From time to time, I get themes going. I may hit a bunch of English classes. Or all 10th grade classes. Last week, I did all special ed classes.
It was just kind of how things worked out.
One day of middle school English. One day of 9th and 10th grade English. And two days of classes for visually impaired students.
10th grade English is in their To Kill a Mockingbird unit. They were listening to the beginning of the book. (And the classroom speakers actually worked!)
I so enjoy that book. I looked forward to sitting back and listening to the story...
Yeah, not so much. One boy told me he knew the story already. He knew so much he could complete the assigned worksheet without having to listen. (It was a page where they were to describe each of the characters.)
Fine, then. Go ahead and do it.
Nope. He and his neighbors were in play mode. I hovered. I moved students. They stayed mostly quiet, but they were definitely not paying attention.
The boy told me his worksheet was done. Funny, I saw him put away a blank worksheet. So, I told him to pull it out and show me. Which he refused to do.
At least the 9th graders were really into their book. The Outsiders.
The next day I was in the visually impaired class. One of the students in the 10th grade English class is blind, so her aide was there the next day. She told me that they were no longer listening to the book. They were required to read it on their own.
Well, it's not like they were listening, anyway.
What's your favorite school-assigned book? Do you enjoy listening to stories read, or do you prefer to read them on your own?
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I don't envy the battles you have with those kids.
ReplyDeleteI have to admire you for being a teacher. Kids today are so disrespectful and beyond rude at times. I know I was not the easiest of students to my History or Junior English Teacher. I personally would rather read a story then listen to it.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I don't remember ever reading either of the two books you mentioned. I know one is a t.v. show but not sure about the others.
Thanks for stopping by and good luck in your blogging s, knitting and teachings.
Both movie versions have probably been shown on TV many times.
DeleteKids just want to socialize. Sad. It still makes me feel old that The Outsiders is being read as a "classic," though! That was a book we read for fun when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteI had a librarian recommend I read The Outsiders, but I never did. Then my 9th grade English teacher assigned it, and I enjoyed it immensely.
DeleteIf you said "blue sky" they would argue with you, LOL, always wanting to find a reason to be in control I think and knowing they aren't :)
ReplyDeleteI liked To Kill a Mockingbird. I never heard it on tape. Listening to books on tape or someone reading to me though relaxes me and I tend to fall asleep :)
betty
I hadn't thought of that. It'd be rather relaxing, wouldn't it.
DeleteI managed to miss To Kill A Mockingbird at both secondary schools I attended. They studied it the term after I left one, and the term before I arrived at the other. I'm kind of glad I didn't have to study it because I read it myself and really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteWe read one called Z for Zachariah when I was at high school and I really liked that one. I remember we had an activity where we had to write a 'what happens next' type story and mine was pages and pages long!
Never heard of Z for Zachariah, but it sounds like you enjoyed it.
DeleteI prefer to read the books myself. Listening to them tends to put me to sleep and then I have to search for my "page". I could never be a teacher. I would be bopping some of those kids up beside the head
ReplyDeleteI'll have to get some audio books for the next time I can't sleep.
DeleteTwo favorites, Gone With The Wind and Catcher in the Rye.
ReplyDeleteI prefer audio books. That way I can knit and listen.
I prefer reading to myself. It's harder to focus when it's being read to me, although I doubt that was why the kids weren't doing their assignment...
ReplyDeleteOh-how dare they not listen to "To Kill A Mockingbird". I can say that was one of my favourites and there was also a book that was a bit like a soap opera to me but it took place in Nova Scotia in 1917 when the huge explosion took place. I did not expect that and the book drew me in. I have no idea what the name of the book was
ReplyDeleteI remember being extremely shaken by some of the books required my high school classes... Johnny Got His Gun (extremely powerful if you haven't seen the movie first), Flowers for Algernon (same), and probably others. I would always end up taking the book home and finishing it way before the class periods devoted to quiet reading.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have your hands full with these kids. I hope they do pay attention to To Kill a Mockingbird because it's still a great one. I was at school when I read it - pretty much every British kid has read it. Well, except the ones who don't bother and write their assignments based on the movie!
ReplyDeleteBoth the books you mentioned are good ones!
ReplyDeleteYvonne
That they are.
DeleteWhat is it today?!?! Why/how can students opt in or out of classroom activities? My son, ten years ago, and now my daughter complain about too much noise in the classroom. About students who purposefully ask questions of teachers, not because they want to know or care, but just to get the teacher off on a tangent and waste class time!! Is this what no child left behind has brought us?!!?! Or is it from practically extinguishing corporal punishment?!?!? Or is it because now days parents back children, even if they are clearly in the wrong, instead of teachers??!?!! Hat's off to you, dear! There is no way in Hell I could teach or sub in today's classrooms.
ReplyDeleteVisit me at: Life & Faith in Caneyhead
I am Ensign B of Tremps' Troops
with the A to Z Challenge
I think it's a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Kids nowadays are used to constant noise, so silence makes them uncomfortable. And some parents (not all parents, but usually the parents of the difficult ones) will back their kids rather than other authority figures.
DeleteI hope they got something out of the books in whatever form. Heartbreaking, and tough on teachers to deal with such students.
ReplyDeleteSome of them never do. Unfortunately, those are the ones who spend the time goofing off.
DeleteI wish there was more interest for the kids. They are missing out.
ReplyDeleteThey have to meet the material half way. If they aren't willing to at least try...
Delete"Where The Red Fern Grows" was my favorite school assigned book. I finished it in the school library and cried like a baby at the end -- so uncool!
ReplyDeleteYou can find me here:
ClarabelleRant
I think I was assigned that one at some point, too.
DeleteI think "To Kill a Mockingbird" was assigned to me in Grade 10 and it was definitely my fave. I was disappointed one day about ten years ago to walk into a video store to see one of the teenage workers there had labelled the jacket, "To Kill a Monkingbird". Oh the ignorance.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to read Harper Lee's newest?
DeleteAssigned readings were always boring. I wanted to read what I wanted to read. But I did like Things Fall Apart and learning about The Odyssey, although we only read parts of that.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone assigns the full Odyssey anymore.
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