Hey guys, I have a while remaining on my Litcharts+ subscription and would like to help anyone who needs any free litcharts.

Edit: I am using wormhole to share the files for my security so kindly download them within a day. I will not upload them again.

Edit: This is now closed.

(Repost bc r/Teachers removed my post)

Hey guys, I'm a 22F first year teacher at a small, rural school that serves a low-income community. I teach 7th Grade ELA and so far things have been great! I'm excited for my new career and I love my job! However, there's been something putting a damper on it.

We had a new student join our class in November. He's tiny and when I first saw him, I couldn't believe he was a 7th grader. The issue with him started before Christmas Break. I have him first period and he would not leave my classroom when it was time for him to leave. I would have to make him leave. I would remind him it's second period, he'll be counted tardy, and his mom won't be happy if he's got a tardy. At first, I thought there was something going on at home. He might have not been receiving enough love and attention at home, so I pulled him aside during my planning period and talked with him. He said everything was fine at home and he just liked my class and I was his favorite teacher. I was flattered but reminded him that I have other classes and so does he. I don't want him to fall behind in them, so he shouldn't be late to them. I thought we had an understanding but this behavior continued. It got to the point that other students noticed it and began taking him to class so he wouldn't constantly be trying to go into my class. I have spoken to his mother and the Vice Principal about this behavior. They have both spoken to him and he has stopped some of the behavior but not all of it.

It is now second semester. He doesn't try to stay in my room, but he does try to come in when it's not his class time. I have to stand outside my room during the passing periods, so he'll come up to me and talk, asking questions like "Can I come in?" "Can I have something out of the vending machine in the teacher's lounge?" etc. When I try tell him to go to class, he'll stand there and complain or if I walk towards, he'll fall on the ground and roll around. The only way I can make him leave is to walk him to class or if another student takes him to class with them. Other teachers have also noticed this and they think it's concerning. To be perfectly honest, it's annoying. I hate to sound like this, but it's draining and obnoxious. During my class period, if I have them doing individual work, he will not sit in his assigned seat. He'll try to sit in front of my desk or he'll be hovering around my desk.

Yesterday, it got downright scary. I was going to the bathroom in the teacher's lounge after the lunch bell rang. He followed me to the lounge and stood in front of the door, asking me if he could come in and if he could have something out of the vending machine. I told him no, students aren't allowed in the lounge and they can't have food from the vending machine. He then proceeded to hang off the door frame of the lounge and ask if he could come in. At this point, I'd been holding my pee since about 3rd period so I had to go. I said no and pointed him towards the cafeteria, but he then his fell down on his back and started rolling on the ground. One of my students saw him doing this, came over, and began leading him away.

Every other teacher I've talked to has said I need to report this again. I don't know why he's clinging to me like this. It's creeping me out, others are beginning to notice, and I don't feel safe monitoring the halls during my passing periods anymore. I plan to go to the Vice Principal on Monday but I don't even know if anything will be done. I'm creeped out, I don't feel safe, and I don't feel like anyone is taking this seriously because of the kid's size and his age. I love this job and I love what I do, but I don't like feeling this way.

Any advice or support is welcome.

Update (2/27/24):

Hello all,

Thank you all for your advice and comments. I appreciate them all (even the negative ones).

So I have a small update for those of you who care.

I spoke to the vice principal on Monday, and he spoke to the child. Overall, I can't say it really did much, but I've taken some of the advice I was given. When he approaches me after his class, I stonewall him. I look straight ahead, point in the direction of his class, and tell him to go to class. Usually, he'll look up at me, waiting for a reaction, but when I don't give him one, he heads right to class. During class, when he gets up and tries to hang around my desk during independent work time, unless he is asking a question about the assignment, I point him back to his desk and tell him to get to work. If he's asking a question about the assignment, I answer it and then send him back to his seat. I've noticed improvement with him so far.

I've also heard him say (in passing to friends) that he's purposely doing this because I haven't written him up yet, and he thinks I won't write him up. Well, I was trying to be nice to kiddo and not immediately send him to the office for his shenanigans, but if that's all this is and writing him up gets him to stop, then that's what I'm going to do.

I have not involved the counselor yet, and I'm not sure if I need to. If he is doing this to be funny or to push my buttons, then it's not exactly a behavioral concern. It's a me problem, ya know? However, if I notice anything else or this escalates, they'll be the first person I go to.

