if you were in eighth grade...

[beth]

would you rather beign the year with:

flowers for algernon (leaning toward this),

the dinner party (garnder)

or...(and i'm not sure i'm allowed to teach this, but i want to)

the lottery (shirley jackson).

hmmmm?

[Obstinate]

The Lottery? Thats a really fucking morbid story. I'd choose Flowers for Algernon. Haven't read it, but sounds really interesting. Once school starts back up I'm gonna start reading it. But I'd try to slip in The Lottery, unless you know you'll get in trouble. Plus Flowers sounds alot like Flowers for Charlie :)

[PaulT]

We read "The Lottery" in 10th grade English (in Baltimore, MD). I think it would be fine for an 8th grade class. I read this over 20 years ago, and I still remember it; which I can only say about a handful of books from school. Why wouldn't you be allowed to teach it?

[Obstinate]

Because not many districts consider it okay to teach books about a lottery that if you get a black card you get stoned to death? It'd be okay now, kids are so desensitized due to TV nowadays, should be fine.

[PaulT]

If it was OK 22 years ago for a 10th grader (me) I would think it would be OK for an 8th grader now.

[fake concerns]

Flowers for Algernon is such a wonderful book. :yes:
I vote for that one.

[Littleone7]

flowers

[recordrunning]

Are you really not allowed to read The Lottery in school now? :therock: That makes me sad.
We did the play in my high school drama class. I was an angry villager. :D

[Ghostdog]

Only read 2 out of 3, but I think Flowers for Algernon is great.

[ParentheticalThought]

I loathed Flowers for Algernon. We read it in 7th or 8th grade and I can still remember how much I hated it. I found it impossible to suspend my disbelief as I read it. I felt like the author was leading us all around by the nose. The only character I felt anything for was the mouse.

We read The Lottery around the same time and I thought it was completely sick, but I was fascinated by the fact that anyone had written it at all. It was only when I read it again in college that I realized that The Lottery hadn't been taught very well when we read it the first time. We hadn't explored where the story had come from (who Shirley Jackon was, or how early civilizations sometimes sacraficed people to make the crops grow, or why someone writing in the mid-20th century would bring that up). Maybe our teacher thought we weren't ready for it but then we only got half of what we were reading.

Not sure if I've read The Dinner Party (didn't stay with me if I did).

I'd say go with The Lottery and do it right! Challenge those kids!

[some dude]

the lottery (shirley jackson).

hmmmm?

i remember reading the lottery in eighth grade english (in portland, oregon) and it made a big impression (i still remember it.) i'd say it is appropriate.

[XXX]

the giver
err
flowers.

[beth]

okay. i think i can teach it, i just don't want to steal a high school teachers thunder. but fuck 'em. i'm doing it. and then i'll teach flowers right after that. i'm going to start with a short story unit. hurra. hizzah. :) thanks everyone.

re: the lottery. we can teach salinger, and if we can teach that, pretty much everything is fair game.

[ligeia]

I remember reading Flowers For Algernon in the 8th grade, although, I'm not certain at what point of the year it was... I remember the book fully, and then having to watch the movie, "Charly" and I was totally weirded out by it because it was made in the sixties and got really strange/psychedelic/cheesey. Sadly, because of that, I think the movie made more of an impression because of that.

The Lottery left more of an impression on me, so I think that's something you want to do more towards the middle of the year... when 8th graders aren't too anxious about being back to school (in the fall) or too anxious about leaving (in the summer). But... that's just my strange opinion. And I'm not a teacher, so.

[Obstinate]

I remember reading Flowers For Algernon in the 8th grade, although, I'm not certain at what point of the year it was... I remember the book fully, and then having to watch the movie, "Charly" and I was totally weirded out by it because it was made in the sixties and got really strange/psychedelic/cheesey. Sadly, because of that, I think the movie made more of an impression because of that.

The Lottery left more of an impression on me, so I think that's something you want to do more towards the middle of the year... when 8th graders aren't too anxious about being back to school (in the fall) or too anxious about leaving (in the summer). But... that's just my strange opinion. And I'm not a teacher, so.

Yeah, exactly. When I was in 8th grade....but then again theres Winter Break.

[brothertupelo]

when i was that age, i probably read 3 or 4 books a week. i think it's fucked up that a class will take months to read a single book.

[beth]

we have kids that are below reading level, below the poverty line, and have terrible home lives. for many of our students, english is not thier primary language. so i think it's important to start slow. to make sure they understand it. why it's important.

[beth]

in addition to what we read in class i have my students reading one book a quarter (1 every 10 weeks), and getting that from them is considered "too much" by some of the other teachers. sure, i love reading to. but when it's difficult, and when no one at home values that, it makes our job that much more difficult.

[DrHibbert]

What is the Dinner Party? It rings a bell... Either of the other two is good.

[donnyidk]

okay. i think i can teach it, i just don't want to steal a high school teachers thunder. but fuck 'em. i'm doing it. and then i'll teach flowers right after that. i'm going to start with a short story unit. hurra. hizzah. :) thanks everyone.

re: the lottery. we can teach salinger, and if we can teach that, pretty much everything is fair game.

wait wait wait, you can teach salinger, but you're not teaching salinger!?


what age is 8th grade by the way? even after all these years of having american books and movies and tv shows wormed into me, i still don't know the basic ages-to-grades set-up.

