Korean Job Discussion Forums

Intrepid · Joined: 13 May 2004 Location: Yongin

I'm looking for good, short novels, preferably with movie available, for hs/uni.

Here are the novels I've taught already:
(with video)
Of Mice and Men
The Great Gatsby
The Music of Chance
A Handful of Dust
Robinson Crusoe (idiotic video from 1950s)

(without video)
Ceremony
Foe
[and the old stand-bys]
Animal Farm, 1984, The Pearl, A Separate Peace, Catcher, The Giver

Suggestions for future classes? If anyone has videos and/or study guides (I've developed my own) I'd be willing to copy/trade stuff.

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005

Actually, Animal Farm has a video (animation made back in the 50s--75mins.). It works well in a university reading class.

T

jajdude · Joined: 18 Jan 2003

I taught the "Great Gatsby" recently to advanced (obviously) middle and elementary students. It went OK, though they were young. I just gave summaries, with the help of the internet, and vocabulary quizzes. The vocabulary was hard for most of them.

(Who knows words like "perfunctorily" before age 20, if ever?)

I heard the movie was not so good. (Robert Redford? When was it made?)

Presently we are doing "Around the World in 80 Days," easier to follow, but still with some hard vocabulary. Apparently the Jackie Chan movie, which most of the students have seen, is not really that similar to the novel. I haven't seen a movie on the story, but there have been a few.

Perhaps "Treasure Island" or "Red Badge of Courage" are good short novels?

The vocabulary in "Old Man and the Sea" is said to be readable for elementary grade 5 students. A movie for that novel has been on TV here in Korea recently. It wasn't bad.

Intrepid · Joined: 13 May 2004 Location: Yongin

Thanks for the replies. Not the most common topic I guess. But there must be some English Lit people out there with recommendations.
Jajdude--I have a TV version of Gatsby, actually, with this British guy who does a killer American accent. After watching it five times over the semester I finally had to look it up on IMDB and check--I was starting to think he wasn't American, but it took some time to realize.
Red Badge of Courage is a good one, as is TOMATS, but I"m still trying to add to my "collection" of non-standard novels. The Music of Chance was a huge find, last year, along with the 1994 movie.
I'd love to hear from others on this one.

bluelake · Joined: 01 Dec 2005

When you mentioned The Red Badge of Courage, it reminded me of another novel-made-into-movie starring Richard Thomas: All Quiet on the Western Front.

cubanlord · Joined: 08 Jul 2005 Location: In Japan!

Lord of the flies. Great book and lots of hidden material within it.

ejmlab · Joined: 17 Feb 2005 Location: Pohang

To Kill a Mockingbird might provide an interesting read for your students. And of course there's the great movie to go along with it.

One of my personal favorites is For Whom the Bell Tolls (also a great movie) but perhaps a bit long for your classes (I don't know). The language is awesome, especially the dialogue. It would be a great one to teach I think.

I remember studying The Pigman (Paul Zindel) when I was in middleschool as well as Outsiders which a colleague of mine used for a University reading class. Outsiders has a great movie too.

Cheers