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CT: You know where you got that shirt from, and it damn sure wasn't the men's dept

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not sure I loved them, but books that made an impression include: Raisin in the Sun, Night, and Things Fall Apart

I also hated Awakening
 
I had to read Beloved and The Bluest Eye in AP in high school and somehow I still became an English teacher.
 
it's a different form of consumption I guess was my point

so maybe it gets past the love/hate binary

because you're not reading it to appreciate the narrative w/o context

not a hill i'm going to die on
 
defs enjoyed the poetry i read in AP Lit 100000x more than the assigned novels
 
CT Whatever: WE GOT GRUDEN!!!!!

Yeah I’m not so concerned with enjoyment except where it is a function of audience and reception and transmission. But mako’s question is presumably bc enjoyment is a vital consideration when it comes to engaging high school kids
 
TenaciousKory said:
defs enjoyed the poetry i read in AP Lit 100000x more than the assigned novels
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I really wish I enjoyed poetry more so I could teach it more effectively.



When I was a freshman in college my girlfriend was black and I wrote her a love poem that included the phrase "nubian princess" and I think that's a good enough reason for me to avoid poetry forever.
 
mako1331 said:
I really wish I enjoyed poetry more so I could teach it more effectively.



When I was a freshman in college my girlfriend was black and I wrote her a love poem that included the phrase "nubian princess" and I think that's a good enough reason for me to avoid poetry forever.
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Strand and Boland's The Making of a Poem is a really great anthology that concisely covers all the hits forms of poetry and some great examples fwiw
 
CT Whatever: WE GOT GRUDEN!!!!!

TenaciousKory said:
because you're not reading it to appreciate the narrative w/o context
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It’s funny, I remember exactly the day nearly twenty years ago that townie and I were taught about American new criticism in our junior ap English class. I was convinced that from that day forward I’d ignore all context and read like I was gd john crowe ransom.

I’m still a committed formalist in some ways, but my critical approach as a professional is, like, the polar opposite of NC.
 
mako1331 said:
What are your favorite and least favorite things that you read in high school?


Also, anyone ever read Ethan Frome? I still teach that book, probably more because I love it than any other reason.
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A lot of the books I read in school, both high school and college, I hated at the time, but reread later and really liked. e.g. Catcher in the Rye was fucking awful as a 15 year old amazing as a 30 year old; The Stranger was really boring in 11 grade but great in my mid 30's; Great Expectations was, like, unreadable in high school, but I've read it twice as an adult and have grown to really like Dickens; Most of Shakespeare was really hard for me to read as a teenager but I enjoy reading and seeing them performed now. I am dyslexic though so reading heavy literature on a timed schedule as classes necessitate is hard for me.

I really did not like Ethan Frome, maybe I should try it again.
 
mako1331 said:
I had to read Beloved and The Bluest Eye in AP in high school and somehow I still became an English teacher.
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Both are among my favorite novels, but I first read them as an adult. I still teach Raisin in the Sun and my students are always floored by how good it is.
 
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I likewise read those two Morrison books as an adult and, while I like them both, they are not my top books by her, which I would put as Song of Solomon and Sula
 
birdman said:
e.g. Catcher in the Rye was fucking awful as a 15 year old amazing as a 30 year old.
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Haha, this is the opposite of how it tends to work usually with that novel in particular. I didn’t actually read it until i was older so I never got to encounter Holden as an angsty peer.

For me, it all comes down to a high school teacher’s competence and enthusiasm. As someone who already loved reading, I loved the books in classes where my teachers knew what they were doing and got me excited about "school" books and hated the books in classes where my teachers clearly couldn’t give a shit.
 
Strickland33 said:
Both are among my favorite novels, but I first read them as adults. I still teach Raisin in the Sun and my students are always floored by how good it is.
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Yeah I love Raisin in the Sun for sure. I just am not a big Morrison fan.
 
mako, you ever read her short story "Recitatif?" I think it's fucking brilliant (and teach that one, too).

Do y'all litcrit fans like Playing in the Dark? I haven't read much crit, but I love that book so much.
 
wakephan09 said:
Haha, this is the opposite of how it tends to work usually with that novel in particular. I didn’t actually read it until i was older so I never got to encounter Holden as an angsty peer.

For me, it all comes down to a high school teacher’s competence and enthusiasm. As someone who already loved reading, I loved the books in classes where my teachers knew what they were doing and got me excited about "school" books and hated the books in classes where my teachers clearly couldn’t give a shit.
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I remember really disliking Holden and thinking he was a fucking phony for thinking everyone was a phony. When I read it later, I saw that he had a lot to be angry about.
 
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