The Scarlet Letter, Silas Marner, 1984, A Raisin in the Sun, To Kill a Mockingbird. Any of these titles sound familiar? They are classics. What exactly is a classic? According to this site, “a book that has stood or can stand the test of time and remains popular and pertinent.” Another site says it means “a book you should've read, or one that you have read and didn't like.” Curriculum guides across the country are filled with required classic reading. But is this really the best way to engage young readers?
The Great Gatsby and Ethan Frome are two of my favorite books. For the most part, I enjoy reading the classics. BUT, I am willing to accept the fact that I may not be in the majority. Let’s face it; I’m an English teacher. Of course I’d like read every classic before I die. I am also a realist. I’m pretty sure most people don’t have that goal.
My goal for my students is to create lifelong readers. I believe the way to do this may be to go away from teaching the classics in favor of teaching something that is a little more relevant to their lives today. According to an article discussing Catcher in the Rye, “Teachers say young readers just don’t like Holden as much as they used to. What once seemed like courageous truth-telling now strikes many of them as weird, whiny and immature.” Is this the way to intice young readers to keep reading?
According to this article, Great Expectations “is not a book that contemporary teenagers ... can relate to. So it loses its value.” My point exactly.
Our school uses the Accelerated Reader program which allows students to earn points for reading and it gives them the freedom to read books of their choice. Most of the kids’ choices don’t include the classics.
I think it’s time to bring more of these up-to-date relevant novels into the classroom. Our school owns a class set of Stanley Gordon West’s Until They Bring the Streetcars Back and many students say it’s the best book they ever had to read. In fact, many kids get hooked on West and read all of his novels. Jodi Picoult is extremely popular with kids and I’ll admit I’m hooked on her work as well. Nicholas Sparks has quite a following (girls and boys) in our school. It’s time to add these authors to our curriculum.
The classics are great for a limited number of kids. If we’re trying to reach a majority and create lifelong readers, it’s time for the classics to move over and make room for a new kind of novel.
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ReplyDeleteYour post really caught my eye for a couple of reasons. First, as a librarian I am always interested in what other professionals have to say about books and what kids like to read. Second, because the book I am reading for our book project addresses the fact that a student's background knowledge and experiences have so much to do with their ability to learn new things. I end up withdrawing quite a number of books from the library shelves each year because they no longer speak to this generation of students. Even though they are well-written, if the experiences in the book are not ones to which the student can relate, the message will never be understood. I agree, there are plenty of “new” classics being published that are sure to attract young readers.
ReplyDeleteGood topic and a tough one for me on one level because I have read most of those classics and a number of others and loved them. they were great books. I feel like kids are missing something when they don't read them. But I agree with Kirsten - many books like this don't speak to these kids. They have literally no interest in them because what do they have to do with their lives? Why should they be interested in Holden Caufield, Tom Sawyer, or any other "classic" characters or their sories when their lives revolve around blogs, wikis, Wiis, and any number of other "modern" things? To them it's like "I can read a llooonnnggg book about a kid on a raft (yawn) or I can Play Sims 3. A no brainer. This effects us as librarians because we have to decide what is more important - upholding a literary integrity that makes our libraries unapealing to kids or getting them to actually read anything at all.
ReplyDeleteI have withdrawn many "classics" from my library because the kids simply weren't reading them. They were taking up valuable space for no reason than "they should be there". I have also taken all of the remaining classics and put them in a special, seperate area. they don't bog down the regualr shelves that way and by seperating them, the kids have occasionally picked them up just to see why they rate their own shelf.
Here is my theory - reading rates are going down. Books have to compete with so many flashier things that provide instant gratification and studies have shown clearly that if kids aren't readers by 5th or 6th grade, they probably never will be. So, I think we need to put materials in our library that kids want and are interested in. If we can get a book in their hands - any book - they may develop the love of reading and they will get to the classics because they will still be reading later in life.
For example, I have bought graphic novels every years I have been in my library. I pick very carefully. There is no manga, no action stuff. they are all based on historical events and people and are factual. I also just added a set on the sciences. Kids love them and read them. They recite the facts they learn back to me and most importantly they keep reading. I had a young girl my second year who's parents told me flat out she hated reading, period. I introduced her to graphic novels. She liked them. Eventually she read every single one and moved on to other books. At the end of the year I put the list of AR books she had read (and tests she'd passed) in front of her parents and they almost fainted. They couldn't believe it.
I'd say, keep the classics if the kids will actually read them. Do not keep them simply because they are classics and "should be there". They are a waste of space that you could use for books your kids will actually read.
Again, I love the classics. My house is full of them, but we have to be more concerned with getting kids to read before we lose them.
Heather,
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. Reading is not just the English teacher's jobs. My response defends both viewpoints. I am on the fence as usual!
I am reading Abigail Norfleet James Teaching the Male Brain: How boys think, feel, and learn in school. She suggests that boys fall behind girls early in their educational experience. The female brain is better developed to concentrate, read, and remember. Traditional classroom format also seems to lean towards the left-brain orientated girls. Early failures can cause boys to develop negative attitudes toward school. Society may also be sending a message that reading isn’t masculine. James suggests that we emphasize boys reading things that interest them. This could be anything. Boys enjoy books about sports, adventure, and heroes. My dad grew up reading outdoor life and field and stream magazine. Many boys would never touch a book but read Sports Illustrated cover to cover. I think the AR program is great because it offers boys and girls flexibility to read in their interest area. I remember quitting reading, or plodding through a boring book. Today, I am an avid reader and I often return books realizing they aren’t for me.
Though, I am a social studies teacher. It is my job to teach the past. I believe the classic books hold a key to our history. They provide a framework to understand people, places, events, and issues of that era. Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago places us squarely in the 1917Russian Revolution. Jack Kerouac’s On the Road provides a glimpse of the post-war 1950’s disaffected and disillusioned spirit. I teach the Great Depression. I have joined forces with English to time Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird to coincide with history class. In reading John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath we feel the loss and desperation of the Joad’s, an Okie farm family forced to head west. A great number of classics provide students an emotional connection to historical areas. Reading them, in any setting, as an interdisciplinary affair that all teachers strive to accomplish.
Jeffrey Fix’s blog carried a similar theme. Jeffrey’s physical education class is a combination of traditional group games and individual fitness. He seems mix and match both. Both of them have merit. Students will learn different lessons and skills from each. As adults, they need to know how to exercise, lift weights, monitor their heart rate, and take care of their bodies. As young people, they need to learn the teamwork, cooperation, shared rewards, and ways to overcome failure that only group games have to offer.
If I taught English I would teach a handful of personally indispensable classics. I would also offer opportunities for students to read books from their interest area. This, of course, is without any state or local curriculum obligations.
I do agree and have been trying to find better novels to use in my classroom. As much as I love Great Expectations, my students year after year remember the book not because they thought it was awesome as much as they thought it was awesomely bad!
ReplyDeleteI really had to step back for a minute and think about what you wrote. Right away I started thinking how could a student not have to read, "How to kill a mocking bird." I was and still am a person who doesn't enjoy reading. I'm too wound up, I just don't have the patience to sit and read all the time. The one thing I did enjoy doing was reading how to kill a mocking bird. It really was a good book, and it might have been the first book I finished from beginning to end. After reading your comments I started to thing how right you are about keeping students interested in reading by allowing them to read books they like. It does make sense. If a student stays interested because its something they can relate to or enjoy, then use that as a tool to push them in that subject. In this case it would be up to date books. So I guess the classics can take a back seat for now, but who knows, maybe because they were turned on to reading at a young age, they will read these books on their own.
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