Back-to-School Reading Poll!

[Caryl]

Here's a little poll for us, inspired by all of the school buses we've been seeing in our neighborhood this week. http://www.storknet.com/boards/smile.gif

~ What was your favorite class in school? Did your favorite class change as you grew older?

~ Did any of your teachers particularly encourage you to read? Tell a story of a teacher who inspired you in the areas of reading and literature.

~ What is your favorite book that you read for a school assignment? Describe what you loved about it.

~ Did you read any books in school because they were assigned, that you wouldn't have picked up on your own but are glad now that you've read? Tell about one.

I'll be back later today to post my answers. http://www.storknet.com/boards/smile.gif

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Caryl
Mom to Charon, 7/19/99
Co-Moderator for the Reading Circle and Heart of the Home Forums
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
--Annie Dillard

[Laura_008]

~ What was your favorite class in school? Did your favorite class change as you grew older?

Science when I was younger, but the farther I got into school, the more I loved English.

~ Did any of your teachers particularly encourage you to read? Tell a story of a teacher who inspired you in the areas of reading and literature.

I don't remember any particular teacher that encouraged me to read. I was always a book worm! My parents are both pretty big readers, and they always took me to the library and we had tons of books at home too. I've had a library card to the public library in my area since I was in 3rd grade.

~ What is your favorite book that you read for a school assignment? Describe what you loved about it.

I don't know if I can pick just one. I read The Outsiders, Don Quixote, The Scarlet Letter, Pride and Prejudice, Brave New World...I could go on and on!

~ Did you read any books in school because they were assigned, that you wouldn't have picked up on your own but are glad now that you've read? Tell about one.

Don Quixote - I never would have touched it if it hadn't been assigned my senior year of high school. I loved it - it was so different from all the other novels assigned. It was funny and full of adventure. Unfortunately, my class was whiny and didn't like it, so the teacher un-assigned it and I never got to finish it. I've started it many times since then, but I haven't been able to get into it again since I've read the beginning so many times.

And can I add a question of my own? What about any book you were assigned that you couldn't stand?

Wuthering Heights...-shudder-... http://www.storknet.com/boards/tongue.gif

The Great Gatsby...couldn't get in to that one to save my life... http://www.storknet.com/boards/rolleyes.gif

Edited for spelling mistakes...yeah, uh-huh...loved English...lol

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~Laura~
Meagan LeighAnne (http://www.picturetrail.com/lauradarlene) - 09/17/99

[This message has been edited by Laura_008 (edited 09-05-2002).]

[Caryl]

Good idea to add that question, Laura! I enjoyed reading your answers, btw. I read The Great Gatsby in 10th grade and really enjoyed it, but I had a teacher who taught it really well. I've tried to read Wuthering Heights, and haven't been able to get into it. I wish your teacher hadn't unassigned Don Quixote! Why would he pick it if he didn't think it was worth pushing through with his students? http://www.storknet.com/boards/confused.gif Sigh. That kind of thing really frustrates me (being a teacher myself! http://www.storknet.com/boards/wink.gif ) I wish he had at least found a way to help you finish it, since you were enjoying it. I hope you can get through it one day, and I'm glad you enjoyed what you did read of it. I haven't read it... and now you've got me curious about it. http://www.storknet.com/boards/smile.gif

What was your favorite class in school? Did your favorite class change as you grew older?

In elementary school, I think I enjoyed math the most. I loved reading books on my own, but I think we were taught reading using those readers that were fairly boring. In junior high, I fell in love with French and English. In high school, I added theater (literature, oral interpretation and acting) and humanities to my favorites.

Did any of your teachers particularly encourage you to read? Tell a story of a teacher who inspired you in the areas of reading and literature.

My British lit teacher in high school was so good at reading literature aloud. I loved it. She gave us a list of books to choose from, and we had to pick one for each quarter to read & write about. She encouraged me to read Pride and Prejudice and Rebecca, two of my favorite books to this day.

What is your favorite book that you read for a school assignment? Describe what you loved about it.

Besides the two above books, a favorite was (and still is) To Kill a Mockingbird. My 7th grade English teacher read it with us. She was an excellent teacher.

Did you read any books in school because they were assigned, that you wouldn't have picked up on your own but are glad now that you've read? Tell about one.

Several. The one that stands out the most to me is The Great Gatsby. (see above) I also loved my intro to theater class, where we read Antigone and some plays by Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill. Oh, I can't forget Edith Hamilton's Mythology!

What about any book you were assigned that you couldn't stand?

The only one I can think of is The Old Man and the Sea, taught by my least favorite English teacher. Ugh.

