Pytash: Classics in the Classroom

"THE MOST IMPORTANT decision English teachers make in terms of curriculum is choosing which books to teach" (Jago 39).

Chapter 3

This was a challenging chapter for me. While I do agree that students need to read and learn, I think there is a line that separates reading and empowering students to reading and discouraging students. Jago wrote, "I argue that students should be reading and teachers need to be assigning about twice as many books as they currently do" (40). She then went on to say that outside of class her student must read five additional books per semester. They had about five books to read in class and then an additional five outisde. If that was me in high school, I would have never got them completed. I see a life outside of the classroom. You, or at least I, do not expect a student to spend hours on homework in my classroom every night.  While some nights I did spend hour upon hour on work, there were other nights I simply could not do it. I was involved in other groups and sports and that took up a lot of my time. I'm not saying reading is not important, but I think when you give so much for students to accomplish that you end up prohibiting them from wanting to read in the future. Having so much to do in one class might deter them from doing their work in another. Also comes the question, who is to say that English class is more important than any of the others. I personally think that we need to spend more time in health and physical education. Being able to correlate these subjects would offer students a great advantage. 

This is a huge debate and I know there are a lot of people that say sports and other activities are stupid but I can say hands down that they taught me as much or more about things in life that I will use forever, than certain things we teach in English class. Everything is good in moderation and I guess you have to find that moderation with your class and do what works best for them. 

I really enjoyed her idea of keeping track of the books that the students have read over the years. I think that would be a valuable way to let the students reflect on what they read and how they grew as a reader over the years. In conclusion, students are very diverse and I, as a future teacher, will need to work on what fits them best. Jago related many times that the students might not always like the books but it will make them grow and learn and in turn they might end up liking what they were afraid of before.