With Rigor for All: Teaching the Classics to Contemporary Students by Carol Jago, James Strickland (Foreword by)

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Synopsis

In this disarmingly pleasant-to-read book, Carol Jago provides a convincing rationale for teaching the classics to all of your high school students.

VOYA

Jago believes that "many students who never expected to be able to negotiate classical literature find that with a little help from their teachers and classmates, the book isn't as impossible as they first thought." With this premise in mind, she shows teachers how she brings classic literature to life in her high school English classes of all levels and skills. Jago's teaching relies on both traditional and contemporary classics, such as Toni Morrison's Beloved (Thorndike Press, 1987) and Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior (J. Curley, 1976), but she allows students to choose their own books for independent reading. If teachers need lists of classics to meet the tastes of their students, this book serves that purpose well. A chapter titled "Book Lists of Classics, an Eclectic Collection" includes Jago's top ten favorites in several fields including those "for Boys (and Girls) who Love Action and Hate Long Descriptions of Drawing Rooms and Landscapes," and "for Girls Certain They Will Never Meet Prince Charming." She also includes lists from Hispanic, African American, and Native American literature. Jago offers several strategies that provide a glimpse into her classroom practices. She models how students determine their reading rate for a particular work, which helps them gauge their homework time. She provides examples of alternative assessments that she uses and includes short vignettes of classroom discussions. Though brief, these strategies and examples show the reader how Jago successfully includes the study of classic literature with students of all levels and backgrounds. 2000, Calendar Islands Publishers, 160p, pb. Ages Adult. Reviewer: Denise Beasley SOURCE: VOYA,April 2001 (Vol. 24, No.1)

Biography

CAROL JAGO teachers English at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California and directs the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She also edits the California Association of Teachers of English (CATE) quarterly journal, California English . Carol has written a weekly education column for the Los Angeles Times , and her essays have appeared in English Journal , Language Arts , NEA Today , The Christian Science Monitor , as well as in other newspapers across the nation. She has served as director of the National Council of Teachers of English Commission on Literature and currently is a member of NCTE's Secondary Section. NCTE has published her books Nikki Giovanni in the Classroom (NCTE), Alice Walker in the Classroom (NCTE), and Sandra Cisneros in the Classroom (NCTE). Her other books for teachers, With Rigor for All: Teaching the Classics to Contemporary Students and Beyond Standards: Excellence in the High School English Classroom , Cohesive