You can call me the book whisperer

On my to do list for today? Update my blog! And in other exciting news, I've been reading! Because it's the end of the semester, two of my classes are sans seniors, which means I have 3 students in each class. That's right: 3 students. It's been fantastic so far; I've assigned them a film project (the first presentation is tomorrow) and some independent reading.

I decided to make the book requirements minimum, since my students just simply don't read, in order to make them more likely to pick something enjoyable or interesting. The book has to fit in with the themes of our class, and in Multicultural Lit, there are pretty universal themes. Does the book discuss identity? Perseverance? Is it about a cultural group, or people who don't fit in a cultural group? Okay, cool, that book is fine by me. Of my 6, 4 of them asked me for a suggestion, and after hearing their interests and what movies or books they like, I gave out the following selections:
American Born Chinese
Monster
Angus, thongs, and full-frontal snogging
Violet and Claire

Guess what? They all LOVE the book I offered. Mariah and Mark already finished their books, Emmie is almost done with hers, and Tyrell is a story all his own. He's reading 2 books, because he also wanted to read the 7th Harry Potter book. And even more than them liking the books they picked, they really enjoy the reading time in class. Having such a small group lets me discuss with them individually, which is so satisfying as a teacher.

The other part I love is that they wanted me to do independent reading along with them. So here I am, 115 pages into Water for Elephants, doing journal entries and sharing in class. We sit around in the comfy chairs and read, and when I tried to grade some papers the other day, they insisted I read. It's fantastic!

I find that giving book suggestions, like recommending films or music, is tricky ground. You want to offer something worthwhile, taking the other person into consideration, but it's also easy to get caught up in something you just simply love. Most book suggestions I've given have been positively received, so, boom, there you go. I'm the book whisperer.

Water for Elephants, on the other hand, was recommended to me. By everyone I know who reads. Yeah, it took me a while, but I love it so far! (Still in the middle of Memoirs of a Geisha and Grendel).

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