Synopses & Reviews
In this disarmingly pleasant-to-read book, Carol Jago provides a convincing rationale for teaching the classics to all of your high school students. A veteran educator, Jago provides a wealth of ways for us to do what English teachers yearn to do in their own classrooms: teach the good stuff . Ways that engage students, that make classics and kids come alive.
With Rigor for All also offers practical suggestions for overcoming the problems teachers face when teaching the classics: length, challenging vocabulary, complex syntax, alien times and settings, student disaffection. The book also deals with issues such as assessment and censorship, and offers many lists of suggested titles and a rich sampling of student writings in response to the classics.
If you, like Carol Jago, believe in teaching the good stuff, With Rigor for All is the best source of information and inspiration we've come across.
Review
Jago's book With Rigor for All: Teaching the Classics to Contemporary Students challenges the current penchant in the U.S. for dumbing down and anthologizing literature for secondary learners....Jago peppers the text with her own classroom techniques, experiences, and students' work. Above all, she exemplifies her own belief that teachers must be readers.Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, September 2000
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.
About the Author
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
Table of Contents
Introduction
Creating a Context for the Study of Classical Literature
Warning Students of the Obstacles in Reading Classics
Negotiating Story Structures
Rethinking What We Ask Students to Do
Of Excerpts and Allusions
Learning from the Inside Out How Stories Work
Testing That Teaches
Film Versions of the Classics: To View or Not To View?
Readers with Roots and Wings
Book Lists of Classics, an Eclectic Collection; Works Cited