posted
now, not to be mean or anything, but they should also teach grammar and spelling...
but yes, i wish that my school had ender's game on its reading list. i'd actually enjoy writing analytical essays, for once.
Posts: 93 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I'm a 41-year-old returning college student majoring in Education and will be getting a K-8 license. It will be on my suggested reading lists (I plan on focusing on the older grades).
If I ended up teaching 4th or 5th graders, I'm planning on using about a half hour after lunch for "Audio Book" time where the kids can sit quietly listening to the book and do other quiet things (drawing as one example). I may read out loud sometimes as well. The kids are usually sleepy after lunch anyway, so a quiet time with everyone sharing a good book should help them get ready for a more productive afternoon. We would talk about what was read at a logical story break. This way, they can be exposed to books that are above their grade level in terms of reading, but in terms of story, fascinating and appropriate for their age-group. Ender's Game would be one of the first I'd use.
Posts: 8 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Orson Scott Card faces a serious threat to the production of Ender's Game into a movie. It's... Moms Against Children's Books' Violence! (MACBV!)
"Oh no, that poor spanish kid! MY SON SHALL NEVER READ AGAIN IN THIS DIMENSION! (and someone's getting a lawsuit!)
posted
It’s my spring break up here in Minot, North Dakota. In an ideal world, I would be out on a jog right now, enjoying the sunshine and new, green growth. But the harsh winds, pouring snow and 10 degree temperature has me sitting inside, drinking hot cocoa and browsing this forum instead. This thread made me want to pull out a particular soap box I haven’t stood on in awhile.
But very quickly, since I am new to this site: My name is Amy, 24, and a newlywed that has left the warmth of Texas to follow my “Bean” (my gigantic, genius husband) to the ends of the earth for the Air Force. I’m finishing my English degree online, but I am not a writer. My left-brained mind loves to teach, read, analyze, rip apart, but create… now that’s amazing, and I admire all of you who do this.
To reply: Ender’s Game was part of the curriculum my junior year in HS, and I very much hope this novel will become a standard for HS curriculums. I was in honors classes, and I was always saddened by how many students (esp young guys) managed to get through HS without reading books! They got by on their brains, cliff-notes, lectures, creative (and hilarious) projects, but they didn’t read! When we were assigned Enders Game, our teacher gave us a Friday “reading day” to begin the book. We were ALL hooked. Students who had yet to read a book in HS, not only finished Ender’s Game, but went on to read the rest of the series, and at our teacher’s suggestion, the Dune series as well! Some of these guys are now English majors!
One more quick story: My sister was recently a freshman English teacher at a Baptist private school, and they did not pass Ender’s Game due to the violence. But my sister (who is young, cute, and energetic) enthusiastically suggested this novel to her class, and a few weeks later she received about half a dozen e-mails from moms saying basically this: “I don’t know what you did but THANK YOU! My son/daughter asked me a few weeks ago to bring him to Barnes and Noble… to buy a book, and then… he read it!”
I am convinced that by teaching students to love reading, these teachers have changed the lives of their students, whether it be in a big way - they one day become great teachers or writers - or a small way - they now have something to pass the time in case they are one day, say, stranded in North Dakota.
So Orson Scott Card – Thank You. Teachers – Thank You.
And thank you all for bearing with the length of this post! Amy
Posts: 2 | Registered: Mar 2005
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While I wouldn't have been upset if EG was in my high school's curiculum, I thought Night and Animal Farm were pretty good books.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Books that I had to read in high school that I actually liked (when I read them in high school): Dante's Inferno Lord of the Flies Brave New World Beowulf Grendel Beckett The Illiad Hamlet (not a book, I know)
Posts: 1002 | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:While I wouldn't have been upset if EG was in my high school's curiculum, I thought Night and Animal Farm were pretty good books.
I haven’t read Night, but I agree about Animal Farm, which is brilliant, and a great book for a middle/high school English class, because if you want to teach about symbolism, metaphor etc. it’s chock full of it. Plus if the teacher is good, the students end up learning a bit of history and a lot about different political systems as well (I know I did when I read it in seventh grade).
However, I would love to see Ender’s Game taught in more middle/high schools. Now, my high school runs it’s English program in a unusual way: other than English 9, there is no curriculum per se, instead students get to take semester long electives. Since we don’t have any heavily sci-fi based electives (other then the “Utopia’s and Dysutopias” class), there isn’t really any class for which reading Ender’s Game would make sense.
However, I do know it’s a much better, more interesting, more engaging, more emotion and more complex book than anything I read in middle school, bar perhaps Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies and Romeo and Juliet. I wish my school would replace one of the pointless, practically characterless books that nobody’s heard of with Ender’s Game. Maybe if they’d done that, my eith grade English class wouldn’t have been such a waste of time.
Posts: 25 | Registered: Mar 2005
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They complain about violence in EG, but let kids read Lord of the Flies? I read that in 7th grade and it really creeped me out.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Jun 2004
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ENDER"S GAME IS ON MY HIGH SCHOOL LIST!! very happy. I haven't read lord of the flies but i don't really intend to. change my mind if it's good. My school made us read The House Of The Scorpion, freaked me out more than any other book I read. If you think about it, Ender's game isn't really that violent. sure, some blood spill here and there but it's not bad
posted
It was on my list! But of cours ! was taking an elective english course entitled "Science Fiction and Fantasy" Yea, it was an awesome class and my school rocked for offering it. I doubt many schools have an elective option like that.
Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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Thanks for the welcome! This is a really fun site. I've been filling time reading through past messages, and I've enjoyed reading all yall's posts! This is neat!
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Definitely a good way to get started--I loved reading through the old threads when I was new. Are you looking at both sides, or just this one?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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