Post by donna on Jul 25, 2014 16:13:42 GMT
The school district I work in chooses a book every year for all of our high school students to read each summer. Towards the beginning of school there is usually a short quiz they have to take for a daily grade. The quiz is given at the same time district wide so they may be taking this quiz in PE or some other class.
This year the choice was This I Believe 2. It is a collection of essays written by people of all walks of life about something they believe. Some of the people are famous, but most are not. These essays have also been read aloud by their authors on NPR from what I understand.
Now for the vent, while I have found a few nuggets of inspiring information in the book, it is really not a good summer reading book for teens. Heck, I am bored reading it. Some of my teacher friends' kids have been trying to read it and they are complaining about how boring it is. Then I start to realize that there is only one assignment suited for this book and that is for each student to write their own essay about what they believe. These things are going to be a massive pain to grade. The only grade you could give that wasn't just a completion grade is for grammar. I am a Chemistry/Physics teacher because I don't want to grade English papers!! When you get down to it, a student could write an essay on this topic without having to read the book. Kids have paid around $10 for this book. There is no way libraries have enough copies of this book to go around. I feel bad for families short on funds that spent $10 for a book there child could have not even read and still do the quiz.
Okay, I got it all out. I couldn't vent somewhere else.
This year the choice was This I Believe 2. It is a collection of essays written by people of all walks of life about something they believe. Some of the people are famous, but most are not. These essays have also been read aloud by their authors on NPR from what I understand.
Now for the vent, while I have found a few nuggets of inspiring information in the book, it is really not a good summer reading book for teens. Heck, I am bored reading it. Some of my teacher friends' kids have been trying to read it and they are complaining about how boring it is. Then I start to realize that there is only one assignment suited for this book and that is for each student to write their own essay about what they believe. These things are going to be a massive pain to grade. The only grade you could give that wasn't just a completion grade is for grammar. I am a Chemistry/Physics teacher because I don't want to grade English papers!! When you get down to it, a student could write an essay on this topic without having to read the book. Kids have paid around $10 for this book. There is no way libraries have enough copies of this book to go around. I feel bad for families short on funds that spent $10 for a book there child could have not even read and still do the quiz.
Okay, I got it all out. I couldn't vent somewhere else.