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Caryl
Mom to Charon, 7/19/99
Co-Moderator for the Reading Circle and Heart of the Home Forums
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
--Annie Dillard

[Laura_008]

I was really surprised when my Enlish teacher un-assigned Don Quixote. It was an English AP class, and the students were a bunch of whiny spoiled kids. They complained to her that they had so much other work and that this book was just so long. The teacher was really disappointed that no one liked it because she loved it and wanted to share it with us. She did give us the option of keeping the book and finishing it on our own if we wanted to, but no one spoke up at all! I felt silly liking it, plus I was really shy and kind of a geek, so I just kept my thoughts to myself. I've kicked myself ever since then. I have a copy of my own, maybe when I finish everything on my nightstand I'll pull it out and try again. That teacher was a really good teacher, I had her for both Sophomore and Senior English.

I also have a copy of The Great Gatsby, I think I'll pull it out and try it again soon too. Maybe it'll be more interesting since I won't be stressed with a quiz! http://www.storknet.com/boards/wink.gif

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~Laura~
Meagan LeighAnne (http://www.picturetrail.com/lauradarlene) - 09/17/99

[Caryl]

Ah, now I can put myself in your teacher's shoes a bit better, Laura. http://www.storknet.com/boards/smile.gif AP students are usually excellent at debate! I'm glad the teacher was able to express her love for the book, and it stuck with you.

BTW, I think it's interesting that I assumed your teacher was a "he." I thought you had said "he" in your first post, but you didn't. Maybe it's because my preconception of Don Quixote is that it's a very masculine book. I bet it's much more romantic than I think! (Not love-type romance, but adventure and philosophizing-type romance.) Am I right?

Caryl

[Laura_008]

I think it could be classified as romantic in an adventurous and philisophical way. You're very perceptive! It's been several years since I read it, and I don't really remember much (except for the beginning, which I've read a dozen times :rolleyes http://www.storknet.com/boards/smile.gif and he's a delusional old man who believes he's a knight-errant. He goes out in search of his "love" and adventure. The way he gets himself into so many messes and then back out is pretty comical. It's also interesting to read how the different people he comes in contact with respond to his crazy ramblings.

Talking about it is really making me want to pick it up again! http://www.storknet.com/boards/wink.gif

I thought that was funny that you referred to my teacher as "he" too. I've never had a male English teacher, high school or college. Wouldn't it be interesting to compare the reading lists given by female and male English teachers? I wonder what one would assign that another wouldn't?


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~Laura~
Meagan LeighAnne (http://www.picturetrail.com/lauradarlene) - 09/17/99

[SusanH]

~What was your favorite class in school? Did your favorite class change as you grew older?
In elementary school, I really enjoyed every subject. In high school my favorite was French.

~ Did any of your teachers particularly encourage you to read? Tell a story of a teacher who inspired you in the areas of reading and literature.
Sigh. I have absolutely no inspiring teacher stories.

~ What is your favorite book that you read for a school assignment? Describe what you loved about it.
Hmm, I don't remember reading anything particularly wonderful in high school. Obviously I enjoyed some of what we read, but nothing really stands out. There were a few novels assigned in college that I found particularly moving. The Brothers Karamazov came just as I was really working through religious issues. Master and Margarita also really strongly influenced me. But I actually discovered most of my favorite novels/novelists on my own.

~ Did you read any books in school because they were assigned, that you wouldn't have picked up on your own but are glad now that you've read? Tell about one.
I'm glad I read a few writers such as Hemingway just because I think an educated person should have read them. But I didn't actually enjoy Hemingway, lol.


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Susan, proud mama of Susanna Jane (http://users.adelphia.net/~harkavy/), 2/3/00 * at the park (http://users.adelphia.net/~harkavy/maypark.html) * "I sleepy!" (http://users.adelphia.net/~harkavy/sleepy.html)
Co-moderator of Attachment Parenting
Out with the jive, in with the love. - Mr. Burns

[rebeccav]

~ What was your favorite class in school? Did your favorite class change as you grew older?

Always English, in elementary school it was because I got to write stories, in high school it was because I got to read stories!

~ Did any of your teachers particularly encourage you to read? Tell a story of a teacher who inspired you in the areas of reading and literature.

I would say all of my elementary school teachers encouraged us to read, because the last half-hour of school each day was spent listening to the teacher read aloud. In grade 2, my teacher read us Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby stories, in grade 3, my teacher took us through Tolkien's LOTR books, and so on all the way to grade 7. In grade 5, my teacher read us "The Boxcar Children", "My Side of the Mountain" and an excellent story (that I haven't been able to find) called "My Name is David". In the earlier years of elementary school everytime our class took a trip to the school library the first half of the visit was spent listening to the librarian read aloud. I just loved it.

~ What is your favorite book that you read for a school assignment? Describe what you loved about it.

