Favorite unit in English Literature class?

(I'm trying to flesh out a possible plotline of one of my characters, but its in its barebones stage right now)

What were your favorite unit or lesson that you learning in your English Literature class when you were in Middle School (7th-8th grade) and/or High School (9th-12th grade)?


My favorite was the science fiction unit in my 7th grade class. We read Fahrenheit 451, "There Will Come Soft Rain," "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" and Flowers for Algernon. It was because of that class that I discovered what I liked to read, because, up until then, I pretty much just read everything trial and error. And because of that, i started gravitating to more SF books and started writing my own (I tried writing a story about an alien stolen from Area 51 and adopted by the scientists who stole him and were out in hiding. when he finds out he's an alien, he goes back to Area 51 to try to free someone the other different types of aliens kept there, accidently freeing an evil one. he and his new alien friends then had to evade the government while rounding up the evil aliens and save the world it was fun. and a friend of mine even made little illustrations for it)


What about you peoples?

 

yep! i'm counting on this!

 

I really liked reading Shakespeare in High School. Not because I particularly liked Shakespeare, but because it made me feel smart. Shakespeare is one of those things, as a kid, that you've heard people older and smarter than you quote and reference, and it felt like I was gaining access to that cultural cheat code that would let me into the club. Seeing a skull at Halloween, announcing, "Alas, poor Yorick!" and earning some laughter from your parents is a cheap but desirable boost.

 

I'm about to blow your mind and say Shakespeare was my favorite and I love him to this day. I'm about to get an Ophelia tattoo this weekend. We read Romeo and Juliet my freshman year, and then Hamlet and Othello my senior year, and I have grown so fond of each of those plays for various reasons. Iago from Othello remains in my top three villains of all time list.

 

my experience was almost the same as yours. I reav R&J my freshmen year, and then Othello my sophomore year.

interestingly enough, my first introduction to shakespeare was in elementary school. the Shakespeare Folger's Library came to my elementary school. We read the play "Much Ado About Nothing" and then went to the Shakespeares Folgers Theater to help the stage actors set up for the play, and then got tot watch the play. Didnt understand it as an elementary schooler. wasnt interested in it, either.

but College was when i really got in to Shakespeare. lol, I took a Shakespeare class and got really attached to his poetry. my Final paper was on a collection of his poetry

I will also soon be getting "Be not afeared, the isle is full of of noises" (The Tempest) tattooed on my leg.

 

While I was not drawn to any specific genre, I do recall being enamored by certain recurring themes in literature. Mythology and ancient history were of great interest to me during that time.

 

What age are those grades? I'm English, our school system is different to yours.

 

12-18

(Middle school is typically 12-14.... high school is typically 14-18)

 

I found I liked Shakespeare, Milton, etc. a lot more when I was reading them on my own as an adult. There is something about the classroom context that, for many people, deadens this literature even with the most passionate and gifted teachers. That said, I had a couple of English teachers who really opened some books for me. With Moby Dick for instance, I had a 9th grade teacher who really knew how to accent the funny, weird, and eccentric parts of this book and show why it was unique and wonderful.

 

I enjoyed reading To Kill A Mockingbird, but I got bored in the actual class when we were reading it because I enjoyed it so much I finished the book long before class had got there.

7-8th grade would be pre-GCSE, 9th-12th would be GCSE/A-Level.

 

So, she 11-12 pre GCSE my school had us doing Shakespeare. Romeo + Juliet, A midsummer night's dream. Can't recall what else.

GCSE was age 13-16, we did more Shakespeare, war poetry, birdsong, and an anthology produced by the exam board.

A level was age 17-18 we did A Handmaids Tale, more Shakespeare, more war poems, A room with a view, Oranges are not the only fruit, Behind the scenes at the museum.

 

did you enjoy any of those?

 

possible plot line im trying to figure:
im drafting a spin off from one of my finished manuscripts that takes place 3 years after the events. the MC from the first manuscript is now a teaching assistant. in the first manuscript, she journalled a lot. it was bit plot point in that one. in this manuscript, it focuses on 2 boys who were side characters in the first manuscript. they are now in 6th and 8th grade. they have their own issues they are dealing with because of their home life. I want the MC from the last book to give them an assignment that will be their focus for the rest of this book. not a homework assignment, but her attempts to steer them away from the crap thats been going on in their lives.

So i was wondering what were some of the units that inspired you growing up

 

My junior cycle was so long ago I'm not clear on how I dealt with Merchant of Venice and Huckleberry Finn, respectively the play and novel we studied.

For LEAVING CERT (which must always be fully capitalised), we had The Importance of Being Ernest and King Lear for drama and Wuthering Heights and The Greatest of These for novels.

Initial impressions, Wilde's play was humorous and King Lear a drag. Position entirely reversed by the time I was sitting LEAVING CERT exams. Ernest was so shallow and glib that it didn't hold up to reading after reading and analysis in depth*. I grew to thoroughly enjoy King Lear, which held up to deeper examination.

Similarly, my wtf approach to Wuthering Heights gave way to a lasting affection for the book. The Greatest of These? I have absolutely no memory of it.

