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Archives For November 30, 1999

Teaching Elie Wiesel’s Night with Choice Books

August 5, 2011 — 3 Comments

Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night is taught in coordination with a social studies unit on the Holocaust.  The 10th grade English curriculum attempts to capitalize on teaching world literature through historical contexts; Night is one text that bridges the educational objectives of English and social studies.

The new translation by Marion Wiesel made popular by Oprah's Book Club

The memoir begins as the Jews of the little town of Sighet, Hungary, are rounded up and taken in cattle cars to the camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945. Wiesel remembers how the prison guard called out and separated the incoming Jews:


“Eight short, simple words… Men to the left, women to the right.”
To the left meant assignment in the prison labor camp; to the right meant extermination in the gas chambers and ovens.
Wiesel continues:
“For a part of a second I glimpsed my mother and my sisters moving away to the right. Tzipora held Mother’s hand. I saw them disappear into the distance; my mother was stroking my sister’s fair hair … and I did not know that in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever.”

At 15 years old, Wiesel endured starvation, injury, and disease, conflicted by his need to protect his father and his frustration with his father’s deteriorating condition.  He was tormented by the relief he felt when his father passed away. The final image of Wiesel’s ghostly reflection in a mirror shortly after liberation is haunting.

Students living in rural Connecticut have a difficult time comprehending the horrors of the Holocaust; they are safely separated by time, circumstance, and geography from this event. Night helps to personalize the experience of genocide; while the book itself is slender, the impact on our students is tremendous.

Last year, students were given the chance to select an independent book to read with Night. These books varied in reading level and genre. They chose from the following list:
Fiction
Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes
The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Briar Rose by Jane Yolan
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Non-fiction
Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl
Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman (graphic novel)
I Have Lived a Thousand Years by Livia Bitton-Jackson

All of the books offered were added through used book sales except for Maus and The Boy in Striped Pajamas, which we borrowed from the Connecticut Library Council, and The Book Thief which we purchased new (30 copies).

There are two best selling books related to the Holocaust that have begun to show up in used book sales. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows; and Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay have been popular with book clubs. I also have several copies of Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi for Advanced Placement students.  I have picked up a few copies of each and could also offer these  books to the more experienced readers.

During the Holocaust unit, students had four weeks to complete their independent book and Night. We offered silent sustained reading twice weekly, and there was a showing of the film Schindler’s List (parental permission required). When students completed both the independent reading and Night, they wrote essays that compared a section of the independent reading to a section from Night.

The older edition of Night; we have switched over to the newer edition pictured above

We are moving from the older Bantam paperback edition to the recent translation by Marion Wiesel which was made popular when Oprah chose Night for her book club. Oprah also filmed a visit to Auschwitz with Wiesel; his narration is so quiet I need to put the audio setting on close captioned.

This summer I have located about 20 copies of the recent translation of  Night, many of which were brand new, in the CT book sales in Westport, New Milford, Newtown and in Boise, Idaho. In addition, I recently placed an order with Better World Books for 46 “gently used” copies of Night.  Combining the 20 copies I have located at summer book sales and used book stores with the 46 used copies, the department library now has 66 copies of the latest edition of the text for a total of  $311.53 which is roughly $4.72/text.

Night is an important book in our curriculum, at any price. Elie Wiesel makes that important connection beyond geography, beyond time, and beyond circumstances for my students; his voice against genocide is eloquent and memorable.

In 10th Grade, Independent Student Reads, People in Conflict, War and Conflict , , , , , , , , ,
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Southington Goodwill-Easter Seals

July 24, 2011 — Leave a comment

Southington Goodwill Store book haul....16 quality texts for $33.33!

Traveling back from an afternoon in Massachusetts, I stopped for quick break at exit 32 on I-84 (Queen Street) in Connecticut. Lucky for me, I noticed the Southington Goodwill Store store. In ten minutes, I collected a bagful of titles worth bringing back to school.

This Easter Seals Goodwill Industries store opened in January 2006 with 8100 square feet of space. According to the website, the mission of the store is to “to enhance employment, educational, social and recreational opportunities for people with disabilities and other challenges in the greater New Haven area.”

