Class Reading

[Rohinia]

Hello everybody

for an important paper that I have to write in the course of my teacher's training programme I need to document a special literature project to be carried out in my English class. My students are in the 6th form, i.e. in the 6th year of learning English.

The problem is that the most suitable novels (1984, Animal Farm, Brave New World, About a Boy, Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, To the Lighthouse, Ethan Frome, ...) have become real classics also here in Germany's secondary education English classes, where they have been dealt with ad nauseam and of which there are already myriads of teacher's books, copymasters, etc.

My supervisor wants me to do something "NEW", i.e. to read a novel/short story collection (or a sequence of poems) that has not already been "taught" a thousand times so that I can work out my own materials, worksheets, teaching concepts, etc.

It need to be a book that delivers the following:

- figures of identification for 17/18 years olds
- a certain amount of (social/political/cultural/personal/identity) conflicts that make for good discussions
- enough substance to teach the basics of literary theory about novels
- it should be easily readable by advanced learns of the English learners and
- not cost more than ~10€
- reading it should be fun and not to demanding

I would very much appreciate your recommendations because at the moment I am like paralized. My bookshelves are full of good books that I(!) loved, but most of them do not make for a good reading in class.

Do you have any ideas? :idea:

Regards

Rohinia

[PeterL]

Try anything by Mark Twain; Huckleberry Finn might be best. It is certainly better than any of the books that you mentioned, and it is easy reading. If you want something less conventional, then you might consider the novels of Kenneth Roberts; Arundel and Rabble in Arms are his best known, but any of the others would work.

[Rohinia]

Hi PeterL

thank you for your reply.
I think Mark Twain would be a wonderful reading experience. The problem I see here are the elements of colloquial language that the main characters make use of. That might confuse English language learners.
The two books by Kenneth are certainly interesting and great books, but they are far too long.
I'm looking for something that is not longer than 300 pages.;)

Regards

Rohinia

[PeterL]

Consider another by Twain, The Connecticut Yankee might work.

[islandclimber]

try Rohinton Mistry's "a fine balance"... he is an indo-canadian writer who weaves quite the beautiful yet tragic stories... they are always a wonderful read.. and full of both social and internal conflict...

cheers

[SleepyWitch]

sounds tough :( to be honest, the book your supervisor is looking for sounds like one of those German young adults' novels that we have to read in year 9, like Heißt du wirklich Hassan Schmidt or the one about the kid whose brother is a drug addict blablablabla. has no one told him that sozialkritische, Problemblabla novels for young adults simply don't exist in the English-speaking world?

how about
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi, 288 pages
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buddha-Suburbia-Hanif-Kureishi/dp/0571142745/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204994494&sr=8-1

Hanif Kureshi introduces us to the world of Karim, who, as a Seventeen year old boy with an English mother and an eccentric Indian father, is searching for his own identity. Karim is more of an English youth than the exotic Indian boy as everyone percieves him to be. Indeed, his English step-brother is more exotic than him. Karim experiments with new ideas in his search to find himself, he is not pinned down to any place or group of people. Instead, he is able to mix with anyone, and move around in any social circle in 1970s London. It is his hybridity that allows him to do this. He is neither one thing or another.
A very amusing and thought provoking novel. It opens the world up, and at the same time it makes it seem more familiar to us. We learn a great deal about ourselves through it.

or
Stone Cradle by Louise Doughty, about Romany ppl in Ireland (??), 368 pages
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stone-Cradle-Louise-Doughty/dp/0743440390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204994600&sr=1-1
I haven't read this book myself, but the author gave a reading at my univ once and it was both interesting and funny. there is some slang/dialect in it, though.

if I can think of any other books, I'll let you know.
~ greetins from a fellow future English teacher (well I'm still studying, but anyway, I appreciate what you must be going through, given how crazy the German teacher training programme is)

[Rohinia]

Thanks so much for your advice.

I've already thought of Kureishi's "Buddha". It's a great novel, though a bit long.
Then there is the movie.
It deals with conflicts of any kind: father-son, Pakistani-British culture, sexual "awakening", etc.

I'll have to think it over.

Cheerio

Rohinia

P.S.: Don't worry - the teacher's training might be tough sometimes, though it all depends on your personal attitude towards it. I've been trying to see it as a challenge rather than a torture. Sometimes it works ;)

[aeroport]

I would recommend the Dubliners stories by Joyce...and maybe his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Also, maybe some Hemingway stories?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I would take a look at Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It is one of the best sci-fi books I have read, one I need to read again, and I think it will work well. Don't throw it out as just a brainless sci-fi adventure, it is much more. Plus, it is incredibly entertaining, and if your students don't get pulled into the story, I don't know what will. You may also want to try Slaughter-House Five, though I know this is taught, but not as often as some of the books you mentioned. It is much more complex than Ender's Game, but it is shorter, so you could read it slower and analayze it more.

Come to think of it, Slaughter-House Five may not be a the best choice for people learning English. Vonnegut uses sarcasm so much, I think your students may have a ahrd time picking up on it.

[JBI]

Try As I Lay Dying by Faulkner. It is easily accessible, but yields more than almost any other novel I have yet encountered.

[Erichtho]

I would recommend the Dubliners stories by Joyce...

I second that. We read Dubliners in English class and most enjoyed it. The Portrait in contrast is not suitable I think.

[byquist]

There's a nice little book put into a really fine film, 'Local Hero." Don't know the author, but it's good. Also if "Field of Dreams" is a book first, that might be interesting.

[Cellomaster2238]

I had two people beat me to it, but I would also recommend Dubliners by James Joyce.

[Scheherazade]

How about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-time-Adult/dp/0099450259/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205967641&sr=8-1

Or The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Douglas-Adams/dp/0330258648/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205967754&sr=1-3

[kilted exile]

Less Than Zero - Brett Easton Ellis.

[Erichtho]

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

Haha, sure. :D German students reading Th. Mann in translation? You must be kidding.

[Kafka's Crow]

John Connolly's The Book of Lost Things. Excellent coming-of-age novel for young adults. Not much violence, no unnecessary sex, just a fast-paced story. I gave it to my 10 year old as his first big boys' book. He loved it though found it a bit too complicated with intertwined themes of jealousy, choices, loneliness, imagination, literature (books/ fairy tales) and adolescence.

http://www.thebookoflostthings.com/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Lost-Things-John-Connolly/dp/0340899484/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206029206&sr=8-1

[Rohinia]

Dear all,

thanks so much for your recommendations. I really appreciate your support.
In the meanwhile, I've come across a novel by Doctorow: "The book of Daniel".
I've not finished it yet, but it starts well and I think it makes for a good read. It also gives an interesting insight into some events of the 20th century US-history.

What do you think?
Has anybody read it as a class reader yet?

Rohinia