Have you ever been really excited about an upcoming unit only to find out that your students do not share your love of the material? No? Just me? Well I can sadly say that this seems to happen more today than it used to. As time has progressed and I get older and the technology gets better, I find that old novels that I so dearly love just don’t have the power to grab the attention of our iPad babies. The kids that we teach now do not have the same life experiences that students once had. They have never endured movie day with actual movies on reels. They missed out on many of the historic events that I may have experienced in the 80 and 90s and even in the early 2000s.

They did miss out on really good, homemade school lunches and homemade goodies at holiday parties lovingly made by the room mothers, but many things today are a lot easier on them. For example, they will never know the pain of using a typewriter to write a paper; messing up and having to start all over. They will never have to use microfiche to read a newspaper article. These are a bonus for being a student now.

As a student, it was not a thing to tell the teacher that we weren'[t going to read something or that we were not going to do the homework. Sadly, as a teacher, I have heard this more times than I can count at this point. I guess my expectations for the conduct of kids now just isn’t how it is. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of students who will do what is asked of them, but there are too many that feel that they can make the rules and tell me what they are going to do and what they are not going to do.

I am fortunate this year because my senior group is small and I can share more of my thoughts about the novel that we are reading. Catcher in the Rye is such a good book because of the universal experience of being a teenager. We might not all have every experience that Holden has, but I am willing to bet that we have had at least a few of the same experiences. As humans we have self doubt, we experience loss, we have troubles with fitting in sometimes, and we have struggles with family. These are things that everyone can relate to. The fact that he is from the 1950s only means that the slang was different and the world was a bit less complicated. Well, at least it felt that way.

So, what do we do when we face resistance? The best thing that I have found is to relate whatever it is to their lives. No matter what book, there is always something that can be learned. There is always a theme that can be taught. I try to make the lessons in the book understandable. I have found this to be the most effective way to deal with resistance. Are there always going to be unreachable students? Yes, but they will be the minority. Read those classics, but make them relatable.

Have Fun, enjoy some great books, and until next time,

Cat