The prices for the books at this location were a little more expensive than the $1.00 or $2.00  books at the Goodwill Stores in Danbury, Brookfield, and New Milford. Maybe the Easter Seals affiliation has a different pricing criteria? Books here were marked $2.99, $1.99 or .99. These prices are still far below retail, and there were many bargains I left on the shelves for others to find. The organization of the books was excellent at this location.  Titles were correctly placed in genres (non-fiction, fiction, children’s literature, cookbooks, etc) and the quality of the books was very good.

I located five core texts: The Giver by Lois Lowery, No More Dead Dogs by Gordon Korman (Grade 7), Nothing but the Truth by Avi (grade 8), Night by Elie Wiesel and an edition of Brave New World (grade 10) by Aldous Huxley that matches our collection.

I also located a copy of Soldier Boys by Dean Hughes for our War and Conflict unit and two copies of A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson for our junior year Adventure unit or Transcendentalism study and a copy of Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom for Coming of Age. Soul Surfer by Bethany Hamilton, Peak by Roland Smith and two texts by Mike Lupica, Miracle on 49th Street and Heat, can be placed in literature circles for grade 7.  Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire, and Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (we now have four copies) will go into 9th grade independent choice. Finally, I am looking to include a historical fiction unit in middle school; Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi is a possible choice.

While I was on the webite for the Southington, CT store, I noted that Goodwill sells books on Amazon under the heading of Ivy League Books. The proceeds from sales on this site “help Easter Seals Goodwill Industries to enhance employment, educational, social and recreational opportunities for people with disabilities and other challenges.” Visit books.ctgoodwill.org to see a list of  available titles.

The Easter Seals branch of Goodwill Industries also “owns and operates 11 secondhand retail stores and 1 outlet throughout south-central and eastern Connecticut. All proceeds from store sales directly support the mission of Easter Seals Goodwill Industries. The stores also provide employment to Easter Seals Goodwill Industries’ clients with disabilities and other special needs.”

I am always pleased to shop at Goodwill. The budget for my department is stretched even farther with great bargains, and all proceeds help a worthy organization. I will make sure that Queen Street in a regular place for me to take a break on 1-84 because shopping at the Southington Goodwill location was a win-win!

In 10th Grade, 11th grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, Coming of Age, War and Conflict
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A Walk in the Woods- My Non-Fiction Choice for the High School Classroom

July 23, 2011 — 2 Comments

There is not enough non-fiction reading assigned in high schools. There are textbooks and fiction, which is mostly assigned by English Departments, but there is a dearth of good non-fiction texts offered to students. However, there is one safe text to assign, Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods first published in 1998.

The book chronicles Bryson’s attempts to walk the Appalachian Trail (2181 miles) which runs from Georgia to Maine with a friend “Stephen Katz” (according to Wikipedia , a pseudonym for Matthew Angerer). The book is informative, easy to read, and incredibly funny.  Bryson’s ability to move fluidly between the history of the trail and the encounters he has with people and animals makes the book very accessible to all readers.  Students make connections from the book to a wide variety of topics: geography, ecology, psychology and animal science. More importantly, the book can be added to different English Department curriculum units of adventure or memoir or the American Transcendental Movements.

A favorite non-fiction text for high school students

In preparing for the hike, Bryson discusses all the possible dangers, none of which seem more frightening than bear attacks:

“Imagine, if you will,” he writes, “lying in the dark in a little tent nothing but a few microns of trembling nylon between you and the chill night air listening to a 400-pound bear moving around your campsite. Imagine its quiet grunts and mysterious snufflings, the clatter of upended cookware, and sounds of moist gnawings, the pad of its feet and the the heaviness of its breath, the singing brush of its haunch along your tent side. Imagine the hot flood of adrenaline, that unwelcome tingle in the back of your arms, at the sudden rough bump of its snout against the foot of your tent, the alarming wide wobble of your frail shell as it roots through your backpack that you left casually propped by the entrance-with, you suddenly recall, a Snickers in the pouch. Bears adore Snickers.”

When Bryson’s friend Katz asks to join him on the trip, they agree to do a three day practice run, and Bryson happily realizes, “I would not have to do this on my own!” Katz flies in arriving at the airport carrying a 75-pound green army surplus bag; “Snickers,” he [Katz] explained, “lots and lots of Snickers.” Hilarious.

The book has had great success in the adult market, and there are always copies in the secondary market in one of three forms: hardcover, trade and mass-market paperbacks. I initially started collecting all three types in order to have enough copies for all students, but now I limit purchases to the trade copy which retails at Amazon for $9.59. We now have 54 copies which would cost $581.56 retail; our cost $55 dollars, a savings of $462.86.

