The other day I completely lost my shit when M, who is in 7th grade, came home and told me he can't read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card because it has a movie based on it.
Ender's Game is a book that one of my former students when I taught 6th grade full-time recommended TO ME. He loved it. And so I read it and I loved it. And I've taught it because if a book is so good it makes a sixth grade boy tell his English teacher how much he adores it, then that says A LOT.
I understand the rationale for teachers saying kids can't read books that have movies based on them. Some students will just watch the movie and not read the book. If it is a book that has an extensive film catalog like Harry Potter, I get it.
But I also think this decision can mean that students don't get to self-select books that they are really interested in reading. Which begs the question: Why are we asking kids to read independently and self-select if we don't allow them to read what they want?
If books based on films was the only parameter, I might not have an issue, but these are the other "rules" for self-selected books in M's class:
- No graphic novels
- No books under 200 pages
When combined---over 200 pages, no graphic novels, no movies based on them---these rules are just plain dumb.
First, graphic novels.
Some kids love graphic novels and rather than disallowing them IN TOTAL, there could be limits set, such as "only 1 graphic novel selection per semester or per project." There are some really great graphic novels. Maybe a kid who would never in their lives read a 320 page book, will read a graphic novel based on that book and still get a great story.
For example, Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. His book, The Graveyard Book, is 320 pages. But there is also a graphic novel that is in two parts. Same author, same story, different format. Some kids would NEVER pick up and read a 320 page chapter book but they will read two graphic novels that clock in at 368 pages.
And by reading a graphic novel, this gives some interesting topics students can discuss, such as how do the visual images impact their reading and what particular words are illustrated to really emphasize their importance to the story and what would they have chosen to illustrate differently?
The length of a book is also big sticking point for me.
Yes, maybe kids should have to read longer novels to practice stamina, but this should be done in the classroom where a teacher can monitor and help develop skills. (And honestly, with so much MAP testing and state testing being done on our kids, our testing really promotes SHORT reading, so we're being pretty disingenuous here.)
Whether we like it or not, our collective attention spans are much shorter these days. Even I, who don't usually mind a 350 page book, find that I sometimes tire of an author who can't say things a little more succinctly. Life is short, and I don't know that I need 1,000 pages of exposition.
G is having to do independent reading assignments, and he is definitely not going to go for long-ass books. He is a good reader, but I don't think he is a fast reader, and kids have to finish their books in 6 weeks. The parameters his teacher set for his assignments are MUCH better and flexible, which I really appreciate.
He can read 1 graphic novel for the year and then can pick a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, a Nobel Prize author, a book with a color in its title, a book published the year you were born, a book on the Kentucky Bluegrass Awards list, etc. There are no page count requirements nor movie limitations.
To help him out, I went down and selected a ton of books from my shelves he can choose from that are relatively short.
He read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, which is a whopping 107 pages.
He is going to read The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison next. That only only just barely makes the 200 page requirement.
And I can list a lot of other books under 200 pages that are exemplary, such as
Night by Elie Wiesel
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Expury
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
I'll stop there.
But back to M's situation.
Earlier in the year, the teacher assigned some independent reading and summarizing but didn't assign it to the point of completion. M began reading Dragonwings but didn't complete it because I think the assignment just fizzled (and that happens in classrooms sometimes). I suggested he finish it for this project but he didn't think he could do that. He started reading Ender's Game and then found out about the movie thing (which wasn't on the info sheet).
I normally don't do this, but I did email the teacher and ask for what amounts to an educational dispensation so M can either 1. finish Dragonwings or 2. do Ender's Game.
Getting kids to want to read is hard enough without making it even more cumbersome.
