Books, books, books by

George Orwell: Animal Farm

karinrichter — 2022-09-27 14:10:22 UTC

We read Animal Farm in upper secondary, partly at home and partly aloud in class and I did NOT enjoy the reading process at all. After every chapter we had to answer comprehension questions and that was it. No introduction, no context, no speaking or writing activities. Just reading and answering questions.

Matilda: Roald Dahl

2024-11-26 11:16:20 UTC

I read "Matilda" by Roald Dahl in lower secondary school, in the 3rd or 4th year. While I can't recall all the specific activities we did, I remember that there was a writing activity where we shared our thoughts on the book and some worksheets focused on vocabulary. After reading the book, we also watched the film adaptation, which helped bring the story to life. I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Matilda" because of its engaging story and the inspiring character of Matilda herself. I would definitely recommend reading this book in school as it not only enhances vocabulary but also encourages a love for reading through its captivating narrative.

Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men

MatthiasGoetsch — 2024-12-02 11:00:34 UTC

We read of Mice and Men in upper secondary school. I did not enjoy reading it as I recall, we only had to read it in summer and talked about the socio-cultural background at the time. It was sad that we did not really talk about the plot or the author, but mainly focused on everything BUT the book. Unfortunately, I did not like the plot of the book either.

George Orwell: Animal Farm

2024-12-02 14:37:42 UTC

I read "Animal Farm" by George Orwell in 5th year English class (upper secondary). This was the only book I ever had to read in English and from what I can remember is that I did not like reading the book and gave up reading it. It was boring to me. We had to answer a lot of questions per chapter so it was a lot of work (I ended up googling the content of the book because the workload was too much). Noq I understand that the reason it was boring to me was that the teacher never mentioned the sociopolitical background of the book (Lenin, Stalin, communism, etc.), because I read the book again a few years ago and LOVED it (I'm a communist lol). I'm actually thinking of letting my students read the book in the future, but not in the English classroom, but during History lessons (the book will still be in English though). I think the book perfectly explains "communism" under Stalin.

Kevin Brooks: Candy

antoniabitschnau — 2024-12-03 19:15:17 UTC

We read “Candy” by Kevin Brooks in 6^th grade, being one of our classreaders in upper secondary. In contrast to other books, I remember enjoying reading it since it was not only covering the common topics of love and identity but also centering on the unknown issue of drug addiction, thus opening a new world to us. In addition to that, I also recall being shocked about this unusual but indeed captivating story and finishing the book with a rather negative connotation. While reading it at home, our teacher parallelly included activities in class such as activating our pre-knowledge, introducing different types of (taking) drugs in the form of a mind map, confronting us with the dangers that come with it as well as discussing various theories why people take drugs (we later had to create individual “info sheets” summarizing the most important key points in note form as homework). Lastly, the book was also part of our final portfolio (we had to pick 5 content-based questions and 3 reflection questions from our teacher's list). Depending on the students' background I would definitely recommend reading it in school!

Ursula Poznanski: Erebos

philippweber00 — 2024-12-06 09:25:48 UTC

We did not read books in English, neither in lower secondary nor upper secondary, but we did read some really interesting and thrilling books in German. I remember enjoying one book in particular - Erebos by Ursula Poznanski. We spent an entire semester working on it since it is nearly 500 pages long. Unfortunately, I cannot recall all the activites we did related to the book but I remember them being a lot of fun. There were comprehension questions and also larger projects, such as group work, where we chose a character (or characters) and compared them to those in other books, series or films of our choice. I would definitely recommend reading this book in upper secondary (it is also available in English) since it is an excellent story and offers fantastic opportunities for analysis.

J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter

2024-12-06 21:15:36 UTC

To be perfectly honest, I can't recall me reading a single book in english class. This isn't necessarily to say that we were not supposed to read books, I simply do not remember any specific occasions.This could either be because our teacher didn't think it necessary to read books in class or ( more likely) because I simply did not bother reading them. The most recent english books I actively recall reading during my time in school were the "Harry Potter" Books by J.K. Rowling. Frankly, I didn't solely read the entire series because I found the story to be intriguing, but mainly because our primary school teacher employed an online tool called "antolin", which let students answer questions about books they recently read. The individual test scores were subsequently used to create a weekly/monthly/yearly ranking. All this is to say, that although I can not remember a specific book, the method of letting the students compete in who has read the most books (and who remembered what they were about), was and still is a great idea to improve motivation and gamify this otherwise often dull experience.

