so I'm reading it a little each day. I'll probably end up doing a review of it on Goodreads if I finish prior to the release date.)

And I'll be starting Twelfth Night next week, I believe.

I just recently finished The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton and Much Ado About Nothing

 

I’m reading, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni... same author as The Kite Runner. So far it’s very good.

 

"The Animators" by Kayla Rae Whitaker. Currently in the middle of it. It's a good read.

 

I’m reading “Of Mice & Men” for the billionth time, mostly for work (I’m teaching it to my freshmen currently). I really like the book, but I think if I had more free time to read the books I wanted to read, I would have chosen something else lol. I do love to read though...I usually read pretty heavily during the summers when I’m off from work.

 

Today's reading has been pretty much just stuff on the Internet. Although I did read through some old writings written by BMC77, written under his real life name. Oddly, I find myself agreeing a lot with his viewpoint...but I also see flaws in his writing that I never notice when those same flaws appear in other writer's writings.

 

Yesterday, I started a children's book that crossed my path at the library. It is The Outcasts of 19 Shuyler Place by E. L. Konigsburg. I just started it, so it's hard to form a judgment, but I like some of the descriptions of the protagonist's uncles. The book seems like a nice balance between "not too demanding" (I was reading it on the bus, and it's hard for me to focus there, sometimes), but it's not cotton candy fluff writing, either.

 

Do they read the actual book, or is it a carefully abridged version? I recall from my 9th grade literature class back in the 80s that the teachers had one book to work with (a general text that had everything from poetry to novels). And the novels (Great Expectations, and, I think, Call of the Wild) in the textbook were heavily abridged.

My teacher encouraged some of us--including me--to obtain the full version of Great Expectations and read that instead of the text book version. I did that, and I recall one classmate asked me what chapter I was on. I told him. He said there weren't that many chapters in the book. I told him yes, there were that many chapters if you had the full book.

 

We’re reading the full version of the book. We always read the actual full versions of novels, unless we’re using our digital curriculum...that’s all excerpts from various longer readings. But we don’t have text books anymore, so we have a bit more freedom to pick and choose what we want to teach. The students all have laptops to use, so most of what we do is digital now. I believe our only required text for 9th grade is Romeo & Juliet. Everything else we get to decide. I taught To Kill a Mockingbird during the first semester, but I think next year I’m going to teach Joy Luck Club instead...it seems more interesting of a novel for the kiddos (and honestly, I’m not a huge fan of To Kill a Mockingbird haha.) The kids seem to like Of Mice & Men though...it’s a lot shorter, so it holds their attention a bit more.

 

I'm reading God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines.

 

Since I’m going to school to be a high school English teacher it’s refreshing to hear of teachers that have choices. Does your district have like a list of choices or do you just get to choose whatever you want to teach? There’s several YA books I’d love to teach but I’m always worried about not being able to because of the district.

 

It depends on the district, but most districts have a set list of district-approved novels, plays, and other readings for each grade level. And generally, there are some districts that will require you to specifically teach certain texts. For example, we have a set list of district-approved novels that we can choose from. We can usually only teach novels that are approved for the grade level we’re teaching (so I can only teach what’s on the 9th grade list, since that’s my grade level). We’re required to teach Romeo & Juliet (ugh lol), and any two novels of our choosing from the 9th grade list. This year for me, it was To Kill a Mockingbird (again, ugh), Of Mice and Men, and Romeo & Juliet. Next year, I’m choosing to teach Joy Luck Club, Of Mice and Men, and Romeo & Juliet (since that one is a requirement). Maybe I’ll teach The Odyssey if I have time also.

 

Ugh may have been my reaction when we read this in 9th grade. (Which was shortly after it was originally published. LOL) I guess a gay boy like me just didn't like a boy meets girl plot. LOL

 

In high school we read the old standbys: Of Mice and Men, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird... they were good, but I absolutely loved, Lord of the Flies! I also read The Jungle in an advanced class and consider it one of my favorites!!!

Shakespeare was a staple, but I have never been a huge fan.

 

That’s actually really nice to here! I think my district had something similar since each grade would do a different Shakespeare play a year (always starting with R&J). Do you have any newer books on your list or is it typically the older, more commonly taught stuff? ‘Cause I have some YA that I would love to teach.

 

I know how you feel haha. I was never into most of what I read in high school...it never really felt relatable to me either. It’s funny because even as an English teacher, there are still a lot of classic novels and plays that make me feel “ugh” to read. xD

This sounds like my high school reading experience also! I read To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, Romeo and Juliet, All Quiet on the Westen Front, The Crucible, Lord of the Flies, The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Oedipus, and Beowulf.

Sadly, I never got to read The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, or any Mark Twain novels, and I’ve yet to get around reading those books as an adult either :/

I also loved Lord of the Flies! The Mythology readings were fun, too. I remember my English teacher during my senior year of high school...she was awesome. She made most of the literature and plays fun. I’ve never been a huge Shakespeare fan (which I guess is odd considering me being an ELA teacher), but my sr. year teacher made Shakespeare fun.

There aren’t any newer or specifically YA novels on the freshmen reading list in my district, but the Hunger Games and Divergent series are both on the Sophomore reading list. So that’s cool for sophomore teachers! I’m the only ELA teacher at my school who teaches all freshmen classes, so I’m basically in freshmen landia all day haha. So I don’t get to teach some of the more interesting novels. I try to make things fun with what we have to read though haha. Really though, it depends on the district. Some districts embrace newer literature, and others stick to old school roots lol. And then some districts ban books like crazy because of language, sex, or anything that might be considered obscene. Luckily, my district doesn’t ban books, so I get to teach all the dirty things in all the novels we read haha.

 

I’m currently reading, “The Mists of Avalon.”
It’s a really long but good book! It’s basically about the King Arthur legends but told through the eyes of the women of that time/legends so essentially Morgan Le Fay, Guinevere, Igraine, Lady of the Lake, and more.

 

I LOVE this book. So awesome and empowering to read. It's one of my all time favorites.

 

The Gay Revolution by Lillian Faderman

 

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho