Need to hear from Junior High/Middle School English teachers (degree, background)

[GypsySoul22]

My son is going into 7th grade. I am looking at getting him transitioned from Remedial English or whatever they call it to Mainstream English (he is in Mainstream Science and Social Studies this year). The school may or may not comply, so regardless, I will be working on his skills in English this summer.

Would you please tell me what skills you want your new 7th graders to come into your classes with? What sort of books do you teach in 7th? (I have googled some good ones already). Please, don't say Lord of the Flies..I hated that damn book when I was a kid...

I have an teaching degree (elementary) and English degree so I am able to work with him but I want to know WHAT sort of curriculum to (generally) he needs to be ready to master.

Thanks very much.

[hypocore]

Have you looked on your school website and checked the current 7th grade teachers pages? Depending on how well they utilize their sites, you can find all kinds of info that will help prepare for next year. If nothing else, you can at least find their email address and communicate directly with some of them to ask more specific questions.

[toobusytoday]

Here's a great website with suggestions for boys books Books for Boys Reading List | Boys Read

[GypsySoul22]

Originally Posted by hypocore

Have you looked on your school website and checked the current 7th grade teachers pages? Depending on how well they utilize their sites, you can find all kinds of info that will help prepare for next year. If nothing else, you can at least find their email address and communicate directly with some of them to ask more specific questions.

Good idea, thanks.

[SuzyQ123]

My dd just brought home her novel list for next year. They will be reading Weasel, A View from Saturday, and The Diary of Anne Frank. They will also be doing a report for each book. There was also alot of poetry listed. This is for 6th grade honors.

[TeaJay]

My sixth graders read The Indian in the Cupboard, Bridge to Terabithia, Bud, Not Buddy and Maniac Magee. Next year (I am looping up with them) we will read The Boy Who Dared, Chasing Vermeer, The Giver, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Kira Kira and maybe The Outsiders.

I also agree with Hypocore about looking at the school's pages to find curriculum info. I would also recommend something like Evan-Moor's Daily Language Review- it's very good for adressing basic language skills and they make one edition per year- though I think it stops at 6th grade.

[RDSLOTS]

Next time you are in the school, ask one of his LA teachers for a copy of the curriculum for grades 5, 6, 7 and 8. They should be able to download and print it for you, or you may be able to access it yourself online at either the local school district level, or from the state's department of public instruction.

I used to ask my JR and SR HS parents to get their children to read -- if only cereal boxes for a start. Children the age of your son seem to enjoy magazines, and many are geared to his age/interest level. Check out the wide variety of periodicals in a large book store next time you are there to see what might appeal to him. For gifts, ask others to give him subscriptions to magazines -- Sports Illustrated for teens, National Geographic, and others on specific topics like computers and gaming and activities like skateboarding, surfing, music and entertainment come to mind.

When you've got him reading -- anything -- ask him to share, even if it's the calorie count on the cereal box, and then extend the activity, as in, "how long will it take you, you think, to burn off 180 calories? if you ride your bike, walk to your friend's, or sit on the couch all day?

Choose a book above his reading level, but high interest, for the two of you to share in the evenings. Buy, or check out two copies from a library, and read it together. Get him a small notebook and let him put down thoughts and ideas as you progress -- he may need to start his 'reading log' by just doodling, writing catch words and phrases. Draw a line down the left margin for him to write new words and what he thinks they mean, from the context. Don't make it a chore sending him to find a dictionary.

Reinforce the reading interest(s) with whatever other activities you can. For example, my daughter enjoyed playing soccer, and later took up surfing. She had subscriptions to magazines on those interests, and I'd get books on the subject for her, bios of famous surfers, soccer players, etc. Treat him to something special along his interests, too, and see what you can find to read on those topics, too. Because she liked the game of soccer, we looked into the history of the sport, and the women's national team in DC. I got tickets to a couple of games that came to our neck of the woods, and found bios for her on some of the players. We read the rule book just out of curiosity.

As you prepare dinner in the evenings, ask him to help you catch up on the day's news by opening the local paper, and reading headlines to you. If a story sparks your interest, ask him to read some of it to you, or read it for himself, and then summarize the article. Same with magazines.

Encourage him to write letters to out-of-town friends and family members. It need not be an epistle. Find him a pen pal, if you can. Can be someone in a town somewhere in the US much like your own.

There are all sorts of things parents can do to foster an interest in reading. Start with those things that are of particular interest to your own child, and go from there.