I have also collected a dozen copies of Bryson’s other book, I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away published in 2000, which has the same humorous observations and interesting facts for students who might want to continue with this author. I only find the trade paperback copies in the used book market that are available retail at Amazon for $10.87. I have spent $12.00 instead of $130.44, but only one student has been tempted so far.

Bryson only covers about 500 miles of the Appalachian Trail, reasoning that amount of hiking was sufficient for him to understand the enormity of his goal. In undertaking this journey he brings all readers to an new appreciation for our nation’s East Coast geography and ecology. Students do enjoy his writing style and his running commentary on current ecological challenges along the trail. And he is very, very funny.

In 11th grade, Adventure, Memoir
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New Milford Book Sale

July 14, 2011 — Leave a comment

 

Book Sale flier 2011

New Milford Public Library  in New Milford, CT, stages its annual sale run by the Friends of the New Milford Library in the cafeteria of the New Milford High School, usually the middle of July. This library has a very dedicated set of volunteers who make this sale a very easy sale to attend. 

There is an “early bird” charge of $5.00 for buyers before 10:00 am, but the crowds were still very manageable even after there was no admission charge to enter. This summer, there were a  fair number of used book dealers, but everyone had plenty of room to negotiate through the aisles-even those buyers carrying large, overflowing bags or boxes. Book genres were clearly marked with signs on the tables: non-fiction mixed with paperbacks and hardcovers; fiction divided onto mass-market, trade and hardcover tables. There was a much needed holding area based on the honor system. Several cashiers tables allowed volunteers to check out large and express orders easily.

Last year, I found many biographies and books about animals on the non-fiction tables. Cultural anthropologists could have decided in 2010 that New Milford was a town concerned about the lives of people and their interactions with animals. This year, however, the table labelled Parent/Child Books was overflowing, which could lead one to determine that there must have been a recent baby boom and that animals are of little current interest.

The trade fiction book section was divided into boxes set on low platforms. The made the books easy to see, but required constant bending to pick out a text. The books were not organized by author or title, which slows me down as I try to quickly scan for familiar covers. Standing next to a used book dealer plopping books quickly into a box only heightens my anxiety. “Was that a copy of The Road he just put in his case?” I’ll wonder. “Well, there goes a copy of Girl, Interrupted!” I’ll sigh and move away to the next box. Such pressure resulted in my almost overlooking three copies of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye on my first pass!

Found six nearly new copies!

The section of mass market fiction; romance, mystery, and science fiction, was more organized with author names clearly marked on boxes. There were also tables of hardcover which also were generally alphabetized-or grouped. Again, I wonder who buys all these James Patterson books?

This year, the section for older children (YA), which was also on low floor pallets,  yielded six new or gently used copies of Dean Hughes’s Soldier Boys which is $6.99 at Amazon  that can be added to my War Units in Grades 10 or 11. The book follows two young soldiers an American and a German at the Battle of the Bulge. The reading level is grade 8, but there are always some low-level readers who like this book. To complement these, I found three copies of Sebastian Junger’s Fire, $8.15 at Amazon  on the non-fiction table; Fire is the more grade 11 appropriate text.Found two copies-this is an "untested" book

Other “finds” included two copies of Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell at Amazon for $10.95 for the Coming of Age Unit. This harrowing adventure follows 16 year-old Ree Dolly through the Ozark Mountain territory of meth-labs and family land disputes. The book was recently made into a successful indie film centering on a very powerful female character. I have not “tested” this book with student groups, and I am interested in seeing how they like the book.

Will use in People in Conflict Unit for Grade 10

I also was happy to find three copies of The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad at Amazon for $13.97 for my People in Conflict Unit in Grade 10, and three copies of Julia Alverez How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents at Amazon for $8.93  for an Immigration Unit we are planning for next year.

Total cost of all the 17 copies books mentioned? $157.03 retail at Amazon or $14.00 used.

All told, I spent $193.00 for seven very full bags of books.

I am familiar with the many of book titles taught at area high schools and New Milford is a neighboring school. I was happy to pick up replacements for some of the same texts that we teach(Frankenstein, Animal Farm, etc). The woman who checked out my order was an English teacher who has taken time off for a family. She was excited about the selection and the number of titles I was able to get, “These are so interesting, and so much better than some classics in high school,” she claimed, “I would love to see how they [students] like them!” I am hoping the students will share her enthusiasm, but I do recognize that we English teachers get very excited about all books! A kindred soul.

