Looking for your favorite stand-alone passages (9-12)
Teaching 9th/10th grade ELA, lots of students with language-based learning disabilities. Building a unit on recognizing craft/style in writing and need excerpts that:
- Work with zero context — reading an entire book in class takes forever (I try to avoid assigning reading outside of class)
- Fit in a single class period
- use at least one literary device (pacing, understatement, symbolism, unreliable narration, etc.)
- rigorous — my kids have strong comprehension even with lower reading levels, so I'm not afraid to swing for the fences.
Currently using: Poe ("Tell-Tale Heart," "Cask of Amontillado") for pacing, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" opening for tone/word choice, and the coin-toss scene from No Country for Old Men for pacing/tension.
Any chapters/scenes/excerpts that you think could work?
EDIT: Really dope suggestions. If you're interested, I made a list of all the recommendations offered today. I apologize if I missed any.
Reading Suggestions
1: No Country for Old Men (pages 46-51) - (Cormac McCarthy)
2: House on Mango Street - (Sandra Cisneros)
3: They’re Made Out of Meat – (Terry Bissen)
4: The Egg – (Andy Weir)
5: The Pearl – (John Steinbeck)
6: The Towel with a Cockerel Motif – (Mikhail Bulgakov)
7: Fish Cheeks – (Amy Tan)
8: Charles – (Shirley Jackson)
9: Currents – (Hannah Voskuil)
10: Death by Scrabble - (Charlie Fish)
11: Hills like White Elephants - (Ernest Hemmingway)
12: The Secret History - (Donna Tartt)
13: The Story of an Hour- (Kate Chopin)
14: The Grapes of Wrath (Chapter 5) - (John Steinbeck)
15: The Things They Carried (On the Rainy River) - (John Steinbeck)
16: The Landlady - (Roald Dahl)
17: Lambs to Slaughter - (Roald Dahl)
18: Call of the Wild (description of a dear being eaten) - (Jack London)
19: The Use of Force - (Williams Carlos Williams)
20: Slaughterhouse Five (the rewind scene) - (Kurt Vonnegut)
21: Federigo’s Falcon – Boccaccio
22: Maude Martha Spares the Mouse – (Gwendolyn Brooks)
23: Everyday Use - (Alice Walker)
24: A Retrieved Reformation - (O. Henry)
25: Corn Pone Opinions - (Mark Twain)
26: The Scarlet Letter (opening paragraphs) - Nathaniel Hawthorne
