I have four classes this year (three preps). 1. AP language and composition for seniors 2. Honors junior British literature 3. Senior world literature 4. Another period of senior world literature I'm actually really curious about what lit is in everyone's curriculum as well... but maybe that would clutter up the thread too much.
Iceblink=> could you elaborate on the reading list for "world literature" in this class for seniors; I am genuinely curious?
I've got six classes. We're on an alternating block schedule. On A days I teach 3 sections of Standard English 9, and on B days I teach 1 section of Standard English 9 and 2 sections of Honors English 9. I know that I will be teaching a Shakespeare unit (Romeo and Juliet, though if I can fit it in, I'd like to do a second play as well). I'm pretty sure we'll be doing Farenheit 451 and Of Mice and Men as well. My copy of the curriculum guide is currently in a hard-hat area and I can't get it until next week (the school in general and the English wing in particular are under construction).
For your benefit, we're spending the entire 40 weeks studying Mein Kampf. There, that should satisfy you. For others... Excerpts from the Bible, the Koran, various Hindu and Buddhist texts, lots and lots of creation stories from around the world. Haiku, African Proverbs, Dilemma Tales from Togo (one of my favorite units), Siddhartha Oedipus Rex and the Iliad Hamlet The Joy Luck Club other Asian writings Metamorphosis, Always Running (by Luis Rodriguez), some more Latino and Hispanic literature A lot of current world news and articles from approved left-wing, liberal sites. There's a lot of other stuff, but we're also getting them ready for college and working on final exhibitions... research paper... resumes, letter writing... all kinds of stuff.
I really hope you're kidding. I had this teacher last year who seriously didn't teach a thing. She was the class adviser, so she constantly left the classroom, letting us eat and watch movies whenever we wanted. The days she decided to teach, she would just talk about how we're all going to lose freedoms because Bush won the election and America under Kerry would be a million times better. She's one of those trendy liberals, so 75% of what she said was crap. Seriously, though, you gotta be bi-partisan. If any of it is partisan, at least let it be "intelligent." Like, none of that, "The newspaper today said this and that so, yeah, my vote is better then yours."
I wish I were teaching that. Sixth-graders can be fun. They're in pain, but they're old enough to start thinking analytically, while still young enough to be intimidated.
2,073 posts, and you don't know the meaning of the little winking thing (which you even quoted)? Are you ITN's slower little brother?
Wow... that is both sad and funny at the same time! Not surprising however! Did you schedule a field trip to meet Castro as part of your lefty agenda outreach efforts? Much better... thanks! I see you spelled all the book titles correctly; that remedial summer course must be paying off for you Iceblink! As part of your World Literature, I was hoping your reading list would include "War and Peace" but that would be far opportunistic I suppose!
OK, it's official--IntheNet isn't a real person. I mean, what kind of idiot would follow THIS: with THIS: 'far opportunistic'? What the hell does that mean?
At the college level, in addition to working in a library One section of Freshman Composition, though we have a different name for it, every monday and wednesday after work. One section of Introduction to Creative Writing on tuesday nights. And at another college, Thursday nights will be given over to American Literature of the 1950s.
Ah yes. The verbal stylings of IntheNet, whom I'm beginning to think might be one of bigsoccer's "UnIntentional Humor-Bots."
Fantastic book. Along the same lines, I don't know if you've read "Down These Mean Streets" by Piri Thomas. It's a memoir dealing with his being a dark-skinned Puerto Rican and the subsequent identity crisis, and growing up in Spanish Harlem. It might be something your students would enjoy.
Another good one is Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun by Geoffrey Canada. I really enjoyed reading Always Running in my self-preparation for teaching in Long Beach, CA. I'm starting a new teaching position in Lake Alfred, FL (8th grade science).
Just out of curiosity, are these electives? Or (and this is probably right, now that I consider it) do you just separate your four years of English between different styles of literature?
Actually, seniors are easy to initmidate. You threaten their graduation. It's fifth and seventh graders who don't give a rat's ass.
In the fall at the college level American Environmental History, part 1 Inventing the Self in Early America Research seminar on the history of suburbia In the spring American Environmental History, part 2 History of the American West Freshmen Seminar (basically the second semester of a great books course)
Inventing the Self in Early America caught my eye because we are just beginning to look for models of the self that might be useful to us with respect to analyzing some autobiographical narratives. Any (one or 2) key readings/people you'd recommend?
The latter. Freshmen - Survey of literature Sophomores - American lit. Juniors - Brit. lit. Seniors - World lit. We have some English electives too. This year: African American lit., journalism, speech. I think that might be it. I couldn't believe it, but there weren't enough people who signed up for creative writing this year. I'm guessing that's because last year, they assigned two of the weakest teachers to teach it. I was upset about that. I wanted it last year... and this year, we had a very good teacher with a BA in creative writing who would have made it a blast for the students.
Interesting. We combine our lit mag with creative writing, and it would be fun, except I'm in journalism, so I can't really do both.
Sixth graders are great. I was in Elementary (4th and 5th) for 10 years, then switched to middle school. My first year there, I taught 7th . . . bad move. No more, never again. Sixth, however, as you said, is fun. That said, I miss elementary school. 3rd grade sounds like a blast, though I don't know if I could go any younger than that. I did my student teaching in a 1st grade classroom. I loved the kids, but I knew I could never do that for a living. Yikes.
6 classes of Social Studies in a Juvenile Placement. The girls I teach are anywhere from age 12 to 18. Mostly they are 15 - 17. We have 4 quarters plus a summer session. the kids are there year round. Kids come and go. Some are there just 90 days and some are there up to one year. quarter 1 will be Civics quarter 2 and 3 will be US History quarter 4 will be World Geography Summer Quarter will be World History