Stephen Kind - IT

2024-12-07 10:36:39 UTC

This was the book I had to read for my English extension (compulsory elective subject) in 7th grade (upper secondary). The course was basically an afternoon reading group (2 hours every fortnight) in which we took turns reading parts of the chapters and discussing the plot, themes and language used in it. In between sessions, we had to read certain parts ourselves and take vocabulary-log style notes on vocab. I think we never got to finish the book in school. I don't think we ever had to read a book as part of the main English lessons.

John Boyne: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

2024-12-08 14:46:41 UTC

In lower secondary, we read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I believe that our teacher chose this book, as our school was named after a woman who, due to her resistance to the NS regime, was sent to the concentration camp Dachau, and she wanted us to become more familiar with the topic.

The activities we did were basically just discussing what we read in a certain chapter and how we felt about it. Otherwise, I cannot remember any other activities or that the book was brought back up again.

I enjoyed the book, as it was very catching and emotional, however, I am not certain if I would read it with my classes.

2024-12-08 20:53:20 UTC

We didn’t read many books at school (in English). I remember this because I was always very sad about that, since I have always enjoyed reading so much! I was always very keen on getting my hands on a new book or having assignments on something that actually sparked my interest. However, in our final year of school, our english teacher allowed us to pick a book together on which we did several assignments on. This made class so much more fun for me and I was really ambitious and eager to do the assignments!

Winston Groom: Forrest Gump

2024-12-09 09:58:27 UTC

During my whole school career I have had the same English teacher. When it came to reading, she always wanted to keep us motivated, so instead of saying what we have to read, we could always pick whatever book we like. In upper secondary, I decided to read the book Forrest Gump and watched the movie afterwards. I loved the book, and the movie is now my favorite movie. When finishing a book we had to conduct a book report, which consisted of a brief summary of the plot, 5 newly learned vocabulary items, and a personal ranking. This way, I had to look up unfamiliar words while reading and therefore I usually remembered these words, because I was given a direct context in which these vocabulary items occurred. I think this book is a great book to read, however, I agree with my teacher’s idea that students might be more motivated to read, when they can choose what to read.

Chris Wraight: Battle of the Fang

benniwenzel21 — 2024-12-09 11:00:07 UTC

In 10th grade I read the Battle of the Fang by Chris Wraight, the only English book I read in school. Our teacher decided that we were allowed to choose the book we wanted to read ourselves which I highly appreciated and now as a student teacher think was the right decision. I enjoyed the book so much that I read it under the table during class, even in subjects I was not good in like mathematics. Regarding connected tasks, I remember writing a summary of the book including a short part about what we liked about it. While I would not recommend it to most readers, I would definitely recommend it to everyone who likes dark science-fiction in general and people who are familiar with the Warhammer 40.000 - universe in particular.

Williams: Dead Poets Society

laragrabherr — 2024-12-09 12:05:01 UTC

We read Dead Poets Society in 10th grade. The reading part had to be done mostly at home. Simultaneously, we watched the movie in class. My English teacher did not really work with the material provided. Rather, he asked us very detailed questions about the content of the book and also the movie. Other than that he did not provide any activity. The students who wanted to improve their grade or were in between two grades had to write a summary of the book and compare it to the movie. Even though my teacher had a strange way of working with the book, I really enjoyed reading it. Furthermore, I liked how we also watched the movie while we read it, as it deepened my understanding and provided concrete images. Additionally, I believe that 10th graders are mature enough to read the book. Still, I would have worked with it in a different way than my teacher. For one, I would certainly discuss the book more frequently in plenum as the content is partly rather dark. Moreover, I am sure that working with the book more would have helped to understand it better, so watching the movie was unnecessary.

2024-12-09 13:29:47 UTC

To be completely honest, we've only read one book in English class during upper secondary, and I can’t even remember its title. I’ve always loved reading in German and would eagerly finish every assigned book. However, this one book in English, which was about teen pregnancy, was the first books I couldn’t bring myself to finish, EVER. The way we approached it in class didn’t help, discussions and quick recaps made it feel tedious.

That said, I read 1984 by George Orwell in my free time during upper secondary, and I really enjoyed it. It was especially fascinating because I was also studying IT at the time. Since I read it on my own, there were no class activities around it, but it left a good impression on me nonetheless.

I believe that English class should do more to support extensive reading. Everyone has a genre they can enjoy, and finding that can make reading in their free time a rewarding experience. If schools encouraged students to explore different books and gave them more freedom to choose, I think more people would discover how fun reading can be.