In school, students will be required or encouraged to read Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, or The Secret Life of Bees their freshman year, Julius Caesar, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Lord of the Flies sophomore year. The Crucible, Into the Wild, The Great Gatsby, and Of Mice and Men are books read in English classes, with Beowulf and Macbeth the following year.
Required reading in English classes provides students with high-quality real-world examples and expands their vocabulary. If students only read text messages and blurbs from social media, for example, they will struggle to improve their reading skills.
“Some of our literature definitely changes but there are also classics that will probably always be around. For example, our Shakespeare plays, The Crucible, and Beowulf. Bismarck High School English teacher Kirsten Nies said. “ These have stayed around because they meet high standards for the writing craft and vocabulary, they are highly referenced in our culture and the themes are timeless.”
When these books are assigned to students, it is based on state standards that teachers are required to teach. The reading itself is more like the spice and fun of the lesson, while the standards are the actual focus.
“I can’t speak for everyone but I do offer choices whenever I can. There are some books that teachers are required to use and there are good reasons for that,” Nies said. “However, we also have literature circles in my class. For those, I give students seven different titles to choose from, with a range of length and topic.”
The themes of the books that are read can be applied to students’ lives and teach valuable lessons. Some themes, such as the importance of educating yourself, staying loyal to friends, and standing up for what’s right are introduced, giving students examples that they can learn from. However, some older texts may be harder to gain lessons from. In this case, older text is studied looking at the context that the work was written in. There may also be discussions about how perspectives may have changed.
“Books offer different experiences to different students, depending on their background. Hopefully, students can see that expanding their perspectives and vocabulary, as well as improving their writing skills are useful, not only academically but in their future careers too,” Nies said.
