Reading Roll Call is a classroom activity I conduct with my students at the beginning of every week to see what they are independently reading. I always share the title of a book that I am reading to model participation and showcase the lifelong commitment to reading that I’ve made.
The Reading Roll Call idea stems from Donalyn Miller‘s book Reading in the Wild. I have adapted the activity and idea into blog form to track my reading progress on a weekly basis. Happy Reading!
While I may not be independently reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding, I am reading it. I recently assigned it to my Literature and Composition 10 students.
I always find rereading books I’ve assigned to my students important because as they work through the text, I’m right beside them and in the text. I can usually find a nuance that I missed before and I like knowing what’s going on chapter-by-chapter as students discuss the text in Socratic Seminars, which can lead to interesting theories and analysis.
One thing that I am interested in doing is disrupting this text. Lord of the Flies is a member of the old dead white man canon of assigned high school texts. I think it is an excellent way to teach allegory, symbolism, and numerous themes, but this year I want to disrupt it. I plan on combing the resources shared in the Disrupt Texts Twitter chat from May 2018 in order to challenge my own thinking and my students’ when reading and working with Lord of the Flies.
From the Back of the Book
“At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they want. Anything.
But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued.”