With that wonderment which is the birth-act of philosophy, I suddenly start to query the familiar.
(Konrad Lorenz, 1952)

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Five to Teach

Haven't blogged in a while because I had nothing to say and I didn't want to babble. I'm a bad blogger. I currently teach 7th grade Language Arts, so I'm not teaching the advanced stuff I'm used to. So, I started thinking about five literary works I like to teach (and read). So here they are, in no particular order of importance:

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien: never met a teen that didn't like this collection of interwoven short stories about Vietnam and its aftermath. Not only powerful and vivid and realistic, but a great resource to really show the author's craft. Need to really show why syntax is an important device that can carry theme? Use this. Need to discuss metafiction? Use this. I could go on.

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. There is a reason this is taught so often--its theme of rebellion and sacrifice resonates with most. Like O'Brien's collection, the novel is well-suited to showing young readers and writers the author's craft. I love the movie and always show it after the kids have read the book, and they all say the book is far, far better.

The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot: The poster child for complexity and for intimidating even the highest level students. Many don't like it even after they have fully digested it but damn it they respect it. It's like running a marathon or climbing a mountain. Sometimes it doesn't have to be fun to be fun. And you know what? Everyone should know the Fisher King motif!

Poems by Emily Dickinson: See first sentence about Eliot; however, many students come around to loving her style and her complete control of language while expressing the sublime. I like pairing Eliot and Dickinson to demonstrate opposing ways of writing, and then I watch the students' heads spin.

The Sailor who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima. A work in translation, and the translation is so good, so well-crafted, that I can't imagine how good the original Japanese novel is. This work is very disturbing, puts the kids on edge, and yet has them determined to really delve into the symbolism, diction, and narrative technique.

So, there you go.