Good book for co-op class, meeting 6 weeks? (Jr./Sr. high mixed ages)

[provenance61]

Help, need suggestions! We're planning online co-op classes for Spring 2021.  Suggestions for a good book that would go over for a mixed jr/sr high group, that not everyone's read already? This is a Christian co-op.

 

 

[freesia]

To Kill a Mockingbird would be my top choice, but may depend on the maturity of your seventh graders.

Animal Farm

Fahrenheit 451

The Hobbit

 

[Lori D.]

ouch - that is a WIDE age spread to bridge with a single book that is long enough and meaty enough to last for 6 weeks AND hold the interest of older students AND won't be too complex/difficult to read for the younger students.

Also, I have found from my own Lit. & Writing homeschool co-op classes that it can often be better to go with 2 shorter very different books, rather than 1 longer book, because students who hate one type of genre only have to hold on for 3 weeks until you are moving into a different book/different genre. Six weeks is a looonnnngggg time to have to discuss a book that you hate. 😉 

Also, if you pair it well, 2 books can really lead to some great compare/contrast or extension conversations! 😄 

ETA: Also, I am a Christian, teaching in a Christian co-op, and I have found it to be very important and helpful to tackle books from a variety of viewpoints, as that really brings out thinking and discussion. So that's why I am suggesting a few YA titles below that would be below typical high school reading level, but could yield some meaty discussion from older students that draws the younger students along... just a thought! 😄 

6 short stories, 1 per week, each from a different genre:
- a Sherlock Holmes short story (Doyle) - mystery
- The Golden Key (MacDonald) - Christian author; fantasy
- The Monkey's Paw (Jacobs) - light horror/suspense
- All Summer in a Day (Bradbury) - sci-fi setting with school bullying theme for discussion
- The Most Dangerous Game (Connell) - adventure; twist ending
- The Open Window (Saki) - humor; irony -- so short, could pair it with the very short, humorous The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Thurber)
 

Wrestling with Issues -- pick 3 books / 2 weeks each
- Maniac Magee (Spinnelli) -- 180 pages; run-away who helps a town confront racism
- The Wave (Strasser) -- 144 pages; peer pressure that leads to oppressive regime; based on a true story
- The Day They Came to Arrest the Book (Hentoff) -- 176 pages; censorship; banning books
- The Giver (Lowry) -- 240 pages; dystopia, controlled society
- Tuck Everlasting (Babbit) -- 160 pages; given the choice of immortality, what would you choose?

Wrestle with a single issue -- 3 books / 2 weeks each, or 2 books/3 weeks each:
- Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry (Taylor) -- 280 pages; historical fiction -- 1930s, Deep South racism
- Warriors Don't Cry (Beals) -- 240 pages; nonfiction memoir -- 1950s, Deep South racism
- All American Boys (Reynolds & Kiely) -- 336 pages; realistic fiction -- 2010s, told from white & black teen boy points of view

choice of 2 novellas / 3 weeks each:
- The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway) -- 128 pages
- Animal Farm (Orwell) -- 113 pages
- Call of the Wild (London) -- 56 pages -- advanced vocabulary/sentence structure
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson) -- 110 pages -- advanced vocabulary/sentence structure
- A Christmas Carol (Dickens) -- 64 pages -- advanced vocabulary/sentence structure

1 book / 6 weeks
- Watership Down (476 pages) -- as with all the books I did last year with high schoolers, I had mixed responses on this one (specifically for this book: some students really liked the adventure-quest theme and embedded mythology and the characters; some students were "meh", and a few students disliked it because they hate books featuring "talking animals" )
- The Book Thief (608 page) -- may be intense for a young/sensitive middle schoolers
- a Shakespeare play -- especially for middle schoolers, perhaps encourage use of a side-by-side modern translation/original language; perhaps read/discuss for 5 weeks, then enact a key scene as reader's theater for 6th week

Edited December 21, 2020 by Lori D.

[Junie]

The Hobbit

Till We Have Faces

Silas Marner

Emma

The Importance of Being Earnest

Robinson Crusoe

 

[SilverMoon]

Shakespeare was my first thought. The Shakespeare Set Free guides have schedules that tend to last 4-6 weeks for each play. I'm using the one for Twelfth Night in January with my own high schoolers, and likely the upstart 7th grader who mooches into their literature whenever she can. 

[provenance61]

Thank you for your suggestions!  I'll look through all of them, there are some good ideas here!

Yes, it's a very wide age range.  They group all the 7th-12th graders in one set of classes.  I think it's left up to the families to decide what works for their students.  This fall there was a class on Frankenstein for 10 weeks. My DD is 13 and while I thought it might be a stretch she really liked it. She actually wrote down and looked up every word she didn't know until she got used to the language. Without my asking her.  She's asking for another class now, so I'm inclined to do it!

@Lori -- my DD also did a short story class at a different co-op this fall and liked it.  I always like your suggestions, and have used many in my British and World Lit classes!  I always go off and look through all the suggestions before adding them.  🙂 

@SilverMoon -- I didn't think of Shakespeare, but that's an idea. I actually have at least one of the Shakespeare Set Free guides here but haven't used it yet. Maybe Midsummer Night's Dream or Romeo & Juliet, I'll have to look.  I had my British Lit class act out MacBeth when we did it last year, and that was quite fun. Do you think the acting out part would go over well via Zoom?

Please add any other thoughts you have. Now I wish I had time to do 2!

 

 

[goldenecho]

OK, trying to think outside the box here....

Screwtape Letters
Maybe the Deans Watch by Elisabeth Goudge (it's got some interesting Christian questions, and I think the story would be fun for Junior Highers, and interesting for High Schoolers)
The Last Unicorn (and watch the movie).   It's not Christian philosphy but it's philosphy and it's interesting.  I was told by my AP teacher once that it "might" qualify as a book to discuss on the AP exam, but he wouldn't risk it. 


 

Edited December 21, 2020 by goldenecho