As a former English teacher, I felt the greatest help to me and to the students was to get them in the habit of reading, putting thoughts to paper -- really didn't matter what, as we could always fine tune it later.

[Charles Wallace]

Originally Posted by GypsySoul22

My son is going into 7th grade. I am looking at getting him transitioned from Remedial English or whatever they call it to Mainstream English (he is in Mainstream Science and Social Studies this year). The school may or may not comply, so regardless, I will be working on his skills in English this summer.

Would you please tell me what skills you want your new 7th graders to come into your classes with? What sort of books do you teach in 7th? (I have googled some good ones already). Please, don't say Lord of the Flies..I hated that damn book when I was a kid...

I have an teaching degree (elementary) and English degree so I am able to work with him but I want to know WHAT sort of curriculum to (generally) he needs to be ready to master.

Thanks very much.

I'm not a middle school teacher, but I do teach high school freshmen. Here's what I would REALLY recommend:

1. No garbage fiction.
Please, please, no "issue" novels (e.g., Go Ask Alice, Are You There, God...). These ill-written, sentimental pieces of tripe do little to nothing to prepare students for reading better literature. Save them for (at best) an independent reading list...if you must.

2. No ill-written fiction crafted at the fourth grade level but meant for teens.
Yes, Stephenie Meyer, I'm looking right at you. You too, Rick Riordan.


Instead, here's what would be on my wish list. As you'll be able to tell, I'm a big proponent of that "cultural literacy" idea -- but I can't tell you how relevant it is. Really, I'm only listing here the very basics someone would need in order to get some of the references on Lost or The Simpsons, yk?

1. Greek mythology!
There are so many good books I can't even begin. Well, yes, I can. Start with D'Aulaire's Greek Mythology and Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy or a kids' version of The Odyssey and The Aeneid. Those two stories underpin so much of Western literature that you're only getting half the story when you're not familiar with them.

2. Shakespeare!
There's no reason to bore your kid to death by reading the play. Instead, WATCH THEM. The Michelle Pfeiffer Midsummer Night's Dream is a delight, as is the Baz Luhrmann Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo Di Caprio. Yes, purists may carp that both of those versions "commercialize" the plays. Tough. They aren't perfect, but they're a good "bridge" between the plays themselves and teenage audiences. NOTE: The R and J has some adult scenes and themes. Please preview. The 1968 version with Olivia Hussey is truer to the play (and is lovely). TIP: Turn on the English subtitles as you watch the film-- that does *wonders* for increasing reading comprehension.

For Shakespeare fans, I would also recommend Branagh's Hamlet, Henry V, or the delightful froth, Much Ado About Nothing. Much Ado and Hamlet have some adult moments; Henry has some violence. Please preview...and again, USE THE SUBTITLES.

3. Beowulf
The Robert Nye version retells the epic in a pretty accessible way, although it does change the story a bit. Still, it's a decent introduction to this major work of English literature.

4. Bible stories
I'm not particularly religious, nor am I advocating these as religious texts (any more than I am advocating that a child worship Zeus or Apollo by reading Greek mythology), but knowing key Biblical stories is absolutely crucial to "cultural literacy." I don't really care if you believe them or not, but you should (at least) KNOW them.
Top stories include...
* Creation of the world and humankind
* Temptation and fall
* Cain and Abel
* Noah
* Abraham and Isaac and sacrifice of Isaac
* Jonah and the whale
* Tower of Babel
* Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
* Job
* Birth of Christ and three wise men
* Temptation of Christ on the mountaintop by Satan
* Miracles of Christ, esp. walking on water, water into wine, loaves and fishes, Lazarus.
* Last Supper
* Betrayal of Christ by Judas
* Crucifixion and resurrection

There are many good kids' versions of Bible stories in the library.

Other good works I wish my freshmen would have read BEFORE they come to me include...

1. George Orwell, Animal Farm
2. Steinbeck, The Pearl or Of Mice and Men
3. SOME version -- even an adapted, simplified version -- of a Dickens novel. Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, or David Copperfield would all be great.
4. Heidi, by Johanna Spyri
5. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
6. Great tales by Poe
7. Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain
8. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

Seriously, if a kid came to me knowing JUST THAT, she or he would be infinitely easier to teach and would be able to learn so much more.

Good luck.

[ccr4tigers]

Charles, as someone with an MA in English Literature and self-confessed book snob, I hear what you are saying. I have always said that a kid who has a background in Greek mythology and the Bible will be able to rock Freshman English courses in college. However, I have to disagree with you in this case. This is a child in remedial Language Arts. If you hand a kid like that Shakespeare he is just going to get frustrated (although I do like the idea of watching it).

