What play and novel are you doing for your Junior Cert?

Terri26

Hi everyone,

I am an English teacher and trying to choose plays and novels for my current 2nd year Higher level English class. I don't really want to do the usual "Romeo & Juliet"/"Merchant of Venice"/ "The Field" or "To Kill a Mocking Bird".

We have just finished doing R&J and although my students liked it I think they would prefer to do something different.

Are any of you doing anything that is different? Did you enjoy it etc? It is a mixed class so nothing really girly like "Twilight" will be tolerated! Would really appreciate some recommendations from your studied texts!

Thanks in advance

Gaeilge-go-deo

to be honest i think you should just do the normal ones.. im in second year and im doin the merchant of venice and TKAM.. There's so much resources online and stuff. I may not have been that helpful but still:D

ChristinaIndigo

In second year I did John Steinbeck's "Of Mice & Men". It was really well received and proved to be a very good practice novel for third year's Goodnight Mister Tom.

We used it to practice the type of questions we'd be coming up against when we actually studied our preferred JC listed novel.
Another class actually used it for their Junior Cert but I found Goodnight Mister Tom slightly more appealing.

I am really happy we used it for 2nd year though, it has a really good interesting story to it. I'm sure you've read it already.

A little on the short side but excellent for second years.

-Els-

As our play we did "Our Day Out" by Willy Russel, and just completely avoided shakespeare altogether. I think we all enjoyed it, it was simple enough, everybody could pretty much answer everything on it. As our novel we did Billy Elliot. Theses were the ones we did for our Junior Cert then. I didn't really find them that challenging, and would have prefered to do"to kill a mockingbird" or soemthing but I know other people in the class loved them....

Terri26

thanks for your suggestions. I corrected English twice and it is so annoying/boring seeing students answer on the same texts. it also makes it much easier to decipher weaker answers from brillinat students. so, for students who might struggle at English they are already at a disadvantage. I now correct a differnt subject but it still applies. seeing a new take is much more refreshing!

Thanks for those tips - was thinking "Of mice and men" as, I did it with my leaving cert class a couple of years back!

ChristinaIndigo

Terri26 wrote: »

thanks for your suggestions. I corrected English twice and it is so annoying/boring seeing students answer on the same texts. it also makes it much easier to decipher weaker answers from brillinat students. so, for students who might struggle at English they are already at a disadvantage. I now correct a differnt subject but it still applies. seeing a new take is much more refreshing!

Thanks for those tips - was thinking "Of mice and men" as, I did it with my leaving cert class a couple of years back!

Glad to have been a help
It's actually great from a students point of view hearing a teacher asking for our suggestions on something like this. English is probably my favourite subject and I'm lucky enough to be naturally good at it.
I completely agree with your point on the students who tend to stuggle though, even from being in class and having to listen to 24 practically identical essays on a play can be extremely boring.

I did my JC last year and loved being able to put a different spin on how texts were interpreted. I ended up with my A in the end at HL so something paid off.
I'd love to have my paper back though, I'd love a good read through my answers again - god knows what I wrote! :P

Good luck with whatever play/novel you go for, just remember to tell the students though that no matter how boring something may seem - if you can find something in it that even remotely interests you, you'll have something to write about

Aoifey!

For my Junior Cert we didn't do any shakespeare at all, and the novel we did was "Goodnight Mister Tom" by Michelle Magorian, some liked it, some didn't, personally I think it was good. Hope it helps

magicianz

We did Lamb by Bernard McLaverty! You can do good character studys for it and its also been made into a film which helps interpretation

bonez025

Im doing the Merchant of Venice and the adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

RHRN

As was posted already Of Mice and Men. Did it as a second choice to To Kill a Mockingbird earlier this year.

eVeNtInE

This post has been deleted.

omgz

I'm studying 'Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry' by Mildred D Taylor. (Novel)
I really really enjoyed it, and I would definately reccomend it!

For the play, I did 'Winners'.
It was alright.. not sure if I'd reccomend it much, theres limited things you can say about it.

But you should consider the novel!

Frank3142

novel: "To kill a mockingbird"
Play: "The merchant of venice"

iiiiTz Meeee

We did the normal ones and it was fine.

Romeo and Juliet was a little bit tedious at times, if it were up to me I'd choose a different one.

As for the novel, I LOVED Of Mice and Men. It was amazing. The ending was the best part too. I'd stick with it.

kevinreilly93

I just did my exam today and the novel we studied was Roll of thunder, hear my cry.

This is a very good novel to study and I really enjoyed it, also it's pretty easy to remember and write about!

