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What books would you suggest for 11th Grade English?
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Do you want a core novel or outside reading? When I taught 11th grade English, we did American Lit and I did a lot of pairing poetry with novels and a taught a whole unit on memoir where we read The Color of Water by James McBride and pieces of a book called Split by Lisa Michaels....if I was teaching it now, I would use The Glass Castle for memoir because I really liked that memoir. I used a lot of confessional poetry for that unit, Sylva Plath and Billy Collins, For fiction, I loved teaching Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris and Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson - especially if the kids had read To Kill A Mockingbird earlier because Gutterson's point of view in that novel is from the town and he wrote it partly as a tribute to TKAMB. I also loved studying the Harlem Renaissance and looking at James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues and talking about music and partnered that with the rise of hip hop and such for that part (actually James McBride had an amazing essay in National Geographic about hip hop recently). Oh, I also taught The Great Gatsby and really encouraged them to look at Ethan Canin's For Kings and Planets. It's a really similar piece. And then we also looked at a bunch of YA novels that focused on coming of age and they wrote some pieces that were a blend of fiction and autobiography. Oh, and I really like to teach at least one or two plays. I did Death of a Salesman and Museum by Tina Howe and we talked a lot about identity and pride and hubris. I loved looking at absurdist theatre with them, so we looked at some David Ives and Cristopher Durang One Acts. And we read two or three one acts written by teenagers for competition and I had them write a character-based play where they based at least one character after Willy Loman or Biff. But you said Provocative and Interesting....hmmm, in that YA unit, we did The Tribes of Palos Verdes, What Happened to Lani Garver? and I Was A Teenage Fairy. We also looked at Catcher in the Rye comparatively. I think it's really funny because my students didn't find Holden to be much of a rebel. Youth in Revolt is an interesting book to look at with them, read parts of at least...it's really long. I'm sure I'm missing something. Oh, we read parts of Clockwork Orange (they struggled with that one) and looked at the origins of Punk Rock - that was a cool unit. But I was teaching in a private school for that one....not sure I would have gotten that one past my department head in my other school before that. Okay, I'm sure I'm missing something and this might not even be what you're looking for.
Some great thoughts from Kim, but I'll throw out a few more.I've always thought it would be interesting to do a comparison of Catcher in the Rye and Perks of Being a Wallflower. You could throw in Frank Portman's King Dork for good measure. Both Perks and King Dork need to be screened first, to make sure they're appropriate for your school.
Glass Castle and Angela's Ashes would also lead to some interesting comparisons.
Mod
What is 11th grade English in your state? In mine it is American Literature. I'll just give general suggestions.
Since the previous posters above stayed more with the cannon, I will go a bit outside of the expected.
Books that I have taught and which worked really well in the older high school grades:
Tears of a Tiger by Sharon Draper--some of the best discussions are generated from this book, and it is short!
Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Patillo Beals--autobiographical account of integrating Little Rock Arkansas High School
Incantation by Alice Hoffman--beautifully written and set in 1500 Spain, it deals with some pretty heavy issues without being preachy
Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton--really captures the reluctant readers and the science geeks (not easily done), plus playing "Jurassic Park tag" with a bunch of high schoolers is priceless
The First Part Last by Angela Johnson--deals with teenage pregnancy from the dad's point of view, and it's short (the longer you teach, the more you will appreciate short books!)
Kissing Doorknobs by Terry Spencer Hesser--about a teen with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Monster by Walter Dean Myers--Written as a screen play, it is a blast to perform in class, about a young, promising black man who is accused of a crime
(some of my favorites within the cannon would include Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet, Lord of the Flies, and Huck Finn--but I tend to teach out of the box)
Mod
I read Orson Scott Card's novella A War of Gifts over Christmas and thought it would be a great discussion starter with older students. It is set in the Enderverse, but I think one could read and understand it without having read the novel.
It deals with religious oppression, religious zealotry and peacegul resistance
Mod
Thanks everyone for the great suggestions thus far! I am currently an English Education student and this was a question asked of me by a professor I had a few semesters ago in YA Literature. I believe West Virginia has American Literature as its focus in 11th grade.Nick
I second The Glass Castle, although I'm not done reading it. It's truly a shocking but tender story.I also loved Card's Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. Great psychological sci-fi.
Gregory Galloway's As Simple As Snow is an excellent mystery (and if you know the answer to the mystery, please let me know).
Jude by Kate Morgenroth has a bit of violence in it but it's another psychological book that twists and turns.
An oldie but a goodie, The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman just suckers readers in from the get-go.
My husband is currently a grad candidate in English Literature and he and i discussed this and it depends a lot on how you teach the books, but we came up with a pretty good list.American Literature -
The works of Edgar Allen Poe
Fahrenheit 451 by, Ray Bradbury
The Outsiders by, S. E. Hinton
The Scarlet Letter by, Nathaniel Hawthorne (we did not enjoy it, however)
The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper
Speaker for the Dead by, Orson Scott Card (Enders Game is too easy of a read, but this one is more complex.)
Lord of the Flies by, William Golding
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Non American -
1984 by George Orwell
Jekyll and Hyde
Frankenstein (my husband dislikes this one, though)
As a high school teacher you need to help your students learn about some of the classic books that people always talk about but have never read. Also, you need to give them a love of English and reading so you can't choose things that are too boring. It is up to the teacher to make it exciting. I would say to vary the reading material throughout eras, mixing Shakespeare with Card and Poe, etc.
Good list Heidi.Golding is British, though. I've got a video of him talking about LotF which proves it. It's a sure cure for insomnia if anyone would like to borrow it. ;)
Boyd - I love your Perks of Being a Wallflower and Catcher comparison - that's a great idea that I plan to use with my students. :-)
Can anyone suggest some provocative and interesting books for an 11th Grade English class?
Thanks!