Secondary teachers, are Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales required readings for 12th grade English in your school? Do they HAVE to be taught or can you supplement those texts with other stories?
What are some of the required readings you have read or taught as students or english teachers in high school? Give your state and the list. I’m in Alabama and I went to school from 2021-2025 and here is what we read in a predominantly black school.
9th Grade English
- Where I fell in love with literature! To kill a mockingbird was my all time favorite. I am soon going to start re reading The Odyssey now as an english major, Emily Wilson’s translation so we will see how it goes!
• The Scarlet Ibis
• The Odyssey
• Fahrenheit 451
• The Bluest Eye
• To Kill A Mockingbird
10th Grade English (Honors)
- We NEVER read the books in class, so many of us didn’t read the books at home😂, and she never quizzed us on if we did or not, this class for some reason was a strict focus on A.C.T prep. Despite this, i did read one (warriors don’t cry) that felt more natural to read than the rest.
• Julius Caesar
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
•The Scarlet Letter
•Warriors don’t cry
11th Grade English
- According to her, we were also suppose to read The Crucible but she was REQUIRED to teach us A.C.T prep alongside her curriculum which took majority of our reading time. She taught us the English and Writing Sections. Although we only got to read one book, she was truly amazing at what she did and one of the best teachers I ever had. Truly an amazing woman. Shout out to Ms.Kashara Davis!
•The Story of An Hour
• Richard Cory
•Ain’t I A Woman
•The Great Gatsby
12th Grade English
-Very boring class, nothing stood out to me and it wasn’t the literature’s fault. 😉
•Beowulf
•Wife of Bath
•Hamlet
•Pride and Prejudice
CONCLUSION: It’s not the amount of books you read, it’s the teacher that helps you stimulate a love for literature.