LA Teachers: Adapted Classics?

[BumbleB]

Originally Posted by TeacherGroupie

Much depends on the audience, Mamacita, and of course on the quality of the abridgment. I'd rather that kids in BumbleB's inclusion class encounter a good abridgment of Dorian Gray, with some of the language intact, than never encounter it at all.

Exactly! I have one student who is on a first grade reading level, and he's actually the one that made the connection that Henry was the Devil. I was floored. He truly got it. Most of my students are not college-bound, they will never have a professor that brings the true text to life. I would rather have them read and abridgment and really get the symbolism, theme, allusion than not read it at all just because they can't read some vocabulary. That's just silly and unfair.

Originally Posted by TeacherGroupie

On the other hand, BumbleB, you might consider this: Use Wilde's original text. Choose ONE of Wilde's descriptive passages, early in the book, to work through as a class. You could point out that that's how people wrote in 1890. Then differentiate by providing the inclusion students a cheat sheet that locates the beginning and ending of each passage that you deem "flowery" - I trust you'd all be reading from the same edition - and briefly summarizes its point. Inclusion students could then read those passages less closely; for advanced students, you could perhaps construct an exercise that requires them actually to read and comment on some or all of those passages.

WOW fabulous idea! My co-teacher and I are constructing a whole unit for next school year (due to this class' excitement) and we will definitely be trying this! Thanks!

[BumbleB]

Originally Posted by Furthuron

I think it's so cool you're teaching Dorian Gray!

We were really skeptical at first. But we found that play version, and the kids were SO into it. And we looked back at the Common Core LA standards for 8th grade, and Dorian hits ALL of the fiction ones in one text.

I was really nervous that the kids wouldn't "get" some of those deeper meanings, but they came up with ideas that I didn't even consider. It was one of those moments I'll never forget, seeing some of my special ed kids light up and start sharing with their group because they actually "got it". All of the students were so excited to share their interpretations of the text, and I saw some of them actually arguing about each other's interpretations...and then looking back at the text to support their claims! It was magical!