[defubar]

wait wait wait, you can teach salinger, but you're not teaching salinger!?


what age is 8th grade by the way? even after all these years of having american books and movies and tv shows wormed into me, i still don't know the basic ages-to-grades set-up.

Like 13 or so.

[beth]

well...you can teach it (catcher in the rye), but our kids really don't identify with a spoiled rich kid from the east coast, you know? (i teach in a pretty blue collar/lower-middle class neighborhood).

it just doesn't make sense to them...the plot, his voice, his character (at least for most of the kids). gangs, violence, hardship are the things that get them. they like to read about their lives, not some mamby pamby kid who swears all the time.

last year i tried it out on some 8th grade kids. they were really confused by it, bored by it, wanted it to be over.

[DrHibbert]

Teach them 9 stories (Salinger). Or some of them. My 13 year old brother relates, he loves it.

[sewyourselfshut]

what school do you teach at beth?

[McCoy]

I read The Lottery in 8th grade. Not my thing. Thought it blew ass. In fact most of the books I like from school are very Orwellian, and not much else has appealed to me. Outside of school though I like a lot of others.

I also read Flowers for Algernon in 8th grade. I had seen Charly before I read the book (because my dad rents all sorts of old movies) and I liked the story both times through.

[And_now_we_rise]

I read flowers in eighth grade myself, and it had quite the impression on me, so I'll vote that!

[beth]

hey there. re: what school i teachat: i'd rather not. say. just becuase of google purposes. i don't trust my chillums v. much. :)

[brothertupelo]

my memory's not that great, but wasn't the lottery a ridiculously short story? i think i remember reading it during a single class period.
anyway, that's what i'm saying about it being fucked up that we live in a country that has no excuses for the shitty level of education, not to mention a myriad of other things, that we've accepted as the norm. anyway, i don't remember catcher in the rye cursing much. i remember the thing about holden hating the word "fuck", but mostly it's just a jaded guy who has a kinda shitty weekend. it really doesn't go anywhere.

[donnyidk]

my memory's not that great, but wasn't the lottery a ridiculously short story? i think i remember reading it during a single class period.
anyway, that's what i'm saying about it being fucked up that we live in a country that has no excuses for the shitty level of education, not to mention a myriad of other things, that we've accepted as the norm. anyway, i don't remember catcher in the rye cursing much. i remember the thing about holden hating the word "fuck", but mostly it's just a jaded guy who has a kinda shitty weekend. it really doesn't go anywhere.

:O

but the sequel is class right? Ryeturn Of The Catcher? where holden is called up to be an astronaut charged with fighting off an alien invasion and on his way he meets this beautiful princess but then the aliens kidnap her and he has to try and save her then but then the aliens are going to bomb the world and he has to decide if he will save the world or save the princess and ohmygod it's a thrilling ending!




basically he says screw the chick there's plenty more fish in the sea, and saves the world. besides she had an annoying laugh, so pff. easy choice.

[DrHibbert]

Yeah, I was glad J.D. tied up all the loose ends in the sequel. The Catcher in the Rye wouldn't be a classic if we didn't all know what happens afterward.

[aural near]

there is a sequel?

[:::::::::::::::::::::::::]

Hahhahahahaa

[brothertupelo]

but we do all know what happens afterward. he's writing from afterward. he's in a mental facility, just kinda burning time until he feels like going out and dealing with all the phonies again.
it's a book about a guy who hates looking at the world because of the grief he feels for his dead brother but he doesn't want to deal with. a week in the life of a guy who's depressed. what happens? he doesn't like his asshole roommates. some college professor hits on him. some whore depresses him. he spends some time trying to be nice to his sister. that's about it. it's well written, but kinda tame.

[jetsetvenom]

Man I hated Catcher. Nothing happened in the whole book. Everyone always says how much of a classic it is and stuff. I can't STAND it!

[Somebody'sBaby]

I began 8th grade with:

1. Exodus (Leon Uris)
2. Brave New World
3. Wuthering Heights
4. something else that obviously wasn't very memorable.

I really liked the selections but it was way too overwhelming to read and write essays on all 4 within 3 months.

[ilovemusic]

I'm going in to 8th grade this year. my 3 favorite books are #1-The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky, #2-On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and of couse #3 Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing ;)

i think you should read Perks...and i think the kids will enjoy That was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton

:yes:

[Obstinate]

I'm going in to 8th grade this year. my 3 favorite books are #1-The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky, #2-On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and of couse #3 Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing ;)

i think you should read Perks...and i think the kids will enjoy That was Then, This is Now by S.E. Hinton

:yes:
Wait so I'm not the youngest one here??!?!?! 15, going into 10th grade. And good luck in 8th grade, the only really enjoyable parts IMO are the last five weeks when you realize "Hey I won't see these people in a while." Some of whom you'll be excited about leaving.

[ilovemusic]

well, im 13, Fantasy Paradox i think is 14, and you are 15

[brothertupelo]

i read a lot of robert cormier in 8th grade. that guy wrote some seriously disturbing and engrossing books.