English Goes Classic

Romance, war, death, deception, trial, and tragedy were some of the things that were rattling through Mrs. Rice’s ninth-grade honors English classes as they compared two classic books.

About four months ago, right before Thanksgiving, Mrs. Rice’s honors English classes voted on two books that they could read; those two books were Ivanhoe and Dracula.  The students not only got to vote for the two books, but they also had the opportunity to choose which one out of the two they would read.  Most students chose to read Dracula, but a few students chose to read Ivanhoe.

According to Hayde Blanco and Alexis Fisher, ninth-grade students who read Ivanhoe, they thought that more people read Dracula because it’s a more popular story.  After reading it, Alexis said, “Ivanhoe was a little bit harder to read and understand, but I’m glad that I chose to read it.”

When the students finished reading the books, they made a Cinematic Saga; a movie comparing the characters from the books they read. Students enjoyed making the videos; according to Jennifer Bate, ninth-grade student, she loved working in groups with other people and acting as if they were the characters in the books.

Mrs. Rice, the ninth-grade honors English teacher, said, “Students can harvest a lot of cultural capital from these texts. Cultural capital makes them better over the years because they build background knowledge that helps them read other things as well and it gives them ideas about how to write.” Jennifer also said, “It is refreshing to read something that others have read; its fun to be able to know what they’re talking about, and relate to it.” Overall, students enjoyed reading these books, and some are hoping they get to read more just like it.