Hey, /lit/. Newly qualified English teacher here. I've

The Recognitions
Men and Women
The Tunnel

>>7997600
Frankenstein (Shelley)
Lord of the Flies (Golding)
The Remains of the Day (Ishiguro)

>>7997600
Make sure you get 1984 in there so we can stop these socialism is good meme

>>7997600
Notes from Underground - Dostoyevsky
Ficciones - Borges
Les Enfants Terribles - Cocteau

>>7997627
i can't decide if this is b8 or you genuinely know nothing about Orwell

well played, i suppose

>>7997600
What year are you teaching? You have to keep in mind you will be literally trying to teach kids who can't read. Also try your hardest to not make reading books so unenjoyable that most kids literally skip English class, I love reading, loathed English class, nearly compleltly put me off literature all together

Nineteen-eighty-four - Orwell
Dubliners - Joyce
Candide - Voltaire

Nothing hard or long.
I'd put 1984 in the middle,since that is the longest.
I would start with Dubliners,and end with Candide

r8?

Where you at? Gotta read the little niggas something from their country.

i would pick something from these

Edgar Allan Poe
Villiers de l'Isle-Adam
Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann

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>>7997698
>Candide - Voltaire

This isn't a novel, it's an incoherent track.

>>7997717

yeah idk who the fuck ever thought candide was a worthwhile read

>>7997698
Terrible, I'm sorry. These kids won't be able to point out on Ireland on a map, let alone able to recognise or fathom the themes relating to Irish nationalism and class divide

1984 is taught in advanced in Australia for a reason, too much going on for most of the kids

This bloke should get them to watch a movie instead of read a book and get them to wrote about the the themes and dramatic techniques

>>7997729
>Highschoolers
>Can't read a book
>Can't point out fucking Ireland on the map
In what nation/country has he decided to become a teacher?

>>7997738
I'm American.

>>7997727
>>7997717
I'm reading it right now,and it's not incoherent at all.
It goes really fast with the story,and it's as simple as a straight line,I give you that,but it still forms a coherent whole so far.

>>7997738
I finished high school about 3 years ago so I'm probably more in touch than you are. I can gurantee less then half of the students would be able to point out Ireland on a map and you would be Lucky to find one who knows about its independence movement. Maybe one or two kids in the class won't be able to read very well, if not at all. Dubliners being easy to read is a meme anyway, he spouts a lot of drivel about an uninteresting dreary town

I work with many 16 year olds and you are severely overestimating their literary ability. About half of them won't even read the book you give them

>>7997754
but why?
How can you not point something as significant as Ireland on a map?
I'm not talking about Burma or Nepal,but a fucking country in Europe.

>Not being to able to read very well
>In Highschool
What is going on with the education in the US?

>>7997767
Ireland is completely irrelevant, as is most of Europe.

Majority of Americans will never even visit that continent in their life.

>>7997767
I'm Australian bruh

Trust me, with the exception of people with Irish grandparents maybe 1% of 16 year olds could point Ireland out on a map or tell you it's capital city

There are a substansial amount of 16 year olds I work with who can hardly form a coherent sentence

>>7997747
It's more than straightforward, it's shallow. Voltaire has no literary value whatsoever, and his insights are about as deep as you would find in a Jeremy Clarkson column. The only reason he's recognised is that a few British toffs found him funny when he ran off to London because the French were being too idealistic and proactive for his tastes.

>>7997786
Leave Redfern.

>>7997795
Wollongong cuzzy

>>7997770
But it's basic fucking knowledge.
>>7997786
what turns people stupid?

>>7997600
Portrait of a young man as an artist by Joyce
The Man Who was Thursday by Chesterton
Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O'Connor
All 3 are short and beautiful and won't turn them into plebs who think they are masters of literature because they read Orwell and Fitzgerald in high school.

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>>7997807
>But it's basic knowledge
Not really. Most people probably can't point to Ireland without help. You assume everyone knows what you do.

>>7997807
Low intellect combined with a lack of desire to learn things. Without a desire or an interest to learn and a low level of intellect making learning things more difficult then it is to everyone else people get left behind, they never develop the base skills in reading, writing, math smd language to do anything to serious with their lives

>>7997811
Is it that much to ask?

>>7997815
Yes, considering about 1% of the population will have fetal alcohol syndrome, another maybe 2% will abuse drugs and another 2% will have learning disabilities.

>>7997815
When was the last time you met a working class person? Knowing where Ireland is doesn't pay the bills so most people have no reason to know it.

