Trying to get in the habit of writing about class regularly. The rules are: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why this story?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After my opening unit in English Three, a unit that builds around the old New York Times Lives column, I do a five week unit on short stories. I\u2019ll write some more, another day, about what we\u2019re doing with the short stories, both in class and for the big assignment But I want to try and explain how I got to the eight stories I picked this year and talk about what that process feels like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One: because it\u2019s what\u2019s there. If I had a great anthology, I\u2019d probably use it. As various AI programs become more and more prevalent, I\u2019m tempted to start using various best of collections, like this<\/a> or this <\/a>because I wouldn\u2019t have to worry (as much) about whether there are countless essays and breakdowns of the work already out there. This would give me some freedom \u2014 hey y\u2019all, here are the eight we\u2019re reading, you pick a couple of others you like \u2014 and would allow a conversation about the making of anthologies \u2014 how does all of this hang together, if at all? It\u2019d be exciting to encounter stories for the second or third time alongside the kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d note that I\u2019d love to use the beast that Ann Charters edited \u2014 The Story and Its Writer<\/a> \u2014 but at $96 a pop, that\u2019s $6k for big paperbacks that would last maybe two years if the kids had to carry them around. Maybe if there was a Permabound edition (do they bind books this big), I could think about it, but that thing would probably weigh four pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two, I pick stories that I appreciate, stories with the power to move me, even when I\u2019m battling with teenagers who didn\u2019t immediately like the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three, for the most part, I pick stories that are recent enough not to have a massive amount of internet crap available about them. (There\u2019s one notable exception \u2014 Where are you going, where have you been<\/em> \u2014 and that\u2019s because the kids can\u2019t believe that fiction can creep them out the way that this one always seems to. I have to plead with them not to muck about on the internet with this one.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Four, I end up picking stories that The New Yorker has published because they provide audio versions of the author reading them or, sometimes even better, of another author reading the story, and then commenting on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Five, I pick stories where the authors are women. My next two units build on male authors \u2014 Walt Whitman, Ta-Nahesi Coates, and F. Scott Fitzgerald \u2014 so this is important. (I\u2019ll publish the complete list for the year later this week; for now, though, see point ten.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Six, I pick stories that meet one loose definition of art: there\u2019s enough in them that each time you read, something new reveals itself. ( I understand the argument that this might be true of anything, but you want something more than, hey, that\u2019s cool, what\u2019s next bald man.) I just read The Art of the Wasted Day by Patrica Hampl, and there, near the end of the book, she talks about how she deconstructed a poem<\/a> in three different ways over her life. Only a poem that deep could sustain such focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seven, I pick stories that pair with another story to help set up something we\u2019re going to talk about in class, some great inquiry that I think a pairing will allow. For those playing along at home, see how you’d pair the stories below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Eight, I pick stories where nearly all of the authors are alive so I can fantasize about writing to them and asking them to comment on the story their work was paired with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nine, as I have to become Xerox boy, collation boy, and bulkpack boy, I don\u2019t pick particularly long stories as I have sit in front of the copier printing these out and then binding them into a coursepack. I\u2019ve realized that kids reading fiction on their Chromebooks is a waste of time; I\u2019m also heading into curmudgeon world where I want to make as much of the class as possible a technology free zone until they begin writing. It\u2019s worth the four hours in front of the copier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ten, I try, I try, I try to have enough of a range of short stories that every kid has a possibility of seeing themselves within at least one piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2023 Stories. Tomorrow I\u2019ll write about the specifics of each story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barthelme, Donald, \u201cThe School.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Enriquez, Mariana. \u201c\u2018My Sad Dead.\u2019\u201d The New Yorker<\/em>, 6 Feb. 2023. www.newyorker.com<\/em>, https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2023\/02\/13\/my-sad-dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Erdrich, Louise. \u201c\u2018The Years of My Birth.\u2019\u201d The New Yorker<\/em>, 2 Jan. 2011. www.newyorker.com<\/em>, https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2011\/01\/10\/the-years-of-my-birth<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jones, Edward P. \u201cThe First Day.\u201d Lost in the City – 20th Anniversary Edition: Stories<\/em>, 20th ed. edition, Amistad, 2012, pp. 27\u201332.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jen, Gish. \u201c\u2018No More Maybe.\u2019\u201d The New Yorker<\/em>, 12 Mar. 2018. www.newyorker.com<\/em>, https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2018\/03\/19\/no-more-maybe<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LeGuin, Ursula K. . \u201cThe Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.\u201d The Wind\u2019s Twelve Quarters: Stories<\/em>, Limited edition, Harper Perennial, 2022, pp. 277\u201386.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oates, Joyce Carol. \u201cWhere Are You Going Where Have You Been?\u201d High Lonesome: New and Selected Stories 1966-2006<\/em>, Reprint edition, Ecco, 2007, pp.249-66.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O\u2019Neill, Joseph, \u201cRainbows.\u201d The New Yorker, <\/em>28 Sep. 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Saunders, George. \u201c\u2018Love Letter.\u2019\u201d The New Yorker<\/em>, 30 Mar. 2020. www.newyorker.com<\/em><\/a>, https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2020\/04\/06\/love-letter-george-saunders<\/a>. Forty-five minutes, five hundred words, minimal editing<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trying to get in the habit of writing about class regularly. The rules are: Why this story? After my opening unit in English Three, a unit that builds around the old New York Times Lives column, I do a five week unit on short stories. I\u2019ll write some more, another day, about what we\u2019re doing … Continue reading English Three, 2023-2024: Short Stories<\/span>
Wilkinson, Crystal. \u201c\u2018Endangered Species: Case 47401.\u2019\u201d Literary\u00a0 Hub<\/em>, Apr. 2021, https:\/\/lithub.com\/endangered-species-case-47401\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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