In 10th Grade, 11th grade, Coming of Age, Friends of the Library Book Sale, Immigration, People in Conflict, War and Conflict , , , , ,
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More Trade Paperbacks, Please!

July 11, 2011 — Leave a comment

I am not a fan of the hardcover book, and for the most part, neither are my students. They are often heavy, and the book jackets bruise easily in lockers or backpacks. However, while I am also not a fan of the mass market paperback, my students often prefer the small sized text. While I have trouble with the font size in these publications, my students –with their younger eyes- want books they can pop into a backpack or purse…they want the mobile edition. Occasionally, I will have a student look for the “smaller-sized” version, “because it’s shorter.” This logic escapes me, but I am happy to comply.

The length of a text is definitely an issue for my students. While they do understand from experience that the quality of the writing (complexity of sentences, vocabulary, point-of-view, etc) are all factors in making a book readable, the damaging effect of a hefty text on a teenage brain cannot be underestimated. I applaud JK Rowling for conquering the size of text criteria in book selection.

Hard cover texts are plentiful in book sales, but they usually do not attract the box-toting buyers with whom I have jostled while perusing the trade paperback tables. I am puzzled that hardcovers are more expensive at most of these sales. If I were loading and unloading these heavier texts, I would advocate they be sold at bargain prices….everything must go! But, hardcover texts, with the exception of Danielle Steele romances and James Patterson mysteries, often sit forlorn, while their cheaper and more popular paperback offspring receive all the attention. Book dealers armed with scanners and mobile apps that identify first or rare editions are the most likely buyers.

I have had to resort to buying some hardcover titles when I am short specific titles for instruction or when I know students are looking for a particular book.  These titles include:
Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison  (Oprah Book Club edition)

Summer Reading for AP Lit students...all 562 pages!

Recently, I assigned The Story of Edgar Sawtelle  by David Wroblewski to my Advanced Placement English Literature students; this is a retelling of Hamlet using a modern family of dog breeders. The book was a 2008 Oprah book club pick and is 562 pages in the hardcover. There are far more hardcover copies than paperback copies of this title in the used book markets that I follow. So, I have purchased about a dozen hardcovers for students to borrow as beach books…some heavy lifting required.

In shopping for books, I have noticed the strategies of some publishers to delay going into the paperback market (mass market or trade) with their titles. Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code is an example of this delay. There are a plethora of hardcover DaVinci Codes, while there are fewer mass market paperbacks and  no trade paperbacks of this title. The popularity of this text kept the publication in hardcover which was more profitable for publishers and for Dan Brown. The same,however, does not hold true for his Angels and Demons; the number hardcovers and mass market paperbacks for this title are about the same in used book sales.

Currently, the book experiencing a publication popularity is The Help by Katheryn Stockett . I would like to add this text to my Civil Rights Unit for Grade 11, but I will have to wait for at least another summer. The Help will be available in record numbers in hardcover as the book has remained on the best seller list for weeks; paperback copies will be available in another two years.

The trade paperback is currently my edition of choice for use in the classroom…but the onset of the Kindle and Nook are shifting book availability of these texts for the future. My strategy will have to change.

In 11th grade, Advanced Placement Literature, Civil Rights , , ,
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Book Club Discards Snapped up at the Newtown, CT Book Sale

July 10, 2011 — Leave a comment

Books alphabetized by author wait for buyers

A cultural anthropologist reviewing the trade paperback fiction tables at the C.H. Booth Public Library Book Sale would conclude that there are book clubs in thriving in Newtown, CT…many, many, many book clubs.  This book sale is one of the highlights in my summer book collecting schedule because of the amount of duplicate fiction titles available which indicates that people have read the book at the same time, and then donated it in order to make space for newer titles. This sale is also one of the best organized library book sales in the area.

This is an indoor sale which eliminates chances for inclement weather and book damage. The large tables are well organized in rows using the public space (gyms, multi-purpose rooms) of the Reed Intermediate School (off Route 25) effectively. There are many signs placed strategically around town to make finding the sale easy for drivers.