>>7997819
Isn't there a mandatory geography class in the elementary schools of Australia/The USA?

>>7997822
Yes, but that is for continents. Also people don't remember stuff that isn't useful for them. They might know stuff that you don't. What they need to know and remember is different than what you do. Also remember that OP asked about high school students.

>>7997800
Can't complain about the Gong m809.

>>7997754
>I work with many 16 year olds and you are severely overestimating their literary ability. About half of them won't even read the book you give them

ITT: shitty public education @ anglophone countries

Why don't you guys try stimulating their developing brains for once, and not defeatistically make them feel stupid instead of teaching them that struggling with intellectually demanding material is normal, and even desirable.

I'm sure they would develop a much bigger """"level of intellect"""" (you do know their minds are still developing, just to check?), and a much bigger passion for learning things

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>>7997833
Everything about this post says snooty, European fedora.

>>7997600
I'd recommend the Crucible. Fairly easy read, it's what go me into plays in highschool plus the themes are pretty spelt out so you have that to work with.

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>>7997827
>Just for continents
seriously?
8 years in the elementary school and you don't even learn the countries?
What is the point then?

>>7997843
You realize there are over 200 countries? The average person doesn't want to memorize all that.

>>7997843
>australian education

>be ausfag
>tfw have met several adult australians who thought africa was a country

>>7997846
Yes.
But learning at least the western countries + the important ones isn't that hard.

>>7997846
Just sit them on /int/ and make them fill in a map with all the flags.

But yeah the average person is awful, I can't believe we let these people vote. I can remember high school English with painful memories.

>>7997600
Brave new world, then pretend to be interested in what they think is more important between freedom and happinesz. This will spark a healthy discussion most of time and will make them feel smart.
Lolita. Because sex. There's none in the book but some might read it in the hope that there is.
Bukovsky. Because lol alcohol lol pussy lol i'm so sad. Works a charm with teenagers.

>>7997853
The average person probably does learn about both continents and countries in class but they don't retain it. I don't think you talk to a lot of working class people. Keep in mind that genre fiction fans are more intelligent and well read than most people.
>>7997854
>/int/
They would remember India as poo land and Canada as weed land.

>>7997830
Dapto though

>>7997841
Also, Lord of Flies and maybe a movie like psycho just to mix things up a little.
Alternatively, you could study rap lyrics as poetry, maybe that'll get the kids involved.

>thread consists of people calling out a whole country as stupid for not being able to point out ireland on a map

what fedora tipping m80s

>>7997871
Are you serious? It's actually fucking pathetic. High schoolers. I cannot imagine a Swiss highschooler that couldn't point out say Alaska (and I'd argue Alaska is of less relevance to us than Ireland to them) on a map.
>le fedora dib mene xDDDD
Pathetic.

>>7997624
woah these actually wouldn't be bad for highschool students
>>7997729
>1984 is taught in advanced in Australia for a reason, too much going on for most of the kids
hahah what cunt. I was never in 'advanced' English and heaps of my classmates had read 1984. We were never taught it though. The curriculum is pretty retarded.
>>7997810
Portrait would be ideal for hischool. When I read it at 17 it was pretty #relatable

>>7997871
Highschoolers struggling with books isn't normal.
Not knowing basic geography,isn't normal.
And not knowing it after you have recieved a "First World" education?
Disgusting

>>7997883
>struggling with books isn't normal
I guess you just buzz right through Finnegans wake.

>>7997883
>Highschoolers struggling with books isn't normal.
>Not knowing basic geography,isn't normal.

i bet you're not ausfag

>>7997887
I guess you have problems with 1984.
You shouldn't have problem reading a basic book that is just a highschool material.

>>7997717
It's a picaresque what are you on about? It's only slightly faster paced than Gullivers Travels or Robinson Crusoe

>>7997840
>be teacher in America
>it's literally below my level to even attempt to teach these fetal alcohol syndrome working class students they're so dumb
>I come on an international image board to lament
>a non-american makes a great point that I'm actually at fault for this because I'm not doing a very good job
>obviously can't make a counter-argument because he's right
>WAIT--- holy shit, I don't *have* to explain why I think I'm right -- I'm a T E A C H E R -- I'll just make a snotty remark and try to make him feel unintelligent for even attempting to argue with me
>wentbetterthanexpected.jpg

>>7997894
And? That still doesn't mean they'll get every single book.

