Reading as a Teacher
If you haven't heard, in about two months, I'll be starting my first school year as a proper, real-life, actual high school English teacher. I have loved reading basically since I could hold a book (if this ridiculous blog isn't a good enough indicator) but nowadays, I have the opportunity to approach it from a new stance. Now, when I pick up a book, I read it for myself on one level, and on another level, I think, "How would I teach this? What would a student think of this book? What would make this book worth teaching to my students?" This type of thinking has really opened up a new way for me to comprehend and process the books I read and made me even more excited to take on teaching.
A great example of this self-observed phenomena is the book I've most recently finished: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I've read other Ness before (check out my post reviewing The Rest of Us Just Live Here) and enjoyed him, but Knife was a different genre, and a book that I had heard many things about but never picked up. Honestly, I decided to finally read it because it's being made into a movie starring Tom Holland. Books before movies, people! But back to the book. It's intense -- written in first-person, stream-of-consciousness, and dialect, with a thirteen-year-old boy as our protagonist. Not my typical fare! It took concentration to read, was way longer than I anticipated, and then... I loved it. It was wild! There were twists! There was depth! I love nothing more than when a book surprises me with how much I can relate to protagonists and their stories. It's a wonderful reminder of the basic connections of human experience. That's why we keep studying literature, isn't it? We tell stories in order to relate, to prove to ourselves that we aren't alone in this, wild, wide beautiful world full of hope and heartbreak, wonder and wickedness, the bizarre and the beatific. It's why I want to teach. People are people, on the page and sitting next to us. Through literature, I hope that I can instill this idea of relating to each other through our stories. Every story we approach is a new chance to learn about ourselves, others, and the world. Go read a book! (And then tell me what you think!)
A great example of this self-observed phenomena is the book I've most recently finished: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I've read other Ness before (check out my post reviewing The Rest of Us Just Live Here) and enjoyed him, but Knife was a different genre, and a book that I had heard many things about but never picked up. Honestly, I decided to finally read it because it's being made into a movie starring Tom Holland. Books before movies, people! But back to the book. It's intense -- written in first-person, stream-of-consciousness, and dialect, with a thirteen-year-old boy as our protagonist. Not my typical fare! It took concentration to read, was way longer than I anticipated, and then... I loved it. It was wild! There were twists! There was depth! I love nothing more than when a book surprises me with how much I can relate to protagonists and their stories. It's a wonderful reminder of the basic connections of human experience. That's why we keep studying literature, isn't it? We tell stories in order to relate, to prove to ourselves that we aren't alone in this, wild, wide beautiful world full of hope and heartbreak, wonder and wickedness, the bizarre and the beatific. It's why I want to teach. People are people, on the page and sitting next to us. Through literature, I hope that I can instill this idea of relating to each other through our stories. Every story we approach is a new chance to learn about ourselves, others, and the world. Go read a book! (And then tell me what you think!)
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