GirlsAloud

Romeo & Juliet
&&
Goodnight Mister Tom

Namlub

Ahhh, why couldn't you have been my English teacher?? I did To Kill a Mockingbird and Merchant of Venice. I actually didn't mind MOV for the first couple of months, my teacher managed to suck the life out of it though...

mle1324

Novel:''Buddy'' by Nigel Hinton

Very easy to understand.

Bonavox

ChristinaIndigo wrote: »

In second year I did John Steinbeck's "Of Mice & Men". It was really well received and proved to be a very good practice novel for third year's Goodnight Mister Tom.

We used it to practice the type of questions we'd be coming up against when we actually studied our preferred JC listed novel.
Another class actually used it for their Junior Cert but I found Goodnight Mister Tom slightly more appealing.

I am really happy we used it for 2nd year though, it has a really good interesting story to it. I'm sure you've read it already.

A little on the short side but excellent for second years.

I done Of Mice And Men too!
I also done R&J and I read The Outsiders by SE Hinton.

Frank3142

vflhp wrote: »

I done Of Mice And Men too!
I also done R&J and I read The Outsiders by SE Hinton.

I DID.

Grammar Nazis to the rescue:cool:

Bonavox

Frank3142 wrote: »

I DID.

Grammar Nazis to the rescue:cool:

THANKS FOR MAKING A SHOW OF ME IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE OF BOARDS D*CKHEAD!!!!

Just joking

If only I knew that before I done the English test lolz.

Point taken and considered :rolleyes:

Frank3142

vflhp wrote: »

THANKS FOR MAKING A SHOW OF ME IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE OF BOARDS D*CKHEAD!!!!

Just joking

If only I knew that before I done the English test lolz.

Point taken and considered :rolleyes:[/quote
]
before i didexam

Bonavox

Frank3142 wrote: »

vflhp wrote: »

THANKS FOR MAKING A SHOW OF ME IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE OF BOARDS D*CKHEAD!!!!

Just joking

If only I knew that before I done the English test lolz.

Point taken and considered :rolleyes:[/quote
]
before i didexam

If I did that one more time, I'm going to did something I'm going to regret. Have to go, my dinners did

AddictedToYou

Did the JC last year. Merchant of Venice and To Kill A Mockingbird. In the end I actually liked MOV and was able to write a hell of a lot on it. Maybe choosing a different novel would be a good idea. Like we did Roll of Thunder in first year so TKAM was a bit of a racism overload. But the huge advantage of doing these popular texts, as someone already mentioned, is that there's so many more resources available for students. Also, they are popular for a reason, because there's so much you can write. If you pick a new novel it would have to be something that has well developed characters, strong themes etc. Good to see people thinking outside the box though!

Wikipedia

Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry.


/'Nuff said

LoonyLovegood

I did Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Romeo and Juliet. It was great because they're both very different, so you get a good background in each. Roll Of Thunder is actually the first book I studied in school that I went out and bought the series.

For second year I did The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, and my class loved it. There was a lot of crying at the end though.

iheartboosh

The novel I studied was To Kill a Mockingbird which I found extremely interesting and it had a lot to write about
Romeo and Juliet was my play which is one of the most popular plays to do along with merchant of venice etc..
I was delighted when a question about the relationship between two characters came up because that perfectly suited the play! xD
The most common choices are the best because the exams are usually based around those..

McPooHead

I did 'Of Mice and Men' and 'Romeo and Juliet'

i actually quite liked both of them ..

claudtreacy

I did To Kill A Mockingbird
and my school did Merchant Of Venice but i thought it was possibly THE most boring play ever, so i got stuff for Romeo and Juliet and did it myself. Hoping to have gotten 30/30 for the R+J Q too. Id defo recommend doing R+J because its soo easy to write on, and there's loads of sample answers online at EXAMIT that you can just learn off, like i did.

icedtea

Terri26 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I am an English teacher and trying to choose plays and novels for my current 2nd year Higher level English class. I don't really want to do the usual "Romeo & Juliet"/"Merchant of Venice"/ "The Field" or "To Kill a Mocking Bird".

We have just finished doing R&J and although my students liked it I think they would prefer to do something different.

Are any of you doing anything that is different? Did you enjoy it etc? It is a mixed class so nothing really girly like "Twilight" will be tolerated! Would really appreciate some recommendations from your studied texts!

Thanks in advance

Julius Caesar-Brill
Roll of thunder hear my cry-rubbish
I suggest julius Caesar-its great

obliviousgrudge

We did The Merchant oe Venice and Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
I thought both were quite good, although the DVD of MoV really helped me understand it more.