>>7997600
The Picture of Dorian Grey
Hamlet
A Farewell To Arms

>>7997898
You didn't make any points. You rambled on about how shitty Anglophobe countries are. You do realize that Europe isn't really relevant on other continents? Your country knows geography from surrounding countries but that isn't relevant here.

>>7997899
Being so stupid that you struggel with 1984 or the fucking Great Gatsby means you are not the type of person that should go for a higher education.

>>7997909
Snob detected.

Hey guys, OP here- thanks for all the responses, a TON of great suggestions to think about. FYI the class I'm teaching will be 16-17 year olds.

>>7997915
I might be a bit of a snob,but that just shows how big of a mistake I make every day when I wake up assuming that everyone is just as smart as me if not smarter.
Every bloody day I wake up and the people around me dissapoint me.It's shameful really.

>>7997920
Also, I'm teaching in England. The students SHOULD be able to point out Ireland on a map. I'm starting in September.

Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, and Hamlet.

For leisure reading construct a list for each term which consists of medium-high brow lit from each literary period.

>>7997922
Not everyone is a genius but they still deserve an education. A lot of people who are taught in high school go on to trades anyway.

>>7997908
I could probably point out at least 60% of the US states on a map.
I could probably point out 90% of all countries in Europe and Asia and South America.
I had never put any terrible effort into learning to do that. I literally just went to geography classes and had C's and D's in it yet I can still point out all of this.

I made a point that you burger public school teachers never give the working class kids a chance at an education, and that this is why they are so "stupid". But I guess you have bad reading comprehension so you didn't catch that point.

And apart from the system being broken, I honestly believe that some of you teachers also personally go with this because you're secretly trying to compete with them because hey -- the upper class only needs so many 'lower class people who know anything' a.k.a. teachers -- so you'd just better discourage your competition.

backwards country -> backwards education -> backwards people -> backwards country

>>7997833
You may be right, but this one, single teacher asking the board for advice won't change that culture. It would be silly to ask him to swim against the tide.

>>7997925
Hamlet is a must for real. Then do brave new world and maybe Keats or Paradise lost? Structure your lessons around whether it is better to be happy and blind or knowledgeable

>>7997933
Would it really? Be so silly as to make a faint suggestion that he could actually make an effort to be above-average successful at his job?

>>7997881
>Portrait

You're a fucking nerd toff, stop spreading your cancer, you are literally negativly influencing literature by trying to get a teacher to give content that will only make the students grow to resent literature

>relating to portrait
Tell me more boy genius, normal kids have aspirations to be football stars and will grow up to be brick layers with their dads, give them appropriate books to read

>>7997932
Most American classes deal with American geography and history. A lot of the lessons deal with the Revolutionary and Civil wars and other stuff that isn't relevant to you.

>>7997600

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Teach them the joy of literature. Don't commit symbolic violence on your pupils. Fundamentally this class is about them, not you flaunting your /lit/-approved taste and telling them what they should take away from the book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_power

>>7997933
This guy has an opportunity to completely change the course of some kids life for the better.
A well chosen book could do wonders for giving someone life goals.

>>7997948
That's beyond my point, sorry if I didn't get that through properly.

>>7997933

>>7997942 cont.
But then again I really might just not know how fucked up your guys' education system is, so I guess do whatever feels right. I just know that if you're about to feed some books to a kid, you better not give him John Green just because you (or the kid themself) thought that fucking Great Gatsby was beyond his reading comprehension

>>7997957
What's wrong with young adults reading young adult literature?

>>7997964
they're not young adults.
they're on-their-wayers-to-become-adults.

nothing wrong with reading YA literature if they do it in their spare time, but not in place of reading actual C L A S S I C S in a C L A S S room

>>7997968
They all need suitable books though.

>>7997964
They can't look up Sparknotes for YA lit

>>7997981
Why are you automatically operating under the assumption that they will want to read Sparknotes?
A teacher's job isn't to make students read literature, their job is to make students want to read literature.

Also why do you care if they do read Sparknotes? Their loss. At least you gave them the opportunity to actually read good lit. And it's much easier to start when someone at least points you to the right works.

Btw, am I wrong when as an European I get the impression that YA is only part of the curriculum in _public_ high schools in America?

1984, Orwell
Atlas Shrugged, Rand
The Hobbit, Tolkien

>>7997992
I went to a private school in Australia and while the cohort was fairly academic overall, most kids just read the Sparknotes the day before the assessment.

There was some YA assigned but mostly it was contemporary classics like Hemingway.

Dubliners, 1984 and On The Road.

