American Born Chinese

It's hard to say how a book will be gauged by students when you give them a book. Some may say that all books given to them by teachers makes it automatically a "bad" book and therefore they do not want to read it or even put forth effort towards understanding any part of it. American Born Chinese has a twist that I have not yet seen in the classroom. It is a graphic novel which I thought was only something people read in their free time. This brings in a whole new type of reading into the classroom to encourage kids to actually read. I liked graphic novels in high school and I would have loved to read one for class because I found them more fun and interactive. I find that reading with pictures makes reading more fun for those reading.

With our students we could have them take a passage from another book or even something they wrote themselves and create their own graphic novel. It would be fun and the students would have to take the details from the story to illustrate their graphic novel.

American Born Chinese is about kids in school and so this allows students to see more situations than the ones that they are in. I find that so many books that I read in high school were "outdated" and I didn't like that I could not easily relate with what was going on with the characters in the story. I wanted to relate but found it often to difficult because they were from another time and place. With American Born Chinese it was all about real life, I felt.

Night

Night is a tragically sad story about a boy and what he sees during life in an internment camp, that I believe is a very good story to teach in either an English or a History class. This book sheds light on how life was inside the camps and give a deeper look into life of people in other countries. It gives the fact that it is based off real life events and what one boy/man remembers of his life then. This story gives students a look at a different time and a different place that they may not understand. This book also comes from a person their age, which allows them to connect with the writer more.

In a classroom you could couple this with a book like Schindler's List to show a different look. Also other books or movies that give a deeper look. The students could write a paper on why the Germans thought they were right or maybe on why the Jews thought about why this was happening. Lots of things could be done with a text like this. Like you could do a journal activity where the student must keep a track of there thought through the story or even through the quarter. You could also have this as a Friday reading each week until it was finished and write a response on what they heard and felt. This book is and easy and quick read with lots of emotion.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a hard thing to cover in a classroom. It is hard to read when you are alone and even if you do happen to read it you have a hard time understanding what is being said. For students to even be able to sit through this play is if you make it into a reading exercise. Like assign people to be different parts and read through it as a class. If you did this you would have to stop along the way and discuss what is being said so that the students can understand it better. Another way that you could do is watch a play and discuss it as you go along to help further understanding.

This is a good story to share with high school kids because the characters in the play are their age and they could possibly be able to relate a lot better with this. This story shows that sometimes with passion we forget to think and sometimes things get out of hand. It is important to share with our students that things can work out in a different way than how it did for Romeo and Juliet.

This story has been over used in my opinion and more and more stories are coming out now that explain in easier words what this story says. Maybe that is considered dumbing down the reading for the students but I see it as adapting the story type to the time. Reading a book is a lot easier than reading a play. When I read it I could not make it through the play without hearing voices reading off each part.