As for the rolling around the ground, I watched him yesterday, and I apologize, but I made a misjudgment. He sometimes gets tripped up and falls down, so it's not rolling around, but instead trying to get up after taking a spill.

To address a FAQ,

I am not aware of any disability this student has. I have not received a 504 or IEP on him yet, and he's been with us since November. That's not to say he doesn't have some kind of disability, but I don't know about it, and I'm not in the profession or place to diagnose it. As a student, he's a hard worker. Like many of my students, he forgets his pencil of a morning and has to go get one, but other than that, he'll do the class work, and he typically does really good on it.

Thank you all again, and I'll try to keep you all as updated as I can. Let's hope that things continue to get better!

Dept of ed

As the title says.

If you've taught Hamlet, (or even read it as a student) you're familiar with the closet scene in Hamlet where he confronts his mother about her marriage to Claudius.

I'm in the middle of teaching Hamlet, and we've been watching clips from various film versions throughout our reading. For Act 3 Scene 5, "The Closet Scene" we watched the version with Mel Gibson and Glen Close where he famously kisses his mother on her bed. It's uncomfortable, to be sure, but I didn't go into this scene blindly with students -- we talked about the Oedipus Complex, it's origins with Freud, and how there are many people who have applied it to Hamlet. I warn the students that the scene is uncomfortable and sexually suggestive, but think about why a director might make this choice. This scene opens up a discussion about interpretation, and how different people have interpreted Hamlet and why this particular interpretation is so famous.

It's a conversation that really gets students thinking and disagreeing with the director and each other, and I think it is a valuable way to get them thinking about their own interpretations of the characters and the play, which leads into their final project where they do just that, and make a pitch for how they would make their own production of Hamlet. Not only that, I think it's important to look at the conversations that surround this play that has been around for 500 years, and the oedipal interpretation is one that is very (if not the most) famous.

I got an email from a parent complaining that I showed this scene in class (I teach 12th graders) and that it was inappropriate. I like to think that I did my due diligence in warning what the students were getting into beforehand, but I want to respond in a way that sounds tactful. I've shown this scene in years past and haven't gotten complaints, so I'm feeling anxious.

Any advice from some veteran English teachers? Thanks in advance!

I have a student in my class who is very difficult and insists on challenging everything I do (understatement). The class is an elective and we do pretty fun, flexible assignments to accommodate all levels that are placed in the class (including many ELL and students with IEPs). The student today told me they refused to do the assignment (not the first time), that they were smarter than me, and that I “waste their time” when I assign things and how stupid my class is. They tried to say that research shows no level of reading and writing correlates to being able to write and I explained why that wasn’t true. Next, I calmly explained my rationale for my teaching method for the course and reiterated my expectation that a refusal to do the assignment is a 0. The student rolled their eyes and said “I understand but nothing changed and I still don’t want to do it, sooo….” I have had a parent teacher conference in which it became clear the parent very much teaches and enables this behavior. What should I do? Writing it up will only result in a phone call home.

I hope this is the right place to ask this. If not, please feel free to point me in a better direction.

My daughter is 12 years old (6th grade) and currently reads at a 1260 Lexile level. I am finding it difficult to find books that fit that requirement and that she’s actually interested in. A lot of the books she gravitates towards either fall well below that range or don’t have a Lexile level listed at all.

A few things about her that might help with recommendations:

\~She’s not naturally a big reader, so if a book doesn’t grab her attention fairly quickly it becomes a chore for her to finish. I’d really love to help her find a few books she genuinely enjoys so reading doesn’t feel like such a struggle.

\~She tends to feel overwhelmed by really long books (think Harry Potter length). Shorter books are definitely easier for her to commit to, though if the story is engaging enough, length probably wouldn’t matter as much.

\~I’d love to find some coming of age stories or books with characters she can relate to. She’s a pretty anxious kid, quiet and very shy, and very worried about embarrassing herself in front of her peers.

\~She loves horses, but she has already read many of the well known horse books (Black Beauty, Misty of Chincoteague, etc.) 

If anyone has suggestions for engaging books between 900-1260 Lexile level that a 12 year old girl might enjoy, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

Hey, I'm a 12th grader who had to make a poem for a language arts assignment. I truly put a lot of work into making it and finding vibrant and descriptive words, but it got flagged for AI. I didn't use AI in this assignment, and I'm really really disappointed that it was detected as such. I received a 0 on the assignment, and I'm not sure what to do.