>>7997627
the author of 1984 was a socialist who fought in the Spanish civil war
you're a meme, kid

>>7998005
The author of 1984 was George Orwell,who got scared of stalinism.

>>7997997
>>7997992
Yeah it's their loss but in terms of merely achieving a good score for assessment, a student receives no immediate motive to actually read the text given the level of expected understanding.

Start with the Greeks op. If you really are an English teacher, let me tell you that once I finally read then I was shocked that I had never read them in highschool. They teach everything essential to language. Mythology, poetry, history (context), etc. They might be too long though. Macbeth, Hamlet, R&J, merchant of Venice, etc.

Maybe selections from the Bible. Job, Ecclesiastes, or even just Genesis could be good.

>>7998049

Are you retarded? He's an English teacher.

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>>7997600
Hypersphere
Infinite Jest
TLOTIAT

>>7997968
>help what is orthography

>>7998006
Read his essays you poltroon, of course he was scared of stalinism, stalinism was awful. That doesn't undermine his support for non-authoritarian socialism, in fact it was his experience in the Spanish civil war which convinced him that Stalin had abandoned the principles which the communists professed and was nothing but a murderous dictator.
Homage to Catalonia actually has several quite touching portraits of a (mostly) functioning anarcho-syndicalist state under war.

>>7998049
I'm sick of this "the Bible is good literature" meme. It sucks. If you can't enjoy it religiously, it's impossible to be enjoyed. Read secularly, the Bible is absolutely terrible. The writing is shit, the plots of the books are ridiculously inconsistent, the morals to be learned from it are generally terrible (if you're reading for morals, there are *far* better books to choose), there's just nothing desirable about reading it whatsoever. Trust me, I've read the whole thing, cover to cover, back when I was a wee Catholic school lad. It sucked nuts.

The God Delusion
The Fault in Our Stars
any PHP manual

>>7997951
Make them read Wind-Up Bird Chronicle so they're forever horrified by Murakami

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>>7997600
>Lolita
>Fight Club
>Books of Blood vol 1-3 by Clive Barker

Let see where this goes

>>7997600
Lolita
50 Shades of Gray
The Bible

>>7997600
american psycho
no country for old men
the oxygen thief

Robinson Crusoe
>Great book about survival, castaway situations make teenagers think of themselves in the situation and is vital to building their imagination.
Mao's Last Dancer
>Read that recently, fucking great book
Lord of the Flies
>Nuff said

Short reads of varying difficulty:

Picture of Dorian Gray
Heart of Darkness
Maybe a couple of the inner chapters of Xhuangzi

>>7997660
E N G L I S H teacher

Ulysses
Gravity's Rainbow
Infinite Jest
>how has nobody posted this by now

>>7998189
Teaching the meme trilogy to students who don't know where Ireland is. OP can just fill the void in the classroom when he asks a question about the text with his laughter.

OP you should also finish off the year with Bloom's The Western Canon that you will read aloud in class.

>>7997600
Seriously though, I need to have some description of the students you'll receive. I'm a current high school senior (18+ fuck with me) who took the """""""elite"""""""" English classes and they were still full of retards.

>>7997699
T H I S
H
I
S

come on man if you're actually a teacher you know the importance of culturally relevsnt pedagogy

>>7997699
>>7998317
Unless you are from Canada

>>7998322
>culture is limited to geography

You do realize theres a big difference between the lived experiences of poor students and wealthy right

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Suggesting Walden by Thoreau
>or these

>>7997600
>The Trial by Franz Kafka
>Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
>The Stranger by Albert Camus
You know it to be true.

Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum. Used to be required reading in MA high schools.

Relatively easy prose, good theme, exposes students to the world, extraordinarily classy writer that can teach an adolescent brain a thing or two, short enough to plow through quickly, true story, the list goes on.

>>7998065
Teaching English doesn't mean you have to teach English lit. It's about language not literature.

>>7998325
I'm saying there are no books worth reading/studying that are written by a Canadian. I don't know what you're on about.

>>7998349
It actually does, usually. The highschool class called "English", after the 8th grade, is no longer about the language and more about reading comprehension and understanding literature.

>>7998353
Making a book relevant to students doesn't just mean you read a book by an author of the same nationality; if you have a class of immigrants, reading something like The Jungle or Kafka's Amerika will be a smarter idea than Gatsby

do you even teach bruh?

>>7998374
A quote from the original post you replied to:
>Gotta read the little niggas something from their country.