English was my stand out favourite subject in school, I can still hear the teacher booming "too vague" if anyone suggested something, anything, was "nice". I also remember him striking the board when reading "I struck the board and cried no more". In poetry, the Irish lads like Yeats and Kavanagh made best impressions. My essays tended towards righteousness rather than stories, amply filled with rhetorical questions. Gawd!

My family accused me of learning through osmosis because of that one occasion one of my sisters snuck into my room to discover me asleep with my head on whatever book with The Doors playing loud on the stereo. Truth was, I created my own study notes, on Lear and Wuthering Heights especially, going through each scene/chapter and writing precis of what was happening dramatically/stylistically.

*I read quite a lot of Wilde from an omnibus I picked up, including Dorian Gray, shorts, etc. imo his best writing came after his trial and imprisonment, most notably The Ballad of Reading Gaol and De Profundis.

 

I honestly don't remember any literature from grade school, but that was so long ago, I probably just can't recall it. Or I had a shitty school district. i did however visit the school libraries a lot to read of my own volition. Mostly science fiction. There were a few good lit classes in high school, but I don't rmemeber them being laid out in units. I remember really liking a few stories by Dickens, in a class where we each chose what we wanted to read (I think he had a big list). Also the Hunchaback of Notre Dame. Those all made a very favorable impression on me. I remember a class where we studied short stories. There was A Rose For Emily and The Lottery, What They Carried, and The Yellow Wallpaper (is that what it's called?) I remember the teacher wheeled a TV in and we watched a film version of one of them, but I don't remember which one. I think it was a Faulkner. That was a fun experience, and I think I liked the film. Of course we were all half asleep for the rest of the day.

 

Moral of ther story—never file charges against someone with a Lord in front of their name.

 

Am I remembering incorrectly, but was there a deliberate misspelling with "somodite" and the first part of the libel trial was establishing that the accusation was of sodomy? Which detail Wilde "won" and led to what then transpired.

 

Shakespeare had no lasting effect on me, but I have a clear memory of Wuthering Heights and the big impact it had on me. I was carried away. I still remember the moment I finished the book and just sat there, lost in my reverie.

 

I don't remember much from my compulsory education school days (I hated them) but I do recall some stories from literature classes that I liked. I did do English Literature and Of Mice and Men was easily my favourite. The world within it was strange and fascinating to young little me. It's only the ending that bothers me, but alas... he did what he thought was right I guess.

There is something else though. I remember really enjoying a book from a class in about 2014? Maybe 2015? I don't really remember. My school life after 2012 really weird because my parents enrolled me at a high school in England without me knowing English. That's why I estimate 2015. It took me about two years to start grasping the language, especially because no teachers could teach it to me. No way I could understand it in 2013. That's too early.

Anyway. I really liked that book. But because of those circumstances, I can't really remember what it was. Those days are incredibly blurry in my memories. I just remember being absorbed in the teacher's voice, who narrated, and I read along as best I could. What I do remember is that the book was about a high school kid who was involved in a car crash and had his face completely ruined in the process. The names "Apache" and "Natalie" do jump to mind. I think Natalie was his girlfriend.

If anyone knows what that that book is, I'd be interested to know.

The other story that I really liked (and I believe it was a short story) was told in a Greek literature class from my elementary school days. It was about a king who sought the sweetest bread in the world. His cooks couldn't quite create what he wanted, and that troubled him a lot. Eventually, some old man showed up and said that he could do that for him. But there was a condition: the king would have to do as he was told by the old man. If he failed, the old man offered his head. The king agreed (very grumpily so if I remember) and they want to some mountain, harvested wheat, milled it into flour, mixed it into a dough and then baked it. All a week's worth of work from the king's own hands. There was no sugar but he declared it to be the sweetest bread in the world.

The moral of the story? The fruits of effort taste the sweetest.

I don't know the title of that story but it made a huge impression to me. That was mind-blowing stuff for a kid. I still think about it sometimes.

 

We never did Oscar Wilde in English, but we did do a lot of Shakespeare - but there was no analysis, just two read-throughs (or act-throughs, which the kids had to volunteer to read the lines in front of the class, which -- as a shy kid for whom English was a second language -- I found terrifying). I played Banquo in Macbeth and the Earl of Gloucester in Lear.

We did R&J in 10th grade (which I thought was boring), Macbeth in 11th grade (which was also boring), and King Lear in 12th grade (which was slightly more interesting). It helped that the teacher showed us a film of the play of Lear, with Larry Olivier in the title role. It helped us understand more of what was going on.

In English Literature class, we did The Crucible (not by Shakespeare, what a surprise), which I thought was riveting. It helped that the teacher was more interested in the play and actually taught us about McCarthyism and why Miller wrote the play the way he did.

After the first read-through of Lear, I went to the library, found an analysis of Lear, and read it cover to cover. It helped me understand more about Gloucester, Edmund and the other characters, and I memorised some of the analysis for the final exam. (I still remember the teacher's comments: "Not what we discussed in class, but thoroughly interesting and enjoyable thoughts. A+")

And that A+ bumped up my final grades sufficiently that I was able to get into the course and college of my choice. So who says there's no value in studying English Literature?

 

Was Apache the name of a street or something? Or was it referring to the tribe? You said 'name,' so it's a little confusing. I know there are places where streets have names like Apache. Momentarily I had the thought it might be The Outsiders or Rumblefish, but no, the character doesn't get his face destroyed in those.