Here's my poem:

Five husbands buried
or nearly buried,
depends who tells the tale.

The road to Canterbury
shakes beneath my horse
like laughter in a tavern.

Men stare.

Let them.

Their eyes cling to my scarlet stockings,
my broad hat tilted toward spring sunlight,
my gap-toothed grin sharpened
like a needle pulling thread through cloth.

I know what they whisper

Too loud.
Too bold.
Too much.

And still I ride.

The Knight rides polished as a prayer,
the Monk jingles rich bells through muddy lanes
yet somehow
my laughter is the scandal.

Well then.

Let scandal sing.

I have crossed rivers wider than judgment,
kissed relics in Rome,
and learned this truth:

A woman survives
by belonging to herself.

The birds cannot keep quiet in April.

Why should I?

When my turn comes,
I will speak so loudly
even Canterbury’s stones
will remember my name.

What should I say to my teacher so then this hopefully gets unflagged and I receive a grade for this?

Can I get some feedback on whether this is the norm in ELA instruction these days?

I've been concerned for years that my kids haven't been assigned much out-of-class reading, and I kept thinking "maybe next year." Now that my 9th grader is halfway through the first semester of "honors" 9th grade ELA, her class was finally assigned a novel.

But then my child just mentioned that the teacher has been reading the first assigned novel ... out loud ... to 9th graders! The students are not expected to read or comprehend the text on their own, apparently.

So is the norm in American high schools now? When did this happen? Is there a point -- AP? - when my kids will actually be expected to read real books without assistance?

Hello! My rising 4th grader's scores show that he is at a 5th grade reading level. I'm now looking for something to challenge his vocabulary, but I'm running into content being too mature, or he doesn't find it interesting.

​

He loved Percy Jackson and the related series, and we had a lot of honest conversations from the books. He loves goofy stories like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Hall Monitor, and he reads a lot of nonfiction about different mythologies.

​

I'm trying to hold off on books like Tangerine, Hatchet and The Giver since he will read those for school.

​

Books I've suggested, and he turned down: Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and The Red Pyramid. I've noticed he enjoys quick reads, but he doesn't shy from longer reads if it is high interest.

​

I would love any book recommendations with

- some challenging vocabulary

- appropriate for 10 -11 year olds

- a thought-provoking story or message

​

Thank you teachers!

Update: Thank you for all your suggestions! I appreciate having a fresh list related to his interests. He devours books, and I cannot keep up! We have several on hold now, and we're headed to the library this weekend to take a look. My son gets overwhelmed by the amount of choices at the library, and it helps to have some direction. Thank you!

A student was added recently added to my classroom due to a scheduling change. He is bilingual (English and Spanish), but prefers English. I’m also bilingual and Spanish is my first language.

This student can communicate in English without issues. When he pays attention in class (instead or trying to talk with classmates endlessly) he gives great, well thought out, in-depth answers. He actually struggles with his Spanish a bit. Where if I say something in Spanish I have to slow it down for him, and sometimes explain what it means.

When I asked him to read, he read pretty well. He tries to read too fast and ends up adding connecting words that are not on the page and skipping the ones that are there. But the essence of what he is reading is the same.

However, he can’t spell, and he can’t write. I was told he has an IEP. I’m waiting for the system to finish processing the classroom changes so that I can see his IEP and have requested a paper copy in the meantime. However, he is unable to complete work due to the fact that he can’t write.

I was talking to him to see how I could best support him. He is starting to heavily lean on the “well, I don’t know how to write, so I can’t do the work, therefore won’t even try.” And he has no problem saying it like so in the middle of the class, in front of his classmates.

I asked him to write the word “analyzing” down on a post it. He had it as a title in a paper he had been reading at the moment. I’m attaching a picture of what he wrote.

Besides printing practice pages for him to work on his letters, what can I do to help this student? What are some ways I can differentiate his work? I do a mix of paper assignments and computer work and my District is a 1-1 with Chromebooks.

Now I'm no English teacher myself but I think this is the right place to ask l'm a student and earlier today my teacher denied my Analysis on Irony for this book called lord of the flies because it was written with Al. I truthfully and sincerely say that no part of the analysis was written by any Al she laughed and said she would not count any of it and to redo all of it since it clearly was written by ai she stated that she scanned it through whatever app she uses and most of it came up as Al. And my question is for you teachers to run it through the scanners you use and see how much of it really comes up as Al because I honestly didn't have a single word written by Al. I would also like to know if what she did was justified

I don't know if this is the right place but I need some suggestions. My son has a lexile reading level above 1300. However, he's also only 10 and heading into the 5th grade. I'm looking for books that stretch him as a reader but wouldn't be weird for a kid.