Fiction is in the large gym; the multi-purpose room holds non-fiction and children’s books, and smaller classrooms are used as holding areas or more expensive/rare texts. There is just enough space to negotiate around tables without becoming physically intimate with other book buyers. Buyers can place selected books in a holding area, and there is no limit to the amount of books one can “hold” before checking out. The lobby holds the checkout area which is spacious enough for several tables. Volunteer cashiers will work on large orders which keeps the traffic for smaller book purchases flowing. Students who need to complete community service will help pack and carry books. Prices are reasonable- from $.50-2.00/book. There was a $5.00 admission fee for the first day, but that was not enough to discourage buyers. Parking was impossible with every spot snapped up after the 1st hour of the sale. I had to park on a side street around the corner from the school.

In total, I spent $809.00. I lost count around book #554, but I would guess that I have at least 700 books from the sale.

Jody Picoult texts all in a row!

The nicest feature of this sale is the organization of fiction. The trade paperbooks are organized by author’s name which makes finding duplicate texts for the classroom a breeze to find. Since I recognize many of the books by their covers, I have no trouble

locating and scooping up 10 copies of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, or six copies of Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees. These are both books that are core texts that will be taught.

Oprah Book Titles-Core Texts!

There was also an Oprah Book Club section where I could load up on more core texts:  Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country, and and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.

I also found sets of Kaye Gibbon’s Ellen Foster, Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper and Nineteen Minutes, and Gregory Macguire’s Wicked for the 11th grade Coming of Age unit.

This year’s TEEN section was very profitable. Here I found a boxful of Scott Westerfield titles: Pretties, Uglies and Specials and a few copies of Nancy Farmer’s House of the Scorpion to add to my dystopia unit. I also found copies of Suzanne Fisher Staple’s Shabanu, a number of Anthony Horowitz Stormbreakers, and six copies of SE Hinton’s The Outsiders for 8th and 9th grade.

The non-fiction room is not organized by author, and I have made the conclusion that Newtown does not read much non-fiction. The biography/authbiography table was small; history (American/military/politics) was limited, although I did get several copies of Anthony Swofford’s Jarhead and Robert Kurson’s Shadow Divers. Luckily, some volunteer misplaced (or maybe correctly placed?) copies five of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried on the table labeled “War”. I grabbed those so enthusiastically, I frightened a book dealer who was pouring through a pile of WWII books. All in all, the non-fiction choices, while excellent, were not as numerous as those choices in the fiction room.

In contrast, the tables for children’s literature were overflowing almost to the point of breaking. Boxes under the tables were also filled with texts. Volunteers kept refreshing the tables with books, and some of volunteers were savvy enough to keep book series titles together. The most heartening sight were the many parents and their children making selections together; one girl had a stack so high that she could hardly see around them. Seeing all the children’s books (picture books, learn to read books, series, etc)  available would lead the cultural anthropologist to conclude that reading starts early in Newtown….and continues in the many book clubs that are culturally thriving in this part of the state.

In 11th grade, Coming of Age, Friends of the Library Book Sale
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Book Sales and Tourism Do Mix in the Berkshires-Stockbridge, MA

July 9, 2011 — Leave a comment

I just returned from the book sale at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where one can combine a morning of book hunting with an afternoon of theater and dining in the Berkshires….a cultural summer playground!

The Stockbridge Library host its annual three-day book sale, a tradition under the tent, on the front lawn of the Library in July on Main Street in Stockbridge, MA. The parking is tight (although we were lucky to find a spot right on Main Street), and the traffic to and from the library slowed to a crawl with a mix of summer visitors and locals.

The sale is clearly visible with large tents and a dozen or so tables. The books are well organized into clearly labeled boxes; genres are clearly labeled above the tables with signs. The only complaint I have on this particular sale is limited to the stacks of boxes under the tables that should have been unloaded and boxes on the tables continuously refilled. Many patrons were forced to crouch to see what books were hidden, and there were boxes on top of each other which made for some serious gymnastics. I was impressed by the nimble young mother who was able to negotiate the boxes underneath while carrying an infant strapped to her chest! The checkout system, however, was superb. Book prices are penciled in on the first page of each book, and prices range from $0.5 to $3.00.  The volunteers had prepared forms to record the tally of book prices. We spent a total of $143.00 and purchased 82 books.