First of all, what is your child's current reading grade level? Once you have that, then go and get books that are about 2 levels above that. Since you will be working with him, he can handle it. I agree about accessing the curriculum for next year. Still that does not address the reason that he was in a remedial class in the first place. What are the actual gaps? Is it a comprehension issue, processing, writing? That is what I would focus on if I were you.

I have worked with both Gifted kids in middle school and Special Ed. kids, so I feel like I have pretty much seen the whole spectrum (I also currently work at a school where 70% of the kids speak English as a second language and that is a whole other ball of wax). I would want to know exactly where the weaknesses are (ask his teachers). Then, figure out his strengths. Maybe he is terrible at reading comprehension, but great at expressing himself verbally. You can create activities that utilize both of these skills. That way this is a positive experience. If you narrow down the challenge, then I think we could all offer more specific advice. At my school we offer parents packets to take home for the summer to work with their kids. If you want, shoot me message that is more specific and I could probably email you a copy of one of the packets based on his specific needs.

[Charles Wallace]

Originally Posted by ccr4tigers

Charles, as someone with an MA in English Literature and self-confessed book snob, I hear what you are saying. I have always said that a kid who has a background in Greek mythology and the Bible will be able to rock Freshman English courses in college. However, I have to disagree with you in this case. This is a child in remedial Language Arts. If you hand a kid like that Shakespeare he is just going to get frustrated (although I do like the idea of watching it).

With all due respect, I politely disagree. In fact, I think that a kid in remedial LA is even MORE in need of these touchstones of cultural literacy because s/he is more likely than not to get fed crummy literature geared toward his or her reading level -- the high school equivalent of a basal reader.

If the child is in remedial LA, then get Mary Pope Osborne's version of The Odyssey or Geraldine McCaughrean's, both of which are designed for younger readers. Watch Shakespeare -- which was never meant to be read on paper anyway! -- and discuss it.

Then try this. Let's say your ultimate goal is to get your child to read a good piece of literature -- let's say Pride and Prejudice.

1. Watch the Masterpiece Theatre version or the Kiera Knightley. MT is better.
2. Read the Classics Illustrated version.
3. Listen to P and P on MP3 or CD from the library.
4. Read the real thing.

In short, build up familiarity with the plot and characters first, the language second, and the text-through-the-eyeballs version last. Yes, you're spending, by my count...
* 5 hours to watch the MT miniseries
* 2 hours to read the CI version
* 13 hours to listen to it
* +13 hours to read it to oneself.

However, I will argue that it is worth the investment of time -- that one Pride and Prejudice ninja-kicks the whining booty of a thousand Twilights. I would argue the same for Greek mythology and the story of the Odyssey.

The thing is, the kids who are most likely to get shut out of the great literature are the kids who are language-delayed or in need of remediation. Historically -- although this is obviously not true in all cases -- they're the kids whose parents are least likely to have familiarity with those pieces of great literature themselves. That means that they're shut out of all the literature, film, and television shows that make use of those pieces of great literature, which means they won't understand a decent chunk of what's being said to them. They're the kids most likely to be handed some teenage piece of footwipe "issue novel" to be 'interesting" to them or "relevant," because we all know that lower-level readers are too dull to find great literature and its ideas interesting...and the cycle continues.

Except they're NOT too dull and they DO find it interesting.

We do those kids the worst disservice in the world by handing them boring, silly, trite fiction with Mary Sue characters, and lousy language written at the fourth-grade level with the most simplistic syntax and entirely predictable ideas -- and then we find their lack of interest in this garbage proof that they're too "behind" or too "challenged" to be given actual literature.

Horsewhallop.

I've taught LD kids and reading-delayed kids great literature, and you know what? They thought it was cool -- because it is.

Here are some greatest hits:

Oedipus the King, by Sophocles.
Student reactions: That it was like a murder mystery and entirely gross (in a compelling way) when Oedipus discovered who he really was.

Macbeth, by Shakespeare
Student reactions: That the witches, ghosts, and murders were also very cool -- and the motif of milk and nurturing provides an ironic contrast. (That last was developed by a lower-level sophomore student with a record of solid Ds in English.)

Other hits:

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde
The short stories of Poe, esp. "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Cask of Amontillado," and "The Masque of the Red Death."
The stories and fiction of Jack London, esp. "To Build a Fire" and Call of the Wild.

Seriously, don't give up and feed their good minds garbage.