In Sunday’s Washington Post, I was interested to see this take
on Required Reading for high school English classes right after posting
the blog about it myself.
I liked that the author admits she has more questions than answers. Otherwise motivated students can become disengaged when faced with dull reading assignments, doing only the minimum required. I’m sure books that she lists as most popular with her students, The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye, are not at all universally loved by all students.
She also touches briefly on one of the conundrums of adding contemporary teen literature to assigned reading - it’s not the dryness of the literature that turns kids off, it can be the dryness of the assignment, rendering even the most popular of teen literature as nothing more than “homework.”
I think teachers, librarians, and parents who are visiting this site are trying their best to instill a love of literature in their teens. There might not be one size fits all, but having the discussion, and asking hard questions, helps to find the best fit we can.
I liked that the author admits she has more questions than answers. Otherwise motivated students can become disengaged when faced with dull reading assignments, doing only the minimum required. I’m sure books that she lists as most popular with her students, The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye, are not at all universally loved by all students.
She also touches briefly on one of the conundrums of adding contemporary teen literature to assigned reading - it’s not the dryness of the literature that turns kids off, it can be the dryness of the assignment, rendering even the most popular of teen literature as nothing more than “homework.”
I think teachers, librarians, and parents who are visiting this site are trying their best to instill a love of literature in their teens. There might not be one size fits all, but having the discussion, and asking hard questions, helps to find the best fit we can.