Before attending the sale, the junior teacher and I agreed that we did not need any additional copies of Cold Mountain or Snow Falling on Cedars…we left several of these on the table. She was looking specifically for Prep by Curtis Sittenfield, a coming of age novel that she used with some success in the Coming of Age unit. She found five copies-one a hardcover-and also copies of:
Core Texts
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Literature circle books
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Nickled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Summer reading
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

The “find” of the afternoon was a copy of Oliver Sacks The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. The psychology teacher has been looking for extra copies.

After the sale, we traveled to Shakespeare and Company in Lenox to see Two Gentleman of Verona in the Bernstein Theatre. There is not a bad seat in this small theatre, and the production was clever with modern twists and very lively. Books and paraphrased Shakespeare…..”Then to book sales let us sing, finding books is excelling”….a wonderful summer vacation day for two English Teachers.

In 11th grade, Coming of Age, Friends of the Library Book Sale, Units of Study , ,
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The Giver-

July 8, 2011 — Leave a comment

If there is a core text for middle school students, then Lois Lowry’s The Giver is high up on the list; our students read The Giver in Grade 7. This novel follows  Jonas, who receives his life assignment at the age of 12 as the community’s “memory keeper”, a position that requires him to accept serious responsibilities. Jonas is able to experience a wide range of emotions that his community has suppressed in others; he feels joy, despair, terror and can see colors that others cannot. Jonas escapes the community in order to save the life of his baby “brother” Gabriel, and the last pages of the novel find the pair in the snow facing an uncertain future.

Lowry confronts the reader with uncomfortable situations, and many middle school students do not enjoy the book, but they do remember the book. I can use references to Jonas and his community throughout high school, and students will make connections to The Giver in their responses to literature.

The novel was first published in 1993 and is usually categorized as science fiction. A more appropriate category would be dystopia. The popularity of the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins has highlighted this growing trend in YA literature; other dystopic visions of the future that I have been looking to include on our classroom shelves include:
Feed (2002) by M. T. Anderson,
Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro,
Uglies (2005) by Scott Westerfeld (and other books Pretties, Specials, Peeps)
The Maze Runner (2009) by James Dashner

There are always used copies of The Giver in the children’s sections at book sales. I have never found the book mistakenly shelved with adult books; apparently, everyone is familiar enough with the book to know where to place a copy. These copies are usually pretty worn- some have highlighted text, others show “backpack” abuse. I will purchase most of these copies so that we have extra copies for students to write in or maybe create “found poetry” with pages from a disassembled text. Occasionally, I will come across a newer copy to add. Since children’s books are generally $.50 or half the cost of an adult trade paperback, I am not overspending when I get these copies.

The cover has not changed since the book’s first printing, except to add the Newberry Award medallion to the upper right corner. The old man’s face and torn left corner are evocative of the novel’s themes. Here is a cover students can write about! The novel’s size is a mixed blessing- small enough not to intimidate the reader, but also small enough to be lost in a pile of used books. I often have to dig into piles of children’s books to find a copy.

Currently the book retails for $6.99.

The Giver will remain as a core text for our 7th graders. This is one of the books Wamogo middle school students who have come from three different elementary schools from three different towns will share together. Lowry’s novel marks a similar “coming of age”; as 7th graders, our students also have new responsibilities. Many of our students feel at times that middle school is a dystopia (a police state?), and they share these connections and their ideas of their future when they read this text. Many students may not enjoy the book, but all students keep memories of The Giver.

In 7th Grade, Dystopia , ,
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The Road-The journey of a thousand books begins with the first step

July 6, 2011 — Leave a comment

The Road by Cormac McCarthy, published in 2006, started my used book journey. The novel charts the journey of a father and son in a post-apocalyptic world as they try to find warmer climates to help their chances of survival. I read the hardcover in one sitting…a very visceral heart-pounding, page-turning sitting. That week, I traveled to Louisville, Kentucky, to grade AP exams. There were hundreds of English teachers there, and the discussion naturally turned to “what are you reading now?” A teacher from San Francisco described how she had patiently waited on a list for The Road at the library. Finally a copy came available, and she picked the novel up on her way home from the market. Leaning in like a conspirator, she said, “The mistake I made was opening the book before I had unloaded the groceries….things melted on the counter for hours.” I knew exactly how she felt.

Finding a book that high school students will read and enjoy is tricky. The canon offers a multitude of books that are of great quality, and many students will grudgingly admit that they thought the book was good …..after being dragged through the text. Teaching literature in high school can make one feel like a mom serving broccoli to finicky toddlers. “Read this,” I will plead, “this book is good for you!”