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>>7997600
Oedipus Rex
Heart of Darkness
At the Mountains of Madness

>>7998406
that person was using the idea of culturally relevant pedagogy

but culturally relevant pedagogy extends beyond geography and nationality; that is what i'm explaining

I think Flowers for Algernon would be a wonderful novel for high school. We did the short story and it stayed with me ever since. I would also like to suggest We as opposed to 1984 but I reckon 1984 would be more practical/easier going. Lastly Siddartha.

>>7997754
>Dubliners being easy to read is a meme anyway, he spouts a lot of drivel about an uninteresting dreary town

Fucking this. It's not all bad and admittedly I've not finished it yet but it's significantly duller than I thought it would be from the way it's touted on here.

>>7998449
Dubliners is undoubtedly the worst of Jimmy's "novel"

It's very subtle and it has some lovely moments, but mostly it just is a talented young man in his early 20s setting himself up to go beyond anything possible prior

>>7998006
stalinism =/= socialism

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>American and third-world educational system and policies: the thread

>>7998831
I never said that stalinism = socialism.

>>7998852
regardless of whether or not YOU did, the original comment did. check your anonymous privilege, kid

>>7997694
Kids can read in highschool retard

>>7998879
Most of them wont, trust me. Im in highschool.

>>7998905
gtfo

>>7998905
this site is for 18+ negros only lad

>>7998914
>>7998935
sorry i didnt know

>>7997870
My English teacher tied in Kendrick with Things Fall Apart (the yams is the power that be)

>>7997863
You sure know a lot about the mind of an underage-person-who-is-too-young-to-be-on-4chan

>>7998339
Thanks for cropping out the stupid shit at the bottom. i don't understand why the humor in memes needs to be so hamfisted, these book titles clearly speak for themselves/

>>7998340
GR's too big though. I've read Par Lagerkvist and the memeamorphasis in classes before, so L'Etranger and The Trial should be fine

Lord of the Flies is literally for elementary schoolers. I read it for the first time in fifth grade and it was insulting to find it on my high school reading list. The prose isn't complicated or interesting, and you don't have to be intelligent to comprehend the moral shoved down your throat.

PLEASE don't assume that all kids want to get into literature by sampling individual authors deeply (e.g. by jumping right into Dostoevsky, to prove that literature can be grandiose and cool and stuff) as opposed to getting a general appreciation for literary tradition(s) as a whole

i didn't get into lit as a kid for so long because it was always taught like that, and i am way more into History of Ideas-style learning. i found it very difficult to get into literature when it wasn't presented to me as a contiguous tradition, with currents and subcurrents that you can trace, with themes and topics relevant to specific eras and philosophies for specific reasons. it was just individual books by individual authors, with no context given.

if there are any other kids like me, they will feel frustrated by not being able to get a bird's-eye view of the tradition. even just a breakdown of major periods and a feel for how authors' historical context is important.

>>7999025
The question of this thread remains, is the teacher teaching nerds or neanderthals?

>>7997600
Pick at least one thing from the typical canon, To Kill a Mockingbird or Great Gatsby. I finished highschool recently and my class mates were very in to both.

What grades are you teaching?

>>7999042

>To kill a mockingbird

Please no. We have enough teenage girls overrating that shit because they read it in class.

>>7999084
Yeah, replace with 1984. My class seemed to love it.

Heart of Darkness, for sure

>>7997600
Slaughter-House 5
East of Eden
Invisible Man

Atonement
As I Lay Dying
Bird by Bird
Brave New World

A Clockwork Orange
Catcher in the Rye
Fight Club

The point is to get those angsty fucks to read. These will have the most to do with them.

OP i think it would be best to ask what the other English teachers are teaching and base around that. The people with more experience will have more of a feel of what should be taught than people who have never had to teach.

Great Gatsby went over well in my level 4 classes, as did Midsummer's Night Dream. What specific classes are you teaching? My school was pretty big so we had electives, generally freshman year was general lit
sophomore was American Lit
junior was British Lit
and there wasn't a dedicated Senior class. You don't want to be teaching the same thing they learnt the year before, because they will be bored.

These 3 are YA with literary merit.

Hamlet
Great Expectations
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

>>7999121
I don't know if I would teach Portrait in High School. It's a bit too much.

Hamlet is for upper levels, but doable.

Great Expectations is a great book and great for teaching high school kids. Most of them will probably end up hating it, but do it anyway.

