Blog Post 2 Literacy Experiences in Secondary School

I was very lucky to have exceptional teachers in secondary school. I was introduced to classics like George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four and Animal Farm. We read The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, Lord  of the Flies by William Golding, And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne, The Odyssey by Homer, The Divine Comedy by Dante, The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer and many works by Shakespeare. This is by no means a complete list. Both my school for sixth through eighth grades and my high school put a great deal of emphasis on reading. We had required summer reading lists as well. Both schools were using books from English class to teach thematic units before I ever heard of thematic units. 

The Diary of Anne Frank was carried over into History, Geography, Political Science and Religion. The teachers wanted us to connect with Anne’s plight. They wanted us to understand what was happening politically and what it meant to be Jewish. (These were both Catholic schools.) It was quite the insight to learn about a different religion. I, as well as my classmates were old enough to have grandfathers and other relatives who fought in WWII. My maternal grandfather fought in the Pacific theater. Three of his brothers fought at the same time in the European theater. We interviewed our grandparents and heard things that weren’t in any history book. Our school took us to a showing of a movie about The Holocaust. It was terrifying, gruesome and depressing. It is the hardest film I have ever had to watch. The teachers didn’t take us to see this film to upset us. They took us in order to imprint history on us. The teachers knew how important WWII and the effects even 40 years later would have on us. They wanted WWII to stay with us as we became old enough to vote. This experience taught us to think critically and to always ask questions.

I loved all of these books. My teachers didn’t shy away from the religious or sexual themes in  The Scarlet Letter or Romeo and Juliet. For all of the strict religious rules and expectations, our teachers wanted us to be introduced to the classics. The English teachers who taught literature believed in teaching the “whole student",  another education term not yet coined.

I would like to have the type of positive impact on my students that my literature teachers had on me. I think it is extremely important to teach the history, politics, background and religion surrounding the books you read. I want my students to remember a book they read thirty years ago because it made an impact on them. 

The Diary of Anne Frank was not my favorite book. It is very sad. I picked my experience with this book because the experience was so enlightening. All of the teachers who took part in this learning experience had a passion for it. It was also one of the few times that we did more than just read and write. We interviewed our grandparents, watched news reels, saw a film and studied topographical maps.