Connecting to 1984

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This summer's reading assignments for the tenth lit pre-AP students is to choose to read either Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle or Anderson's Feed. Another teacher also teaches the class, and his pick was Cat's Cradle. I chose Feed because I wanted to connect it to 1984 when students return in August. I think I can connect both books in some way to 1984, but I think that Feed will be easier to do so.

I just got finished reading Doctorow's Little Brother, though, and now I'm wishing I had asked the students to read it instead. The good thing about using Feed is that I could also use it to fit in with the persuasion standards that are a part of our state's curriculum. Little Brother would work for this as well, just in a different way. I think I will have to think of way to incorporate it into the curriculum as well. It was sooooo good! The other cool thing about Little Brother is that it is also free to download even though it was published in 2008.

Rudeness

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Last night we took our fifteen year old daughter to see The Phantom of the Opera. Overall, it was a very enjoyable affair, and she really loved it. However, even though we had really good seats, our pleasure was diminished by a couple of factors. After the show began and even after intermission, several patrons were allowed to go to their seats all the while blocking others' views. There was a family seated behind us who had a child who constantly interrupted the program by asking questions about what was happening on stage. I don't totally blame him, however, because he should have been told beforehand what was and was not allowed at the theater. At the very least, they could have told him the basic plot or shown him the movie so that he would know what was going on. And does anyone else feel as I do that food and drink do not belong at a live performance? People were dressed in a variety of manners, and the whole affair seemed to be only a step above going to the movies.