What are kids reading for school these days?

[RiffRandell]

My son is in 7th grade. When I was in junior high we read A Day No Pigs Would Die, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men. That's all I can remember right now.

First book my son gets assigned is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I'm like ok, I loved the book growing up but it was recreational reading.

I gave him my old copy of Lord of the Flies to read on his own as I loved that book and the book is so old the first 26 pages are missing...aarrgh. Now he's reading my copy of Animal Farm as they don't need to start The Outsiders until next month.

Just curious.

[LWolf]

1. It varies wildly from district to district and state to state.

My district doesn't support its own language arts adoption; we're kind of on our own. We pick and choose from a lot of stuff. Seventh grade? Here's a sampling:

Call of the Wild
Tangerine
Julie of the Wolves
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

We're not allowed to teach many of the titles you listed; they "belong" to the high school.

[RiffRandell]

2. Thanks for the input.

Guess I'm somewhat stuck in the past and need to realize newer books are out there.

In elementary school they read for points from a book list, but I found out last week they nixed it when I went to my daughter's curriculum night.

He always loved to read but now he'd rather be playing Minecraft with all his friends.

[LWolf]

10. That's normal for middle school, lol.

It helps to have a family time when everyone is disconnected from games, 'puters, tv, phones, etc..

[d_r]

3. my understanding is

that common core is going to put more emphasis on non-fiction. FWIW.

[RiffRandell]

7. The next book he has to read is fiction but based on a true story

about the lost boys of Sudan.

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Walk-Water-Based-Story/dp/0547577311/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377618918&sr=1-1&keywords=a+long+walk+to+water

[d_r]

11. I should read that

I wanted to post you this link for the common core reading list: http://www.corestandards.org/assets/Appendix_B.pdf

[RiffRandell]

13. I just saw this.

Thank you...it helps with my second grader too.

I'm a little surprised at the amount of stories....I would think there would be more.

[Chan790]

4. I don't even know what we were reading in my days.

I was so far ahead of my peers reading-wise it was funny. The photographic memory helped.

I think I was in 8th grade before I encountered a book I hadn't read years earlier. My 1^st grade book report was on The Hobbit and my teacher accused me of watching the movie...the old animated one...I wasn't aware there was a movie. I never watched TV growing up.

In 11^th grade I got downgraded into the remedial program because I had a "bad learning attitude and was incapable of the required coursework" according to the chair of my HS English dept. The remedial class was taught by this major asshole who not only didn't teach, he made us fill out applications for fast food jobs (because that was the expected career-capacity of the kids in the remedial class) and read at our own pace whatever we wanted and write a book report when we finished...so I wrote 4 different wholly-original comparative-lit papers on the same book, 1984, until they relented and put me back in the regular class rather than the advanced honors class where I should have been all along.

I need to confess. I was and remain a terrible student into my 30s...the kid who got Cs because he checked out at 12ish because he felt unchallenged. Formal education doesn't work for me...I'm a better autodidact than I am a student.

[RiffRandell]

9. Wow!

First grade book report on The Hobbit...impressive! I can relate...I was in a few honors classes but one English teacher I had (this wasn't an honors class) was a total wack job who did not teach. He would brag about his motorcycles, his kids, would never assign books to read, the whole class was a waste of time. My teacher the previous year was great and became a best-selling author.

Being in my rebellious stage I refused to do any work in the class, which of course was really stupid but I was so disgusted at the fact we learned absolutely nothing. I would just write my name on tests and hand them in blank.

Ended up having to go to summer school and got an A. It was sad to see kids struggling in that class because it was so freaking easy and our teacher was such a nice guy.

When my son complains about teachers that don't teach well (according to him) I listen and then give him the speech "you'll always come across teachers you don't like but you have to suck it up" and end up feeling like a hypocrite.

[woodsprite]

5. Here's the list my son received

7th & 8th Grade Summer Reading Suggestions

Title Author Lexile
Elizabeth Blackwell, Girl Doctor Henry 600
Artemis Fowl Colfer 600
Bystander Preller 600
Skateboard Renegade Christopher 610
House of Dies Drear Hamilton 670
Wringer Spinelli 690
Awaken Kacvinsky 700
The Report Card Clements 700
Son Lowry 720
Spy Goddess, Book One: Live and Let Shop Spradlin 730
Blue Jasmine Sheth 740
Happy Kid! Gauthier 770
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer Grisham 790
Sand Dollar Summer Jones 790
Maniac Magee Spinelli 820
Criss Cross Perkins 820
Shield of Stars Bell 830
Okay for Now Schmidt 850
Bearwalker Bruchac 860
Princess Academy Hale 890
Stealing Home (Jackie Robinson) Denenberg 930
Heat Lupica 940
The Wall and the Wing Ruby 950
Amber Spyglass Pullman 950
The Pigman Zindel 950
Saving Animals from Oil Spills Person 970
Slave Dancer Fox 970
Getting in the Game FitzGerald 980
Surviving Disasters Hunter 980
The Wednesday Wars Schmidt 990
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Adams 1000
The One Eyed Cat Fox 1000
Bad Beginning Snicket 1010
Up A Road Slowly Hunt 1030
Black Horse for the King McCaffrey 1030
Do the Math Lichtman 1050
The Time Machine Wells 1070
Around the World in Eighty Days Verne 1070
Amos Fortune, Free Man Yates 1090
The Grim Grotto Snicket 1120
Skull in the Rock Berger 1140
Pigman and Me Zindel 1040
Island Paulsen 1050
April Morning Fast 1050
Learning the Game Waltman 1050
Island Paulsen 1050
April Morning Fast 1050
Boy Who Owned the School Paulsen 1070
Freedom Walkers Freedman 1110
A Tale of Two Cities Dickens 1130
My Life in Dog Years Paulsen 1150
Truce Murphy 1160
The War of the Worlds Wells 1170
The Winter Room Paulsen 1170
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Wiggin 1190
Dogs of Duty Patent 1190

[RiffRandell]

6. My son had to read a fiction and non-fiction book over the summer.

His list to choose from was much shorter, but he picked 2 books that got great reviews and he enjoyed.

I remember having to read The Pigman....that book was sad. I read quite a few books by Paul Zindal...I liked The Undertaker's Gone Bananas.

What books did your son choose?

[woodsprite]

8. Those were just 'suggested' reading

All incoming 8th graders had assigned articles they had to read on how to reduce carbon footprints. It was part of a summer STEM project. Each grade had a different 'topic', but everyone had to read articles and put them into a graphic organizer, think up questions that could be extrapolated into a thesis statement.

He missed having a summer reading assignment where he could talk with his peers about the book. I never thought I'd hear him say that. This was a kid who really struggled with reading from K-5th, then "BOOM!" he's a voracious reader! From the list, he read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" but he had other reading that he did this summer. As a family, we read aloud the Pathfinder series by Orson Scott Card. That's what we do when we're stuck in a car traveling - everybody takes turns. He's been reading 2 other series on his own whenever he gets a book - Wereworld (by Curtis Jobling) and The Kingdom Keepers (by Ridley Pearson). He tried to get into the Eragon dragon books (Paolini's Inheritance series), but just hasn't been able to get interested in it.

[Tom Ripley]

12. Kids aren't assigned Of Mice and Men until the 11th grade...

we read it as an assignment in the 6th.
I was also surprised to see The Outsiders assigned in an 8th grade class.

[RiffRandell]

14. One book I was so happy he read on his own in 5th grade was

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

When I saw the movie it hit me like a ton of fucking bricks.

I did some research on it and didn't realize it was a for young adults.

I ordered it for myself and he read it when his class was studying WW2.

I let him watch the movie, too.