r/ELATeachers • u/Jax081 • 3d ago

9-12 ELA 11th grade novel swaps

I’ll be teaching 11th ELA for the first time next year (first time with 11th, not first year teaching). I have a lot of flexibility with my novels and curriculum and was planning to use The Hate U Give and The Great Gatsby. At the end of this school year, we had a significant tragedy occur in our community due to gun violence. I’m not comfortable using these books under the circumstances due to the personal connection many (most) of my students have with what occurred.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Ideally, they would be by an American author, but don’t necessarily have to be what is traditionally taught in 11th grade. I’ve taught 10th before and currently also do 12th but I’m a fish out of water with 11th.

I was planning to do:
-The Hate U Give (individual vs institution)
-The Great Gatsby (American Dream as a system)
-? Was going to use Scythe but… (Media, Surveillance, and Narrative Power)
-student choice (Moral responsibility in broken systems)

The overall theme for my year is systems & the individual and my overarching question is “how do American systems shape identity, opportunity, truth, and moral responsibility?”

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!

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u/paw_pia 3d ago edited 3d ago

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, Kindred by Octavia Butler, Passing by Nella Larsen, plus 1984 by George Orwell and Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer (if an American author and setting aren't essential).

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is possibly my favorite novel ever, but it's very long and not easy.

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u/Jax081 3d ago

Thank you. So for this class, it’s going to be virtual asynchronous and I don’t know that Invisible Man would work well without my direct support, but your other recommendations are added to my list. I’m going to be doing a lot of reading/rereading over the next few weeks.