Should Students Choose Reading Assignments

626 Words3 Pages
The phrase, “We are going to have a reading assignment,” will never fade away due to the fact that teachers tend to choose the literature their students will read. The moans and groans from the lack of enthusiasm is music to the teacher’s ears. No matter what class, such as History or English, the teacher tends to make the decision on what is worth delving into. This seems not to be helpful towards students in encouraging them to pursue what they might have an interest in, but it is beneficial not to give students free choice. “Teacher’s choice” promotes conversation for controversial novels, it can educate young minds in fading writing styles, and a piece of chosen literature can tie together two or more class to make the students classes more intertwined. Here are some examples: The derogatory term towards African Americans was used in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn more than two hundred times. Parents of students at certain schools felt this work of pre-Civil War satire was not appropriate for young minds. They ruled it was inappropriate due to its lack of proper grammar along with the racism, yet the great T.S. Elliot was quoted saying it was, “A masterpiece”. Although this novel does not ameliorate grammar skills, this book, about the adventures of a runaway slave and a boy, is chosen in an American Literature class because, with so much controversy, there is no end in sight for class discussions. If every student read a different book, even if there were four or five readers for one book, it still could not stimulate as good an all around class discussion as this one book can. Drama and phenomenal story lines in plays written by William Shakespeare are always a good topic of discussion. Such aspects of these works of art can be the twists that come with a tragic love story, and one example of this is Romeo and Juliet. Not only is it a good discussion
Open Document