The Scarlet Letter

[Rillion]

Quote:
Exactly. In high school English we read Romeo and Juliet and then watched the movie (no, not the one with Leonardo DiCaprio), Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and other books....in AP English we had to do semester-long research projects, and mine was on the Theatre of the Absurd (Ibsen, Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter, and Brecht in my case). Loved all of it. Sometimes the books they make you read, the ones you wouldn't have chosen for yourself, tell you the most of all.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Exactly. In high school English we read Romeo and Juliet and then watched the movie (no, not the one with Leonardo DiCaprio), Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and other books....in AP English we had to do semester-long research projects, and mine was on the Theatre of the Absurd (Ibsen, Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter, and Brecht in my case). Loved all of it. Sometimes the books they make you read, the ones you wouldn't have chosen for yourself, tell you the most of all.

You are right about being forced to read something you may not have choosen. I was "forced" to read Gone with the Wind in 8th grade. I NEVER would have chosen that book, and it remains one that I can read over and over again.

Then again I am a HUGE fan of Janet Evanovich too.....

 

[saddina]

I actually liked the good earth. The pacing is very slow compaired to most of what I read.

 

[muddypuddles]

My oldest son had to read Scarlet Letter for summer reading and hated it but he did it -annotated it and wrote the essays. When school started, the teacher took the assignments and never said a word about the book for the whole year! Why make the kids do all that work over summer on something they hate and not at least talk about it??? That is not an isolated case-if the teacher discussed the summer reading , it was short , maybe half a period. Now I have another son who is suppose to read, annotate and write two essays on Grapes of Wrath but has read only one page so far. He knows the drill-it doesn't even count for a large project grade so he won't put much effort into it. High school kids and teachers make me crazy!!!

 

[debilorrah]

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They did the same thing to my son. In fact, he never even turned it in and it never affected his grade!!!

 

[WriterofWords]

Well you get good students and bad students, good teachers and bad teachers. I've never given an assignment in high school or elementary that didn't count for something.

 

[FrenchHen]

For the record, I loved Beowolf and the Odyssey and the Canterbury Tales.
I escaped the Scarlet Letter and had to read Hemingway instead.

 

[debilorrah]

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I think I have told you before that while my son has had a multitude of bad teachers, there was one in 6th grade that turned him around for life. All it takes is ONE good teacher.

 

[muddypuddles]

Oh Oh. Maybe we shouldn't be saying things like that on this post (shh- the OP may be reading this, lol) But seriously, do I come down hard on him to do it or let it slide? i swear, alot of growing up is making decisions on what is important and accepting consequences and alot of parenting is picking your fights. But the problem is that he won't get any consequences and learn that he doesn't have to do his best to get a good grade.

 

[Zahboo]

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Let it slide

JK.... I think the consequence will show on that grade... Let him know the project is sorta a first impression too...