>>7999013
i didn't do that but thanks, Lori

>>7998049
>Maybe selections from the Bible. Job, Ecclesiastes, or even just Genesis could be good.
how about no.
You realize he probably teaches at a public school, yes? with non-christians.

And do you really think 16 year olds will really get Plato? or care for that matter?

>>7997600
C&P
read it in HS and realized books didn't have to suck ass

Could also go Camus for digestibility

>>7999537
>non-christians

Why does that matter? The bible is essential to western literature

>>7998353
There is a lot of great Canadian literature. Just because you have only heard of Margaret Atwood doesn't mean CanLit is as bad as you think it is.

Make them read obscure stuff so that they can't use external help. This way they'll have to read the work and develop their OWN ideas on it.

>>7999577
>The bible is essential to western literature
A. it is not essential to western literature in the sense that you dont need to read it to understand our canon (unless you're reading dante or aquinas, which HS kids are not)
B. it's really condescending to non-christians to focus on one religious text.

I mean I would totally recommend it if were a western philosophy or theology course, but it's not. it's an English course.

I mean, we read the Book of Job and Noah's Ark in my Brit Lit class. Wasn't a fun unit, everyone was bored.

I would argue that something eventful would get kids most interested. It's difficult to know though, I never had a high school class where people were actually interested, and I didn't get interested until the teacher started arguing with people instead of saying "that's a legitimate interpretation" to everyone. I would think something like Slaughterhouse 5 would go well, but I'm not sure.

>>7999597
This might work, or you might just get people with a lot of bad grades. Also, most great works are decently known, but I guess who cares about great works in high school?

>>7999597
>>7999626

Nah, reading random off-the-wall shit isn't good for young people who are just getting to grips not just with literature but with the history of literature. What you're meant to do is to give out regular unseen poetry/prose commentaries to develop critical skills and a personal response.

>>7999654
Not something high off the wall. Something relatively easy but without a sparknotes page. So they think about what they are reading instead of just reading someone else's analysis/summary.

>>7997600
1) Frankenstein
2) 1984
3) Stoner

Im serious about #3, idk why more high school aged kids getting ready for college don't read it. It's prose is easy to understand and its a fun read.

gravitys rainbow
mason and dixon
remains of the day

A Farewell to Arms
The Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies.

Standard.

>>7998110
I second Hypersphere
Do it fgt

As another high school English teacher, I would like to say:
>>7997770
This mentality is one of the reasons public education in the U.S. is in such a poor state. We are encouraged, even required, to design our curriculum based on the abilities of the least-capable segments of the student population in many ways.

To more fully answer the question posed by
>>7997767
I think there are many factors combining to result in the atrocity that is the U.S. public education system. Besides what I mentioned above, and the bottom line (call me a conspiracy nut, ask me if I'm wearing a tin foil hat, I don't care), I genuinely believe that those in the highest echelons of power want the masses to be no more intelligent than is required to produce what they want us to produce. It is the principle of "Ignorance is Strength" found in 1984. Not to say our society is a reflection of Oceania as a whole, but that notion is entirely applicable.

We also, in my opinion, have a system of education that is at odds with the culture of today's student population, and teachers who are both currently unable to connect with that student population and unwilling to change their mentalities/methods so as to be able to reach them.

I don't share these views with my students, by the way (at least not before they graduate), I just do what I can to alleviate the problems in my own classroom and guide as many students at my school as possible, whether they are my students or not, as best I can.

>>7998006
retarded comment

>>7999821
Also, I'm relatively new to teaching, which is why my influence is mostly limited to my own classroom. I do share some of my thoughts on effective teaching methods with my colleagues if the circumstances are right, but I'm biding my time until I have some real gravitas before I genuinely try to broaden the scope of my ambitions.

>>7999608
>A.

I read The Inferno for a 10th grade lit class.

>>7997600

I kind of want to know what other books you are teaching so I can fill in the gaps but here are some ideas. Some of the suggestions here are a little too tough for HS. Here are a few I like and I think could be good for intelligent highschoolers:

Beowulf
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien translation)
Wuthering Heights / Jane Eyre
Tom Sawyer / Huck Finn
The Sun Also Rises / The Old Man and the Sea
Catcher in the Rye (duhh)
In Cold Blood

You could consider doing a short story unit where you assign a different story each night and use the opportunity to do a random sampling of century styles and genres. Realist, minimalist (Raymond Carver), southern gothic ("A Rose for Emily"), modernist ("Araby"), detective, sentimentalist ("A Christmas Memory"), humor, SF, fantasy (Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas"), horror (Poe). Plus you can assign slightly more obscure-tier material that Sparknotes don't exist for. Might require a lot of xeroxing though...