Stranjak

I did Romeo and Juliet and Of Mice And Men.
Served me well in the exam so Im happy

adidas speed

romeo and juliet for drama

roll of thunder for novel

both bad stories but easy to write about

coldwood92

Merchant of venice +roll of thunder

Nia Black

It's probably a little late now but, hey, there's next years 2nd years. If you don't want to do plays like Romeo and Juliet (which we did and I loved it) then I might suggest As You Like It. I read it a while ago and thought it was ok. However, if you want to stay away from Shakespeare then maybe The Year of the Hiker by John B. Keane? Another thing you could do is get your class to read extracts from plays in their English book (we had Take the Plunge) and ask them which play they'd prefer. For our novel we did Twopence to cross the Mersey, Goodnight Mister Tom, Pride and Prejudice and To Kill A Mockingbird. I would suggest novels which have been adapted well into movies for a junior cert class. Take Pride and Prejudice for example; the BBC movie was well adapted with little changes and sometimes seeing the story on screen can make the class more interested. Hope that helps.

tomegalwaybeur

Novel we did: Roll of thunder, Hear my cry - Mildred Taylor
Play we did: The merchant of venice - Shakespeare

PunkFreud

Frank3142 wrote: »

novel: "To kill a mockingbird"
Play: "The merchant of venice"

Same here. They are two good reads. Don't under-rate them.

Sher, you can always show them the 2 films afterwards if they weren't paying any attention, the one with Al Pacino, and the other one with Gregory Peck.

suitcasepink

we did rom and jule and to kill a mocking bird
Thought Romeo &... was kinda hard to understand though.

In first year we did a bit about Goodnight Mr Tom and Matilda iswell though and they were okay.

red glitter

In 1st we did Tuppence to cross the Mersey. 2nd we did Roll of thunder and our play is romeo and juliet.

SeanyboyQPR

I've done "Of Mice And Men" by John Steinbeck and "Julius Caesar" by Shakespeare.
The novel was good , thought caesar was a bit gay though lol

Luno

Were doing Romeo and Juliet we didn't seem to have a choice there as for novels we done The Lord of the Flies

Trevor451

Were doing the field and the boy and striped pyjamas

Bears and Vodka

We are did Merchant of Venice, The Cay in 1st year, and now doin some short stories like Janey Mary .

Jackobyte

I am doing "Goodnight Mr. Tom" and "Romeo & Juliet".

For the novel, perhaps "Noughts & Crosses" by Malorie Blackman. I didn't do it for an exam but I read it in my free time and you could do alot on character and theme. There are 2 characters that can easily be written about for character analysis and there is an extremely strong theme of rascism. It should be enjoyed by all students, it isn't particularry feminine nor masculine, and it is very enjoyable.

Edit: In 1st year, with another teacher, we did "The Silver Sword" but I wouldn't really reccommend it.

jr2oo9

we dne the merchant of venice n goodnight mr tom n der wer gud enuf

bluejay14

Jackobyte wrote: »

For the novel, perhaps "Noughts & Crosses" by Malorie Blackman. I didn't do it for an exam but I read it in my free time and you could do alot on character and theme. There are 2 characters that can easily be written about for character analysis and there is an extremely strong theme of rascism. It should be enjoyed by all students, it isn't particularry feminine nor masculine, and it is very enjoyable.

.

I was just about to suggest that!Read it during the summer aswell.It's a great novel jam-packed with racism.It's not your typical racism though because it's the black people who are seen as a higher class than the white people.There are also 3 books that continue the story if your students want to find out what happens to the 2 main characters - Callum and Sephy.

Jackobyte

jr2oo9 wrote: »

we dne the merchant of venice n goodnight mr tom n der wer gud enuf

Didn't help your english by the looks of it!:pac:

Closed ac

Jackobyte wrote: »

Didn't help your english by the looks of it!:pac:

Hahaha. :pac:

Closed ac

We did The Field, The Merchant Of Venice, Of Mice & Men and Across The Barricades.

Hurler29

we did the merchant of venice and the boy in the striped pyjamas.

bluejay14

DKZ wrote: »

We did The Field, The Merchant Of Venice, Of Mice & Men and Across The Barricades.

That's a lot! We only did To Kill A Mockingbird(in 2nd year) and The Merchant of Venice(in 3rd year, now

Everyone got fairly high marks in their summer test last year when we had a really good teacher, sadly this years Christmas tests took a nose dive with our new teacher.I want our old teacher back, she was our form teacher aswell, luckily we get her back after the midterm and mocks, she was such a good teacher!