However, I knew The Road would be different. There was just enough suspense to keep students engaged. The plot was (deceptively) simple. The setting ominous and gloomy and not unlike their view of the future on occasion.

The problem was the cost of the text. The cheapest paperback copies I could find at the time (pre-movie release) were $11.99 each. I  purchased 70 copies (a chunk of the budget at $839.30), but as enrollment fluctuates, I needed eight more copies that November. I found five copies at the Burnham library in Bridgewater that were part of the Oprah book discussion series. The librarians were clearing them off the shelves, and I purchased them for $1.00 each…a find! The last three copies I purchased through Amazon’s used book offerings.

We taught The Road in November of 2009 with amazing success. The students were paired together in teams, like the man and the boy, and completed quizzes and classwork together.  The vocabulary was enriching not demanding; students actually wanted to know what the words “miasma” and “slut lamp” meant.

My fellow teacher and I were crazed in keeping track of each and every book, and at the conclusion of the unit, collected back 76 gently used copies and one water-soaked blob of text. However, the enrollment numbers for the upcoming class of juniors was larger, and I was determined to find cheap copies of this text. I began hunting The Road.

 The Road trade paperback (2007) has a very distinct cover…all black with bold white letters. This design makes the novel easy to locate in a shelf or on a table filled with other texts. During the summer of 2010, I found copies of The Road at library book sales, Goodwill stores, and tag sales. I have added to the 76 copies we collected back, and the department now has a little over 100 copies of this text -which means that honors and college prep classes can be taught at the same time.

Finding The Road in the used book market also means that copies can be provided for students on IEPs who may need to highlight or write in the book. We can also provide extra copies to special education teachers and aides. They also have been engrossed in the book.

For the past two years, The Road has been an excellent addition to our 11th grade curriculum. The students read the book without complaint, and there are now enough copies that will carry us into the future. Which future I do not know…. McCarthy’s vision or another? The journey continues!

In 11th grade, Units of Study
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World Literature-Grade 10

July 4, 2011 — Leave a comment

The sophomore curriculum at Wamogo High School is centered on world literature (after CAPT practice, of course). I have aligned our texts to meet the Common Core standards (Reading #6: Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature)

This past April, our thematic approach was “Children Living in Conflict”. They had read Night by Elie Wiesel in conjunction with the social studies department’s unit on the Holocaust. We book-ended the unit with films opening with The Power of One and concluding with the film Hotel Rwanda. There were a series of journal responses to films and an SAT prompt (“Will the 21 Century be marked by genocides?”) as assessments. Our goal was to have students read in small lit circles. For reading during the unit, we offered a series of texts to our sophomores and provided six-eight classes of silent sustained reading.

These texts were listed on Livebinders.com (click here).

We already owned:
The Kite Runner*-Hosseini
Mr. Pip**-Jones
Nectar in a Sieve**-Markandaya
My Forbidden Face**-Latifa
Persepolis**-Satrapi

PURCHASED USED (5-20 copies of each)
A Long Way Gone-Beah
A Thousand Splendid Suns– Hosseini
Falling Leaves– Mah
First They Killed My Father-Loung
Kaffir Boy-Mathebane
Say You’re One of Them- Akpan
Snow Flower and the Little Fan-See
Shanghai Girls-See
The Power of One-Courtenay
We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families-Gourevitch
What is the What-Eggers

 

Originally, the idea was to offer the books already in the department’s book room as independent reading. I was able to secure 5-20 copies of all other titles during the school year, so that we were able to expand the offerings by interest and by reading level.

In preparing this unit the previous year, I had planned to offer a variety of texts -particularly a variety of reading levels. My Forbidden Face is a low reading level text, but the subject matter is appropriate for 10th grade students. Persepolis allowed some students to try a graphic novel; the text is also excellent for visual learners. Both of these books are rarely available in used book locations.

The most popular texts were A Long Way Gone, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and The Kite Runner. Fortunately, these titles are very plentiful in the used book market. There are now enough Kite Runner texts to give us the option to change this unit to include a core text. I could not find enough A Thousand Splendid Suns, and several students purchased their own copies! That will be one of the targeted texts this summer!

*40 copies already in book room.
**20 copies purchased at full price for this unit July 2010

 

In 10th Grade, Units of Study , , , , ,
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