I just finished grading The Joy Luck Club Pod before my husband and I had dinner. I tend to lose myself in reading the submissions each week. Sometimes I think I have just enough time to skim through and get the main ideas of the posts, but I always find myself reading everything word for word--which should be comforting to the students. Yes, I do. I read everything! I can't force myself NOT to. Of course some of you may be thinking "Why wouldn't she read everything? Isn't that what she is SUPPOSED to do?" Which it is. And I do. But I have heard some instructors say that they just skim--they don't have time to read everything verbatim. Well, neither do I, but I do. I would miss out on some great ideas and discussions, plus new insights, if I didn't read anything.
Pods have been interesting. Sometimes each student will pick the same assignment; sometimes an assignment has no takers. I never know, and I commented to a friend that the next time I teach this, I may replace some of the unpopular assignments with others that may seem more interesting. How wrong that would be! Just because very few people read the chapter from The Red Pony a few pods ago doesn't mean that in another semester five or six students may really enjoy Steinbeck and want to read it. What I do want to do, however, is add to the mix. There are so many other stories, poems, and plays in the anthology that we did not have time for, or that I did not have a chance to develop. The next time, I will add more titles to the menu.
Also in the next two semesters there are no novels on the 'reading list' from the state curriculum committee. That means that I won't be able to officially teach The Scarlet Letter, The Red Badge of Courage, or The Joy Luck Club next year. I am not very happy about that, because I feel that the novel is such an important genre, but we will still have Huckleberry Finn in the anthology--I hope. The edition for that is changing as well. And once again, we are being restrited in our choices.
On to Pod #10, the final section of our semester's adventure through American literature. What fun it has been!
It has been a wonderful semester, Mrs. Siemens. I have enjoyed the selections that you have presented to us. Yet, I feel like there is so much more to study and so little time. I want to read it all and learn. Limitations, such obstructions they are!
ReplyDeleteWell Mrs. Siemens the school year is over. I really have enjoyed the American Literature class. This was new for me, but i really love some of the stories, i can not say all of them but few were my favorites. I am sorry about next semester but stil Huckleberry Finn it is very interesting novel, so students will have fun reading it.
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