>>7997600
my mein kampf

if you're teaching contemp. american lit, go for stuff that's somewhat relevant to contemporary american lit. My suggestions would be
Jack Kerouac - On The Road (even if you dislike Kerouac the beats are an important precursor to the 60s mindset and aesthetics)

Tim O'Brien - The Things They Carried - Powerful book that moves me to tears every time.

Don Delillo - White Noise - edgy Kids and pseuds might relate to its musings on consumerism and fear of death

OP, the only job you have is you need to act extremely passionate about literature. You need the kids to love you as well. If you're not teaching AP, they aren't going to read the books.

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>>7997943

this comment is the most correct

>>7998128
I agree with this, and I can't see why even the KJV is considered good literature front to back.

>>8001978

KJV Job, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs contains some wonderful poetry

>>7999821
What is the culture of today's student population, and how could teachers connect with them?

>>8001987
Oh, I agree with those selections; I'm just saying the bible as a whole is an awful book.

>>7997866
rough

>>8002016
At least we have a greyhound track, where are you from, I've never known anyone from around here to use this Yugoslavian pen and pencil enthusiast forum

>>8002019
I'm from the south coast, moved to Wollongong a couple years back to study philosophy/history. No other /lit/ users around the area that I'm aware of lol

>>8002025
>South coast
Now that's rough

Fair enough, studying at uow I'm guessing? I would but paying to studying isn't up my alley. Yeah, haven't ever met anyone who has read a book outside of highschool

>>7998143
You forgot to tip your fedora

>>7998151
jesus, I threw up a bit

that book wherein charles bukoski gets el drukyo
that book wherein charels bukoski fuggs some uggo chick
that book wherein charels buksoki doo doo's in his britches

>>7999577
What are some good Canadian books?

You come to 4chan to get advice on books..? And you're a teacher??? Aren't you supposed to have learned for this stuff. 4chans /lit is arrogant and everything popular or most read is regarded as trash or a meme....

>>7998224
holyshit, this deserves a (You)

>>7999608
>I close my eyes and see a flock of birds. The vision lasts a second or perhaps less; I don’t know how many birds I saw. Were they a definite or an indefinite number? This problem involves the question of the existence of God. If God exists, the number is definite, because how many birds I saw is known to God. If God does not exist, the number is indefinite, because nobody was able to take count. In this case, I saw fewer than ten birds (let’s say) and more than one; but I did not see nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, or two birds. I saw a number between ten and one, but not nine, eight, seven, six, five, etc. That number, as a whole number, is inconceivable; ergo, God exists.

Why not create a list and let the kids choose what book they want to read? That's what my English teacher had us do for our final book.

As for recommendations for such a list:
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (with a tie in to Heart of Darkness)
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Night by Elie Wiesel

>>7997938
Oedipus

>>8002096

Atmospheres Appollinaire by Mark Fruitkin.

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>>7999608
I know I'm a day late here but
>the bible isn't a cornerstone of the western canon
How stupid do you have to be?

>>8004182

Was this the shittiest short story Borges ever wrote besides the Lovecraft homage? Methinks so.

>>7997767

>but why?
How can you not point something as significant as Ireland on a map?
I'm not talking about Burma or Nepal,but a fucking country in Europe.

Because Americans.

>>7998349

There's both English and English Literature classes.

>>7999106

This.

>>8001194

Why the focus on American lit when OP is teaching in England?

>>7998005
Does that take away from the lessons about socialism in the book?

Clockwork Orange
Catcher in the Rye
Animal Farm

>Animal Farm or 1984
(depending on what grade you are teaching -- it might tie in with their SS curriculum, which always makes it easier on the kids to learn more about the context of the book)
>selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses
My lit teacher in HS was a big classical literature kind of guy, and we read the popular stories from this (Arachne, Narcissus, Phaeton/Icarus, , etc) and a lot of kids caught on quickly and enjoyed it because they were short and most already had some sort of idea about famous Greek myths. Maybe even the Odyssey & Iliad.
standard fare for MS/HS reading:
>Lord of the Flies
>Fahrenheit 451
>The Catcher in the Rye
>Slaughterhouse Five
>works of Shakespeare
>Inferno of The Divine Comedy -- the kids will probably get a kick out of the various punishments of Hell, but unless they're smart or had a unit in Italian history, it might slip past their heads. still a very fun read.
>The Giver
>The Great Gatsby
>The Little Prince

Since I'm not exactly sure what grade level/advancement level you're teaching [I apologize if you've already mentioned it] I put in a variety of titles. Good luck teaching the kids! I grew to love true literature [not trashy YA novels] in high school because of my class. Hopefully you'll be able to inspire the kids, too!

