A Little Light Reading.

Cameron is reading Angela's Ashes for English. He originally picked another book because he didn't know anything about any of his choices. I encouraged him to read AA--I think it's overwhelming in its portrayal of the author's life. I think it is a book that can at once both open the reader's eyes to the horrors of Irish poverty and soar with the beautiful language he uses to convey the joy and despair of that life. It has so many of the qualities of excellent fiction while retaining the non-fiction memoir characteristics as well.


He is learning how to annotate literature which involves taking a passage from a novel and examining it from different perspectives. He uses the "track changes" feature to highlight and then comment on an aspect of that passage. He gives his own insights and makes his own connections, but he does have to do some "research" to support or confirm his observations. He asked me if there was a Depression similar to that in the US in Ireland at that time, or were there other reasons for the family's poverty? He also wanted to know when WWII started to see if there might be some connections to the life that he was reading about. This is a sample of his beginning with this passage. I wasn't able to easily copy in his comments and they are still pretty sketchy so they wouldn't be very helpful at this point.

(Clues to setting Imagery Other comments Literary techniques)

Clothes never dried: tweedand woolen coats housed living things, sometimes mysterious vegetations. In pubs, steam rose from damp bodies and garments to be inhaled with cigarette and pipe smoke laced with the stale fumes of spilled stout and whiskeyand tinged with the odor of piss wafting in from the outdoor jakes where many a man puked up his week’s wages.

The rain drove us into the church—our refuge, our only dry place. At Mass, Benediction, novenas, we huddled in great damp clumps, dozing through priest drone, while steam rose again from our clothes to mingle with the sweetness of incense, flowers, and candles.

Limerick gained a reputation for piety, but we knew it was only the rain.

I like this assignment. I like the way he's being asked to look at a variety of aspects of a novel--from the author's craft to language choice to the influences that time and place have on a piec of
work. I like the way it's presented--he doesn't have to do research or look outside of the text, but in order to meet the requirements he has to in order to have the expected level of depth of thought and analysis. The independent nature of the assignment puts that as his responsibility, rather than a checklist or worksheet or even a list of something.

Mostly, though, I really like the critical approach to reading. From the very begining years ISB takes a very comprehensive approach to reading. It's more than fluency and comprehension--students work on reading a variety of genres and do critical analysis and deeper level skills at an early age--and in a way that continually keeps kids fired for reading. To do this for books like "Of Mice and Men" and "Angela's Ashes" requires a solid understanding of what comprises literature. Cameron has always been a very gifted reader, but it has been challenging for him to work with a book in this way. I think there's a part of him that wishes he could just read (and I remind him he can do that any ol' time he wants) but I think he's learning to appreciate books on a different way. Learning how to read like that was a great turning point in my reading career--as a gifted reader as a child, I devoured books, but all the learning about themes, imagery, context, etc. made books even more irresistable!

And, as long as we're on reading, LUCY, thank you for your Hunger Games post. Cameron enjoyed the book and read your post and all the comments. He asked me what I thought you meant when you commented about people reading only for entertainment without considering the moral or ethical aspects which led to a short but insightful discussion about the power of literature and the beauty of interpretation. He plays his cards close to his chest, so I love those moments when he's willing to share his opinions or ideas. so THANKS!