Teaching a novel with only a class set

[rob.p]

Hello,

I am a first-year English and French teacher in a high-needs school. My kids are (mostly) great but my school is completely strapped of resources, largely due to the recent budget cuts brought on by our current economic plight. I am to teach The Catcher in the Rye, but only have until January 23. We are currently on chapter 7. I only have a class set and the kids are not allowed to take them home, as per school policy. I have tried donorschoose.org, but to no avail. It is still necessary that the students be able to write and discuss the novel during class, but obviously that they read it as well. My mentor has recommended against distributing photocopies, as motivation and reading ability tend to be low, so the reading will not get done. Any suggestions as to how I can read most or all of the novel during class while still allowing time for discussion and writing?

[lynn bambusch]

Do not photocopy, copyright infringement could really be a problem. It might be interesting to try breaking into groups and having each group read different chapters. They may not have the information to understand the chapter (having not read the previous ones) but wouldn't it be interesting to see them piece it together. See if they can predict what will happen, or if they can understand their chapter better once they know the motive of the characters. Play with the idea and see if you can make it work. Sounds like fun to me! But I've always wanted to teach history backwards and everyone thought that was silly.

[Boxcar]

I don't know if this is against copyright but...

Scan the pages into the computer and save as a PDF or photo file. The students who wish to do this can take a disc home to read via the computer. I agree that using the idea of reading in groups is good. However, some students read slower than others and may need time at home to keep up.

[Boxcar]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070417034311AAuKUiU

Do any of the links from this site work for you?

[Brit]

you could use a variety of reading strategies borrowed from lower grades. "read to..." is one I use all the time -- kids need to read to find out a specific point. Once they've found the answer, they stop and write. then we discuss it. Then I usually allow a read to the end of the page/book/chapter, or I do another read to find out, or a read to find...nouns, verbs, etc. So if you pick particularly relevant "read to"s for each chapter, the kids could spend most of the period reading, but you could also have an engaging discussion in the middle of it without interrupting the flow too much.

[Hermione]

I teach middle school and only have one set of each of the novels I teach. I use books on tape (or CD) a lot, mostly because it's a time saver. I don't know how long your periods are, but mine are 80 minutes, so we listen to the book, discuss, and work on any novel assignments during that time. I am supposed to teach Spelling during that 80 minutes along with my reading, so I just incorporate Spelling into my novel assignments with vocabulary from the novel.

[Boxcar]

I love the idea of books on tape! What a clever solution. :)

[dsmms]

I use books on tape or cd also - it is a good way to make sure the reading is done! This grading period, I had the students reading a novel independently- 3 or 4 chapters a week. I found out that some of them weren't doing the reading. Next grading period, we will be reading together.

[August]

I am having this problem too ... Next time I'll try to find "books on tape" to make sure we're all on the same page.

[Clearly Canadian]

I love the books on tape idea. I'm going to have to google our titles and see if they are available.

We too only have one class set of novel study books. I give students the option of reading silently in the hall, or staying in class, and I read to them. It is curious how many of the boys stay to be read to and how many of the girls go in the hall to read silently. The boys and I usually end up discussing while we read the novel. Often (as with middle schoolers in general) they just blurt out whatever is on their mind during the course of the reading. So far (knock on wood) they tend to keep their comments to the subject at hand, making connections to previous chapters, posing questions about predictions, etc. It becomes very obvious that they are making those important comprehension discoveries as we go. Reading together is slightly time consuming, but the discussion during the reading is really rich. I don't think you have to forgo good discussion, just because you are reading the book aloud, or silently in class.