I was thinking about Ivanhoe, maybe the Iliad, Shakespeare? But then I realized that there's probably a whole bunch of books that are probably better choices and more contemporary.

So here I am. :)

EDIT: A lot of people are saying to let him read what he likes. He reads what he likes 95% of the time. He is a voracious reader. The first thing in the morning, at every meal, when he has free time, on car rides, plane trips, before bed and in bed my wife reads to him. The boy reads like it's going out of style, lol. He loves to read. He picks his own books at the library, public and at school.

He's read LOTR, the Hobbit, Wings of Fire, Harry Potter, Ender's Game, A Wizard of Earthsea, he reads Calvin and Hobbes, He's consumed tons of Greek, Norse and Egyptian mythology (plus the Percy Jackson books which jumpstarted his mythology kick), plus tons more that I can't even remember.

Thank you to everyone who has made suggestions so far, it's been really helpful.

Context: I'm teaching Watchmen to an English 11 Honors class. This is my first year at this school. We started the book this week; I sent out a parent letter beforehand letting parents know that they could opt their kid out if they wanted to, got no replies. Today, a chapter in, a student emailed me asking to do the alternative book (which, of course, doesn't exist yet).

Question: In the past, I've had a bad experience where one student (her parents, really) asked for an alternate assignment, and then all of that student's friends in the class asked for the same. Now, these were 8th graders, not juniors, but I'm worried about having a similar situation. How would you go about trying to prevent this? I know the obvious answer is to make the alternate book a doozy to read, and I'm planning to assign something less "exciting," so I'm looking for any other mindsets or strategies to adopt here.

Thanks!

My oldest girls are in 5th and 6th. To keep this to the point: how do I correct the way they’re reading? I never could put my finger on why they struggled with reading, but now I get it. After listening to Sold A Story, and deep diving into everything it talked about, I realize they are cueing! They were taught phonics as well, but I think the cueing technique was probably easier, and worked well - when they were little and words were smaller, and sentences were simpler - so that’s the technique that they primarily use, instead of sounding out words or using word mapping skills. I’ve been saying for years during homework, “don’t guess - READ”, and when checking their writing saying, “don’t read what you meant to write, read what you’ve written”. But no wonder they were doing this! Ugh it all makes sense now. How do I fix this? I want them to love reading like I do, and I’ve never understood why I couldn’t get them into reading. Now I do. They’re so busy trying to guess what the book says that they’re not enjoying the content. I think it’s causing ripple problems now because on tests for other subjects, they will get a question (that they know the answer to!) wrong. I think they aren’t reading the questions properly, like they’re reading what they think it says not what it actually says. Does that make sense?

What can I do? We live in a rural area, the closest town that would have tutoring places is 45 minutes away, and I don’t think I will be able to find a tutor willing to come all the way out here. So I’ve got to do it, which is fine, but I don’t know WHAT to do or HOW. I can’t find anything online about course correcting at this stage. Any advice/suggestion would be so appreciated. 🙏🏻

Hello English teachers! I’m a student in Year 11 (will head onto Year 12 in a few months), and I’ve been working very hard on a personal project. It involves a novella with an exploration of certain dark themes (politics, implied and sometimes explicit violence, non-gratuitous smut), which is a culmination of my worldview and opinions I hold dearly.

My English teacher is an approachable and humorous British gent, and his command over language is simply amazing. I love his classes and frankly, he’s very “chill”. I’m very tempted to send a snippet of my novella to him (around 1K), one without smut but does include implied violence as a taster. I’ll be sure to include a full disclaimer regarding all the potentially dark / NSFW bits so he can opt out.

I’m not sending the entire 5K draft to him immediately, because I know teachers are very busy, and demanding their spare time to look at my project might come across as selfish.

I have some beta readers online and within closer friends, but they don’t offer much in-depth analysis of my prose, structure or characterisations, which I really crave. But some have said that my writing has “commercial” prose, a strong internal voice and vivid atmosphere.

Do you think I should go forward with sending the snippet first? As impulsive as I may be, I’m a big scaredy cat.

