Plus One Makes Twe--no, Thirteen

You should probably add Elie Wiesel's Night to the list ... and The Scarlet Letter ...

Six Plays to Read in High School (if you don't want to sound like an idiot in college)

These are in no particular order ...

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
The Miracle Worker, William Gibson
A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare
Oedipus Rex or Antigone, Sophocles
Macbeth, William Shakespeare
The Crucible or Death of a Salesmen, Arthur Miller

I suppose many will think I should add Shakespeare's Julius Caesar--tough--not happening.

11 Books to Read before Leaving High School (If you don't want to sound like an idiot in college)

These are in no particular order ...

Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Anthem, Ayn Rand
Of Mice and Men, John Steinback
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
A Room with a View, E. M. Forster
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

Why should we read these?

Because they're stunning books!

Ha! we've heard that before. What makes them so great?

What makes them so great? The usual suspects ... readability, imagination, suspense, tension, drama, romance, reality, fantasy, a certain stylistic beauty of language that makes me bite my lip in envy, a gift for characterization that Shakespeare would admire, a creativity of detail and plot that, oh hell--that if I could match, I'd be on the list instead of writing the list. Try them. If you don't like them, find me something better. That's my challenge to you.

Rhyme for My Son

Teach me patience
Teach me kindness
Teach me to see

through my blindness

Teach me my strength
Teach me my joy
You are my teacher, darling boy

Teaching Shakespeare

Get out of his way. Really. Shakespeare wouldn't be SHAKESPEARE if he needed us to sell him.

I used to think it was my job to convince my students that they should love Shakespeare before they read one line of his work. I was wrong.

By all means, prep your students with background information (young men played the female roles). Give them a basic working vocabulary ('thee' = objective 'you', not 'the'). Have them discover their own understanding of the difference between a tragedy (lovers kept apart by death) and a comedy (lovers end up married).

Then, just let them read, listen to, and see the sonnets and plays.

Three pieces of advice ...

Lead your students to the realization that Shakespeare's characters deal with universal human conflicts--even those teenagers experience! Are you mad that your Dad or Mom remarried too quickly? Ever had a friend 'stab you in the back'? Do you suspect your boyfriend or girlfriend of cheating? Ever felt like you were going crazy? Shakespeare's characters cope with these situations and more.

Don't hide Shakespeare's low sense of humor. Come on--a guy named 'Bottom' gets turned into an 'ass'? Very funny, William. A young man brags--lies!--about his 'pump' being 'well-flowered'? Yes, dears. That means what you think it means. But you know what? Your students will get past these silly--and it's okay to be silly!--visual and verbal puns more quickly than you anticipate.

Help them appreciate the sheer beauty of some of his language. Who else but Shakespeare combines the silly with the sublime so seamlessly? All teachers have favorite passages from the plays they teach--celebrate them, even if they've never been applauded by Harold Bloom--and let your students find their own.

My students began to enjoy Shakespeare much more when I finally shut up and let him do the talking. I'm embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure that out. :)