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At_His_Feet
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I am preparing to share my equal all time favourite novel with ds15, in a few months. I do not want to kill the experience with the usual comprehension questions, vocab lists, and mandatory essay questions. I want him to love the novel as much as I do. However, I do want to do something more than simply read and discuss. So my question is how have you dug a little deeper with this gem, without over doing it?
Tricia
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Tricia
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JodieLyn
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I haven't done it but.. I know I would have loved child directed discussion while reading the book but then go ahead and go back and dig into it more after the fact.. even if it means rereading parts. I disliked more than anything the constant interruption of a "good story", you can't get up any momentum, get caught up in the story.. it falls flat and becomes hum drum more of the same ol' same ol'.
How many people find Shakespeare incomprehensible and boring? but how many people only experience it in a classroom where the idea is presented that you have to understand every word slog through it word by word until it makes less sense than it started. That's what it felt like to me and then I missed some school and got special permission to take home the Merchant of Venice to catch up with the class. There were only just enough books so generally they weren't allowed to go home. And I started reading it and without all the fuss and bother, I could ignore individual words in favor of building a story with what I did know.. and I couldn't put it down. Who knew that Shakespeare is a real "page turner". And how much more interesting a discussion is after the fact when you care about the story.
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CrunchyMom
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I had a similar experience to Jodie where my 11th grade English teacher murdered the great American novels for me.
However, I do think you can take you time with a book rather than bowl through it , savoring rather than devouring. I have not taught high school English, but I would think that read and discuss as in reading and narration is ample at first or perhaps do written narrations.? A slower going through and the pausing to recall detail a la Charlotte Mason will likely cement the novel details so that they can be better discussed after the whole novel is finished.
Then, you will have the tools needed to do any analysis you hope to cover without having disrupted the story en route so to speak 
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mariB
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Maybe the old movie...with Gregory Peck. All our teens have read this book. I agree with not killing literature. My 14 year old has been enthusiastically telling back Around the World in 80 Days. I've learned not to underestimate discussion and narration and the power of it.
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Willa
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Sometimes my kids read "around" the book in order to enrich the experience of reading it? Rather than analyze the book directly, we read or watch or talk about some of the things the book brings out. I am coming up dry with specific examples for To Kill a Mockingbird, but we've done it this way with other books.
I think your love for the book will make the biggest difference, though!
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Erin
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Tricia
My children were blessed to belong to a Writing Club for a few years with Sr Judith (sadly she died this year  ) the last book they did was TKAMB. I know they watched the movie as well as the book and each child had to pick 2 characters and write a mini essay describing them.
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Kristie 4
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Perfect timing- my dd's reading group just began this. Thanks for the encouragement to 'go back' and dig into it.
She just finished Crime and Punishment, one of my favourite novels, and I was feeling guilty for not having any materials to help her go deeper as she read it. But she LOVED it, can't stop talking about it. Now that she is done it she wants to write an essay and read more about the books' context.
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Angie Mc
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My now 18 yo listened to Cliff Notes on CD while driving which he enjoyed. And we pretty much have the movie memorized :)
Love,
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Kelly
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One of my all time faves, too. The reclusive Harper lee actually came to my house in Mobile when I was a little girl!
Every year in Monroeville, AL (Harper lee's home) the community theater does a stage adaptation of TKAMB. It starts out outside the courthouse, then moves INTO the courthouse for the Courthouse scenes. This is the same courthouse where the Gregory Peck movie was filmed, I believe. The audience-salted with actors-is part of the trial! It's an amazing experience.
Monroeville actors have been doing this "gig" for years and years. It's a great honor to get the part of Atticus Finch! Tickets go on sale in the early spring and sell out fast. The last performance this year is next Saturday. I was hoping to go, but decided to wait till next year so my 12 yo will be a little older and can be folded into the mix. Everyone who goes says it is deeply affecting.
Sooooo....if you are in the Alabama area this spring or next-the Ultimate TKAMB experience awaits you! Google Monroeville TKAMB for details 
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At_His_Feet
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Kelly!!! You met Harper Lee 
I live in Australia, but this play would certainly encourage me to visit your country! I'll file it away on my to do list if I ever get there.
Tricia
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MelissaClaire
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What age is appropriate for this book? I don't ever remember reading it. (And I ask because our parish school has it for required reading in 8th grade.)
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SallyT
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Flannery O'Connor thought it was a children's book, and in many ways it is. The content that makes it not just straightforwardly a children's novel is that a supposed rape is at the center of the plot, and the backdrop of 1930s segregated Alabama is at times overtly ugly and sinister. And there are undercurrents in some dialogue that an older, more sophisticated reader would be more likely to pick up on and recognize as ironic (like Mrs. What's-Her-Name going on about the poor Mrunas in Africa and how sorry she feels for them, while complaining how "down-in-the-mouth" her cook is about a member of the black community's being sent to death row for a crime he didn't commit; or the teacher going on about Hitler and how "prejudice," as against the Jews, is a bad thing, and isn't it good that we don't live in a prejudiced society, children).
I have used it as a read-aloud for my children in late elementary school, judiciously editing some (though not all) language, and substituting "attack" for "rape." It's a beautiful enough book, with so much that speaks to pre-teen children, that I've chosen to do that -- with the expectation that they will reread it later and discover more in it. I read it with my 10- and 11-year-olds this past spring, and we had some very rich conversations about it. I'll assign it formally somewhere between 8th grade and graduation, and my hope is that they'll come back to it as a lovingly-remembered read.
When I taught the novel as a high-school teacher (to 11th graders, as a part of American lit), we certainly didn't spend much time on overtly literary stuff about it. I focused mostly on the idea of heroism -- how did Atticus Finch personify a certain kind of heroism? Would anyone else qualify as a hero? That kind of thing.
It was the one novel absolutely everybody liked. I would show the movie after we'd finished reading it, and poll the kids to see who liked the novel better, and who liked the movie. Overwhelmingly, while everyone liked the movie, the consensus was that truly, in this instance, the book was better.
Sally
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kristinannie
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I would discuss it with him. Read a couple of chapters and then meet for a discussion. Dig into some of the characters and watch as they develop. What changes are they going through during the book? How is Scout maturing and changing? I heard (I haven't read the book in years) that every time they hear a mockingbird sing, Scout experiences something that makes her mature and lose some of her innocence. You can discuss some of the different conflicts going on in the book. There are several different plot lines. I would start each discussion by asking him what he wanted to talk about. What struck him about those couple of chapters? What made him stop and really think? I think you can get into great conversations about a book like that or any book really!
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kristinannie
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I just listened to this talk and thought of this post. Hope it is helpful!
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Kelly
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Tricia-ya gotta come experience the American South  and hopefully catch the play in the process  Re Ms Lee, yes I met her... When i was 3!!!! Needless to say our conversation was not very deep lol but my parents deeply admired her book and she came to Mobile for something having to do with the Arts Council there (that my Dad was head of) ... Hence my 15 min of Andy Warhol fame haha
I agree on the above age assessment for this book-tho i typically give it to my kids tonread around age 13/14. As Sally says, everyone likes this book. The language is almost childlike, but very perceptive and elegant, really. Despite the somber theme, it still has ligjthearted moments. A great book.
When i was about 7 i was at my cousins place in the deep rural South. The TV was kept onnthe wraparound porch. I remember sitting outside on that porch during a storm watching TKAMB and being scared to pieces at the part where Scout-dressed as a ham-is being stalked. Ive never been able to look at a ham since without thinking of that scene (tho that was assuredly NOT Ms Lee's intention!!! Lol)
Kelly in FL
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Topic: To Kill a Mockingbird
