Help! I teach kids with LD at high school level. Teaching high school English to 5 kids- all with good basic reading abilities. Am looking for literature classics that are presented in an abbreviated form- not “dumbed down”, not washed out- but shortened. For example- it would take my kids all year to maybe get through Huckleberry Finn (the regular ed. classes spend 5 weeks and assign HUGE sections for out of school reading). I want my kids to read and experience Mark Twain’s classic, but not a washed-out, dumbed-down version. I am looking for something like Reader’s Digests’ Condenced books. Anyone know of resources for such? Also, does anyone know of good online resources for quizzes, etc. for the classics of literature?
Re: abbreviated classics
In my experience, it *does* take more time for them to experience the literature in any meaningful way. The whole dialect issue of Huck Finn can be a real tough one. I had to read lots of it aloud to a student I was tutoring or he would have had no idea… and still had to explain a fair amount of the dialect… and *then* there’s explaining the vastly different culture. (Yes, this kid *was* uncomfortable with the use of n*gger being in a southern school… and unlike my high school the African-American students didn’t use it in talking to each other so I couldn’t use that as an example, just had to sort of say “well, it was accepted in that day and age, just like there are words you can say to your friends that you don’t say in certain other situations like “suck”).
What I would try to do is seriously prioritize and then read sections. I’ve never been pleased with the “written down” stuff, and unfortunately somethign like Reader’s Digest wouldn’t be short enough.
In general, I try to figure out what I want them to walk out of the room and know for the rest of tehir lives — which includes knowledge of Huck Finn and what it’s all about — and realize I won’t have time to teach it all, but prioritize. So often these guys get “exposed” to a ton of stuff and not taught a bloomng thing (but you already know that, eh?)
Scott,
Since you want your students to experience Mark Twain (and I assume as independently as possible) have you considered books on tape or recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic? If you have an e-text version, they can listen to it independently and easily refer to a page or paragraph that the teacher is referring to. They can highlight sections or vocabulary words and really experience the same books as their classmates but with the obstacles to learning removed.
Have their assistive technology needs been considered (as federal law mandates)?