1. Communist Manifesto (or a similar political manifesto, the ideology doesn't matter)
To make them actually think about politics as well as to teach rhetoric, argument, and identifying bias. My idea for assessment would be for them to read the Communist Manifesto, summarize it, and then explain why Marx's predictions didn't come true and whether they will or won't in the end. This is as much history as English, though.
2. Animal Farm (or 1984, but Animal Farm is shorter and more straightforward)
Compare and contrast with the Communist Manifesto. Which is more persuasive? Does the narrative and parable-like structure make for a better argument than the manifesto?
3. Lord of the Flies
Discern what the book tells us about humans and society and compare and contrast with two takes on socialism.

Bonus points for throwing in Harrison Bergeron and asking the kids what it means, waiting for them to say "the author clearly meant to show that too much equality is terrible" and then pointing out the author was an egalitarian parodying the accusations of his opponents.

>>7998996
sounds like you had a kick-ass english teacher. im unironically jelly right now.

>>7997807
How would me, if I didn't know of Ireland and it's struggles, not knowing of what the country went through, or even where it's at, hinder me in anyway as an American if I never intended to visit and had no need to fully understand or respect their culture?

>>7997600
I read Catcher, Lord of Flies, and The Crucible for high school in my town. I loved Lord of the Flies and would definitely recommend it. The Crucible and Catcher were both fine, but I know my young, American mind didn't want to read about Holden and would've preferred Huck Finn or Of Mice and Men, or The Great Gatsby--the books that were only in brief summary for a few lectures and assignments.

imo Catcher in the Rye is a must
I'd also add White Nights by Dostoyevsky but I'm not sure about the third one

>>8006181
Education is not JUST a tool. It is something to be sought after for just the sake of being educated. Dumb cunt.

>>7997600

>1984
>The Prince (Or Art of War)
>Lord of the Flies

Would sow the seeds of redpill.

>>8006254
This in relation to high school you ignorant twat. Treat the question as if it's coming from a high school student.

catcher in the rye. there's a reason its taught all over America. its extremely relevant to today's students. I'd also argue the Bell Jar even though much of it is about depression

>>7997600
>1984
>Lord of the Flies
>The 120 Days of Sodom

>>7997729
1984 is extremely simple thematically, and Dubliners isn't overtly subtle.
>>7997754
I'm married to a 16-year-old that reads more than you.
>>7999608
>which HS kids are not
You, sure. Then again, you're a moron.

>All these suggestions for 1984 and Lord of the Flies

When I was at High School, we did our exam on LotF and I read Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm as independent reading books.

>Infinite Jest
>The Pale King
>Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

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>>8006855
I like it

>>8006860
I'm writer. You're liker.

The Iliad (ancient literature)
Hamlet (renaissance literature)

then either something from the 1800s or 1900s to represent modern literature

or just force them to read whatever your favorite book is

Absalom, Absalom
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The House of the Dead

>>7997600
brave new world by huxley
moby dick by melville
a canticle for leibowitz by walter miller jr
and Frankenstein by shelly

What year OP? Big difference between freshmen and seniors.

I pick:
Catch-22 - very enjoyable read and important for post ww2 literature.

King Lear - An essential. They will probably read Hamlet and Macbeth in other years.

Jane Eyre.

Don't make them read 1984 that book is terrible.

Well I'm gonna keep the fact that they are 16 year-olds in mind and try not meme the shit out of the poor kids.

Henry IV Part 1 by Shakespeare
Mrs. Dalloway by Woolf
Maybe a story collection by Maupassant or Gogol

Mice and Men was one of the few things I liked in high school.

Do consider your students, though. Some ideas for diversifying your reading list might include Octavia Butler or Sherman Alexie. A lot of it depends on where and who you teach. Not only is it good for students to see people like them reflecting in the reading, it's good to see other people than DWM too.

>>7997754
>about half
Still being I'm highschool at a very elite school, I can guarantee that literally no one besides two or three students will read anything you assign.

1984/Brave New World/Handmaid's Tale
The Stranger/Waiting for Godot/The Metamorphosis
Candide/Midsummer Night's Dream/Huck Finn