It really is not The Chocolate Wars fault but I absolutely hate this book. My fifth grade teacher handed it to me unceremoniously. She, in all likelihood, had no idea how to deal with an avid reader like myself. It was book report season and everyone needed a book, the fact that I had read the majority of the books she brought was clearly my fault. That was the death knoll for this book the book report. I had no desire to read this book, let alone make a pitiful diorama that would show the world just how terrible I was at arts and crafts. This project was meant to encourage students to read I am sure. For me though it was these kinds of projects that turned me off from the books on which they centered. The Chocolate War was the last “young adult” book I read until high school. Even now as I reread it I cannot enjoy this book that might otherwise be perfectly enjoyable.
I am concerned with the fact that children do not read, but I think that people tend to oversimplify the solution, and suggest only that students should be given more YA novels, or should be able to choose their novels. While these are great solutions it does not absolve teachers from the need to create engaging projects and assignments that encourage reading.
I have been reflecting a lot on how this novel, ruined by a terrible assignment, affected me as a reader. I am lucky I already loved to read so it did not shut me down from reading as a whole. It ended up shutting me off from a section of reading that I might have otherwise enjoyed. I began associating YA literature with cheesy art projects and plots reducible to dioramas. These projects become the image associated with the genre as a whole; simplistic characters that can be represented by a drawing, and themes that can be reduced to titles. These projects are not fair to the genre, and probably are not fair to The Chocolate War, but even now that is the only image of the book I can see, a pathetic cardboard diorama.
-- Meaghan Myers
Meaghan, your story makes me so sad. Not only does it seem ridiculous to assign a diorama project for a book as powerful and intense as The Chocolate War; to hand this book to a fifth grader, to me, reflects poor judgment. What fifth grader would be developmentally ready to grapple with themes about corruption, abuse of power, and evil? I wonder if your teacher had read the book. Teri Lesesne writes about the importance of being able to match "the right book to the right reader at the right time." How can we foster in teachers the ability, the passion, and the vision to do this?
ReplyDeleteMeaghan, as I read your post I couldn't help but laugh because of the degree to which I can relate. Being in this particular literature class has opened up my eyes to what struck me as so unattractive in middle school and high school literature classes. If I had been in literature classes where instead of springing pop quizzes on students and having long drawn out tests about obscure plot details, the teachers had arranged the desks in a big circle and posed questions that evoked meaningful conversation and reflection, I'm quite confident that I would have looked at literature class in a much different light. Our situations are pretty different since you had already discovered a love of reading, but, in my case, I think a case of boring English classes and ridiculous assignments did have an affect on me as a reader.
ReplyDeleteMeaghan, I remember those ridiculous dioramas from grade school! However, I had a slightly different reaction. I read every book handed to me and generally enjoyed it, including books like Beowulf and Ethan Frome. Even when I had to do a book report or project or pop quiz I still enjoyed the books, just not the extra work. Maybe it's because I was not handed a book like The Chocolate War as a young reader, like Professor Buehler said, 5th grade is really young to read a book like this.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Chelsea though about the structure of classes. High school classes were all about the quizzes and checking to make sure everyone read and everyone got the plot line. Now we get to sit and discuss how the book affected us individually and how books can change your views or even sometimes change your life.