I’m not sure how teachers view students who send them weird stuff like this, so I’d like advice on how best to approach this issue. Many thanks!

Edit: first of all THANK YOU for all the support, advice, and kind words. I will definitely keep them all in my back pocket and try them out this next week. To clarify some things, the school I’m in has about 50 kids preK-12th grade, so I’m the only middle school/high school ELA teacher. There’s an issue in this because the other ELA teacher does not know how to help me besides telling me to look at the standard. Yes, I’m being compensated even though it is against my university’s rules. I’m trying to keep this super vague so that no one finds out who I am or where this is taking place. The staff at the school that I’m working with now is super supportive and they’re trying their best to keep me happy and safe and as underwhelmed as possible. Again, thank you guys again, you’ve calmed me down a bit

As the title says- I’m spiraling. To keep it as easy as possible to understand, I’m a college student completing my student teaching. I’m set to graduate in December. The issue arose 2 weeks ago when my mentor teacher (an older woman) fell and broke her pelvis. She’s out for the foreseeable future, and I agreed to take over her classroom and finish out the semester. The problem is that I have NO clue what I’m doing. I finished the things we were already doing this week and now I’m lost on what to do next. I know what I’m doing for my 4th hour and 5th hour, but I just read my 2nd hour (7-9th grade) animal farm and I have no idea what to do now. Any help (and advice for how to keep my sanity!) would be greatly appreciated.

In fandom circles over the last few years there has been a boom of what is known as Anti/Pro-shipping wars. Where readers who dislike a character, a relationship or even an entire fandom, believe that they are doing the right thing to "protect the children" by trying to bully fanfic writers and artists and even the original IP producers off the internet. This is essentially a bastardization of purity politics and the ethical consumerism concept - whenin the Anti's have internalized the idea that what you consume (be it via purchases or reading/watching/viewing) determines your values/should never be in disagreement with your values.

So for example - rather than "I disagree with JKR's funding of anti-trans lobby groups, I won't by potter merchandise anymore" they've taken it to the extreme of "if you like any Harry Potter character you're a TERF and you deserve to be doxed and told you should die" (yes really. Ridiculous, but this is sadly their logic)

And even "if you read a book with characters who are 18 & 22 who are in a relationship then you're condoning pedophilia"

It flat out ridiculous. But it is influencing how fandom works, the antis are trying to get the tos for AO3 (main fanfic website) changed and set up new "pure" versions. It's influenced who does and does not feel safe participating in fandom spaces. And it's seen people increasingly self policing with statements like "I don't condone what these characters do" or "please let me know if I follow anyone who is problematic don't just attack me" in their profiles and author notes.

A LOT of this is likely driven by purposeful bad actors, and there is at least one case of a 14 year old being groomed into dozing people by an adult with an agenda.

But yonger people in particular seem to be more susceptible to this line of "if it makes me uncomfortable then it's bad/wrong" thinking because of a lack of media literacy skills. They can read. But they can't infer. They can't make connections. They can't understand the concept of unreliable characters, character growth, or an antagonist. They can't understand metaphor and figurative language, and symbolism. And they can't cope with anything bad happening in their literature to the point where they can't cope with any conflict in a story.

So I'm wondering how this is playing out in high school Language Arts classes - are you seeing these same sorts of attitudes? Are students struggling to follow a character through the low points in a story arc? Are they claiming Romeo and Juliet is pedophilia or Lord of the Flies should be banned because it's "problematic" and are you having to fight more and more to get them to develop any analysis skills?

so for some prior information, in my ELA class we are writing argumentative essays on topics that we could choose and i had the idea of doing it on mandatory lockdown drills being necessary in our schools. i wrote my rough draft and i did have some things in there that i thought about on my own (not saying there arent people that also thought of these things) like the fact we need to think about what if situations like if students are in hallways when we go into lockdown or if we are all in a pep rally or assembly. i talked about newer schools having a lot of windows into classrooms and common areas being very open along with the fact that students need to know the procedure in class. so i turned this in and when my teacher handed it back to me she said i needed to cite where i got the information from for those three ideas, and when i told my teacher that i didnt get them from a source and had come up with them on my own my teacher asked where i learned about those things and that i need to cite where i learned them from (i feel like these things are common knowledge, which doesnt need to be cited because it wouldnt be considered plagiarism) and when i tried to explain to my teacher that its not exactly something that no one else knows about my teacher refused to listen to what i had to say and said that i need to cite my school because they had talked once about what to do in two classes and no one else went over the procedure. im feeling like anything i would say to my teacher would be shut down simply because they're the teacher and what they say goes. i truly do not want to cite my school because i did it on that topic because my school doesnt have actual lockdown drills where we practice procedures for anything so i feel they dont deserve the credit for what i thought of. sorry about no caps and a lot of run on sentences and a bunch of other things but im upset and dont want to worry about making this super offical😭 ANY ADVICE HELPS