The best book I read in high school was "1984", but my English teacher said we weren't going to study it because previous classes had hated it. I was disappointed because some of my friends (who were a year older) said they'd studied that novel in his class and told me about it, and I was dying to read it. I told the teacher I was disappointed, so he gave me a copy so I could read it on my own time. I remember not being able to put it down, even sitting on the edge of the tub, in a towel, getting ready to get in the shower, but still reading! To this day one of my favorite books.

~ Did you read any books in school because they were assigned, that you wouldn't have picked up on your own but are glad now that you've read? Tell about one.

Probably "The Chrysalids" in grade 10. I hated the book at the time, but looking back, it was a fascinating story. Now that I think about it, I'll have to pick it up from the library and read it again...



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Rebecca (27)
DH (27)
DS Devon Michael 12/06/99
and a Baby Girl EDD 12/06/02 Camryn Laurie
Co-moderator, SC4

[Ursula]

~ What was your favorite class in school? Did your favorite class change as you grew older?

Spanish class. Otherwise, I despised school and rarely attended.

~ Did any of your teachers particularly encourage you to read? Tell a story of a teacher who inspired you in the areas of reading and literature.

Sorry, I can't tell any of these stories because I have none. Not one. I was utterly bored in school. English class was one of the worst. We would spend 6 weeks reading a thin little book. The pace was agonizingly slow. Then we were always reading books I didn't care about (male protagonist) again and again. I was assigned Huckleberry Finn 3 years in a row. The third time, I actually got up and walked out of the classroom. I began skipping school every day, most all my classes, until I had only a 20% attendance rate for sophomore and junior years.

What did I do while I was skipping? I read The Scarlet Letter, Madame Bovary, Gone With the Wind (oops, not really a classic IMO), Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and on and on. I'd read them in less than a week and then ask study questions from the cliffs notes to test myself. School was an absolute let down before I attended college.

~ What is your favorite book that you read for a school assignment? Describe what you loved about it. I remember liking the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson because the end surprised me, and I'm rarely surprised by books or films. And I liked it because it really made me think. I think high school was a bit like that story. Yikes! I find the phrase, "Leave no Child Behind" irritating because I know that this new policy is going to leave even more highly intelligent children behind as they are overlooked due to the high needs of the children who struggle to learn (or are lazy). I mean, I want all children to learn, but I think the struggles of the highly intelligent children are completely ignored too much of the time.

~ Did you read any books in school because they were assigned, that you wouldn't have picked up on your own but are glad now that you've read? Tell about one.

Siddhartha and [/i]The Stranger[/i] were books I never would have finished if they weren't assigned. I'm glad I knew the Siddhartha story before going to India and I'm glad I read The Stranger because it introduced me to Existentialism.

I'm sorry to be sour. This is a sore spot for me, but I am glad that I persevered on my own even if college and even graduate school would have been easier had I had a strong high school education.


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Ursula
Me: 35, Dh: 34 (1989)
<font color="#FF850B"><font size=2pt> Dd: May 24, 2001</font></font>
15 Months
She has started potty training!
<font size=-3pt>{www.picturetrail.com/ursulastork/499607}</font>
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[lissadivamama]

What was your favorite class in school? Music and Art were my favorites allthe way through. I am a singer and majored in voice/opera in college. I think English and Literature would be a close second (until I had to start writing! I hated writing papers!

Did your favorite class change as you grew older? Not really

Did any of your teachers particularly encourage you to read? Tell a story of a teacher who inspired you in the areas of reading and literature. I think I got most of my love of reading from my father, who actually never finished high school, but was one of the most well-read men I have ever known. In grammar school I was introduced to the "Little House" books, the "BoxCar Children" series, and the "Pippi Longstocking" books by a 3rd grade teacher who read chapters aloud everyday. We lived out in the country with no library near by but there was a Bookmobile that came to our school in the summer.

What is your favorite book that you read for a school assignment? Describe what you loved about it. I read "The Good Earth" by Pearl Buck in the 10th grade for an English book report. We had to have a visual aid for our presentation and I sketched a picture of the woman kneeling in the field working- I am not a visual artist, it was pretty bad! I think I need to read that one again - I remember being amazed and horrified of the life these people actually lived during that time in China!

~ Did you read any books in school because they were assigned, that you wouldn't have picked up on your own but are glad now that you've read? Tell about one. I think at the time, a lot of the assigned books were ones I would not have read on my own, and to be honest, I don't remember a lot about some of them! I have actually re-read some of the Dickens as an adult.

I remember always liking short stories best in literature classes.



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Melissa, 44
DH-Jesse, 45
Angel - 2/99
Benjamin James Primitivo
Born August 30, 2001, 5:44 pm EST
9lbs, 2oz, 20.5 inches
Benjamin's Website (http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/b/bjpm/)