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: looking for abbreviated literature classics
http://www.resourceroom.net/Surfin/index2.asp#hilow
Some of these do adapted classics — and check out www.donjohnston.com , I think they may have links to some, too.
I congratulate you on providing grade level literature for your students. In other classes, discussions with friends, they are reading the same stories and can share and participate. Now, I do not know a source for the shortened versions you are looking for, but I do have a few ideas. Your students are good candidates to learn to enjoy audio books. The professional ones are very well done. The Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic are not as entertaining, but many classic texts are available. There are sources for audio that we can discuss. Also, for a story like Tom Sawyer you could watch portions of the movie to substitute for scenes that you do not want to read. We did this with the Diary of Anne Frank. (watched a scene rather than read it). Of course, again, you have to find a good version. Just a few thoughts.