Today my students are going to pour through the school doors, sporting clean, new clothes, amazing attitudes, and an enthusiasm for learning. They will be as scrubbed and shiny as the clean hallway floors, with new packs of pencils and perfectly organized binders ready to be filled with resources as their minds are filled with knowledge.
I'm sorry, I need a minute now to pick myself off the floor from laughing so hard.
No, I live in the real world, and my expectations are a little more realistic than that. But there is something about the start of a new school year.
I love beginnings. I love the beginning of every new season, I love New Years, and I love the beginning of the school year (while also so, so sad to be bidding farewell to summer).
I love the new notebooks, my new agenda I just filled out with my new colourful pens.
I love seeing my coworkers again, some of the most awesome people I know. I love catching up and seeing vacation pictures over coffee in the morning or tea after school. ;)
And I do love seeing my students again. Yes, all of them. I love the way they come into the school the first few days, maybe not with as much enthusiasm as my opening daydream, but still, for the most part, excited. Excited to see their friends, excited to move a step towards graduation, excited to see what their year holds, and yes, even excited to see us teachers.
Well, that's what I like to think anyway.
In honour of the first day of school, today's recommended reads list includes the best books commonly read in high school. I want to do some reviews of the specific books I teach later, but today, let's look at a more general list. One of my very favourite books to teach, for example isn't commonly assigned, so it will not be on this list. I'm also not including any Shakespeare books or modern plays, as I will focus on them in separate lists.
Here is my own personal countdown of the ten best commonly-assigned high school novels.
This one I offer as an independent novel study but do not actually teach it. I do remember first reading it as a high school student. Gender issues, friendship, racial concerns, and the dynamic world of society in the 1930s and 1980s all combine in this tale of two women in each time. I would love to revisit this one as a reader.
9. The Hobbit
The first fantasy book I ever liked, and still my favourite. I first read it in the fourth grade, and revisited it in high school. I don't teach this one, but wish I did. A rich story, full of incredible characters in a beautiful world, this story of imagination and adventure should be read by every student.
Friendship, loneliness and discrimination are dealt with in this engaging story of two friends, both outsiders in a world of outsiders. The setting is rich, the characters dynamic, and the themes enough to make teachers happy too. Plus, it usually makes me, and students, tear up, and that connection is pretty important.
I have previously reviewed this book here. Students get caught up in the story, but the motifs and themes are what make this such a great book to teach. I've heard the news about the proposed new all-female remake of the film, and have a few opinions about that. And I'm sure my students will, too. Last year my students got really involved with the story, which you can read about in my review.
6.Night
Technically a full-length nonfiction book and not a novel, I am including it here because of its poignancy and horror. The first year I taught it, I asked students what they thought. One boy answered me. "I can't say I like it. I can't say it's good. How can you say something like this is good? But it's important. I was moved by it." My favourite projects from students come from a unit featuring this book.
One of those books that inspire students to look at their world a bit differently. Dystopia and technology and censorship make the students think, and the action keeps them turning the page.
4. 1984
I've reviewed this book previously. You can see that review here. Students love this book and are both horrified and compelled by reading it. A book that spurs students to conversation and even action? Yeah, I love that, too.
This is one of the books that students sometimes don't love when they are working through it, but months later they are still talking about it. Set in a rich world, caught up in appearances and big dreams and a world that doesn't fit with expectations, students identify with the complexity of Gatsby, and we get to pour through the beautiful language.
Considered the first YA novel, and one of my students' favourites, this one captures attention and doesn't let it go. They love the details I share about the author after we read it. It's fast-paced and intense, even today, with conflict and characters the students can identify with. You can see my longer review of this book here.
I'm going to do a full review on this following teaching it this semester, but let me just say that this is one of my favourite books of all time. Every time I read it, I am caught up in it. And every time I get to see the profound effect it has on students, I am reminded of why I teach at all.
What was your favourite book you read in high school? What did I miss from my list, and what do you just not agree with? Share your opinions!
Today is also newsletter day! If you haven't subscribed yet, you have until the end of the day to do so and get the month's shiny new one. You can do that through my contact page, here. And this is a great newsletter! Some pretty big stuff going on...