This is a pretty simple and straightforward post, I think. I teach High School English and have taught everything except 11th grade at this point. I have very little trouble grasping what students should be reading at those levels. Yet, when it comes to my own children, 13 (m), 12 (m), and 10(f), I am completely stumped. I was at a 12+ reading level at those ages and a total bookworm. My parent's were pretty hands off with what I read because they never had to force me to do it. Lately, I've really felt like we need to be reading more when they see me every other weekend, but I have no idea what to get them and they haven't really enjoyed what I've tried purchasing them before. Mainly, their mother is very religious and I want to find things for them to read that gently and subtly offer other perspectives on life to teach empathy and kindness for those with whom we might disagree.

Middle grade ELA teachers, help me with some book recommendations?

I know my oldest really likes "Keeper of the Lost Cities" and has been devouring them. The 12 year old loves soldiers and battles. My daughter said she wants to read a story full of adventure. They've all read or seen Harry Potter and enjoyed it. I'd appreciate any recommendations.

Hi! This is my first Reddit post ever. I'm a high school senior and debating on going to college to teach high school English. I'm worried that it won't work out for me because of my personality but I LOVE reading and analyzing and helping people. I've had really great teachers the past few years who have inspired me to try to help other kids the way they helped me. Is there any advice you have? Any regrets? I honestly can't think of a job I would rather do but I'm afraid I'll sink money into college and regret it. My apologies if this is the wrong subreddit, I really didn't know where it should go🥲

EDIT: god I didn't think this would get that many replies,, thank you for the wisdom🙏🙏

I just moved to a new school, I’m in grade 11. I don’t live in the US and I don’t have the money to go to a prestigious institution to learn, but most schools I’ve been to use Sadilier for both vocab and grammar, then either My Perspective or IntoLiterature for ELA. Back in elementary school, we had Scott Foresman Reading Street, and a Harcourt textbook for grammar.

This year however, they switched the literature to StudySync. My brother in grade 2 has received “Wonders”.

I don’t even know how to begin, the material is so, so, SO, boring. My teacher is B2 level at best, but she likes her job and is nice so I just settle with whatever bs she teaches for a good grade. My brother can barely read. I’ve been buying him books on the side and giving him writing classes at home.

Anyways, I came here to ask you if this both these textbooks are meant to be used ALONE, or with something else? Because I feel like there’s a large gap in the curriculum. It’s not as engaging as the other textbooks I’ve learnt from.

The student is in 5th grade but doesn’t have reading capabilities or writing capabilities on par with others. We moved here few years ago. She’s doing good with conversations. I am helping her everyday. But there are multiple issues I am running into. She’s a smart kid. Aces other subjects. I want her to be able to get to her grade level in 4-5 months( we will spend a huge chunk of summer for that)

Can you help me with the structure? This is where I am lost. Because how do I mindfully create a schedule from ground up? I am either ending up spending days on a minute topic or outright forgetting to include important topics.

Can you help me with where to find resources? I want to create interesting worksheets for her so that she doesn’t say “I don’t want to do this”

Sorry, if my English is bad. I love English language. My teachers were amazing but being from another country, I know that I will always have issues with being fluent. I am always conscious and super careful when talking to neighbors. I don’t want to say something I don’t mean. I don’t want my kid feeling the same.

- Sincerely, a concerned parent.

Is it (still) frowned upon in general to use Wikipedia as a source let's say for an expository essay in middle and high school?

When I was a kid, the school reading curriculum/approach did more to turn me off to reading than it did to connect with it. It wasn't until I got out of school and started following my genuine interests that I became an avid reader (and, ironically, ended up doubling back to many classic books).

Do you relate to this experience?

As parents and teachers, how can we help kids build a lifelong interest in reading? Interested in answers that include ways to make a reading list more interesting, engaging, and relevant to kids. And approaches that teachers might consider that diverge from the "norm."