The Literate Teacher's Manifesto

Tweets by @Mrs_J_of_EAMS

Some books are guilty pleasures; the kind you don't want anyone else to see you reading.  Now, I'd probably never take any of these out in public (unless they were on my Kindle), but I've read them all several times. The North and South  series by John Jakes.  I read these after I watched the awesome miniseries from the 80s featuring Patrick Swayze and Leslie-Anne Down, and out of this list these are probably the least guilty of the guilty pleasures. I learned a lot about history and the Civil War from reading these books, but some parts of them are just.... well, trashy. The Harry Potter series, which I always come back to when I need entertaining reading that I don't have to focus on so much.  I reread HP after I finished Les Miserables , after reading The Greatest Show on Earth , etc.  And they are great books.  But I can't help but feel that maybe I'm too old to be rereading them again (for the 16th time--not an exaggeration). The Tithe  serie...

Today has been a frustrating day.  (Sorry, I realize this post is not strictly literature related, but it does apply.)   Yesterday my Social Studies classes began a close reading of the Declaration of Independence.  Just the first paragraph.  Really, just the most famous sentence in the first paragraph.  ("We hold these truths to be self-evident...") My intro to this has always been pretty effective, you know, that this is possibly the most important sentence in American history... that this sentence sums up the foundations of our government... that the idea that all people owned these rights was truly revolutionary , and in many ways still is! *insert crickets chirping here* Me:  Well, okay.  Let's look at the text here.  What rights did the authors believe all people have? *chirp chirp* Me:  Look at the text!  What rights are all people given by God? Random student: Uhhhhhh, the right to separate from the British? Me:  No! ...

If you were hosting a party and you could invite any 5 literary characters, who would you invite? I would invite Atticus Finch, from To Kill a Mockingbird , because I would love to hear his opinion of the travesty that has become our political and justice system, and maybe some thoughts on  how to fix it.  I would have Gregor Samsa, from Kafka's Metamorphosis , because I have always been fascinated by his somewhat lackadaisical, unperturbed reaction to his startling change into an insect.  I would invite Jo March, from Little Women , because I love female characters who are strong, smart, and capable of conversing about books (can she bring the Professor with her, but only count as one guest?)  I have to choose Albus Dumbledore, for his conversational ability and his infinite capacity for putting people at ease.  My final guest would be Death, as he appears in The Book Thief .  My absolute favorite narrator of all time: witty, sarcastic, dry, but with a c...

1. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje 2. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 4. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo 5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 6. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton 7. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 9. The Life of Johnson by Boswell 10. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak What's your top ten list?

Mine is The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. I have reread this book too many times to count, and every time I am amazed anew at how lush, lyrical, and poetic the language is. The imagery is unforgettable. This book is, to me, diaphanous... it has this diffused quality of light behind every character and scene. Just go read it already! (And then see the movie, which is equally amazing ♥)

A few weeks ago, I started the 30 Day Book Challenge on Facebook.  As I have been writing the posts that go along with this challenge, I was inspired by and interested in the varied nature of people who liked the postings.  Some responded to fiction, some nonfiction, some were my adult friends, many were former students, and it got me thinking that THIS should be the result of education.  Teachers, students, parents, and community members should have literate and varied conversation about books and reading, and they should be encouraged to TALK about reading, just talk, not do an assignment, or read for a purpose, or any of that... simply talking about books that have meant something, that have changed our ideas, that have made a difference!  So the other day a friend of mine (who also happens to be my ex-principal), suggested that I make a blog site for these posts.  That's what this is.  I don't want it to be just mine though.  I want it to belong to...