Thanks to the public domain, I was able to download 12 Angry Men, Great Expectations, and Oedipus Rex for free. I've never actually read these three works in their entirety, so I'm in for a new experience with some old classics. I remember my text book in school had an excerpt from Great Expectations, so our teacher had us read that instead of the whole novel. As opposed to these three texts which I haven't fully read, To Kill a Mockingbird you may remember was one of the books I taught while I was student teaching. Hopefully I'll be able to exert some creative control over this unit and incorporate the detailed scrapbook project that I had my seventh and eighth grade honors students complete this year. Apparently the ninth grade teachers all teach the same units at the same time, so I'm hoping I'll still have the opportunity to demonstrate my own creativity. Time to start reading and brainstorming lesson plan ideas!
Also this summer, in addition to planning for the upcoming school year, I am trying to read as much YA Lit as possible. My friend from TCNJ encouraged me to register for goodreads.com, so that I can track which books I've read and write reviews for the books as well. In a Microsoft Word document I am also storing a copy of my reviews for each novel, hoping to develop some sort of classroom resource for next year. This way, when someone asks for a book recommendation, I can provide them with a short summary and honest feedback. I've managed to read a lot of books already this summer and am currently finishing up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I'm hoping to finish reading Star-Crossed by Josephine Angelini next, a novel with a Romeo and Juliet type romance set in the present day, with elements of Greek mythology thrown in. I might even be able to incorporate passages from this book into my Romeo and Juliet unit if I find the novel useful.
Now back to my heavy duty reading list.
