Audio book versus reading for set texts

well, my version of that was completely wrong..just googled it. Called "To Build A Fire" and he gets wet, which is why he needs to build a fire. I suppose I should actually read it, after all these years of remembering my Dad's version

I am both full of admiration and gobsmacked [not very literary English expression } Do some children fall completely by the wayside then? If there are no sets, how do the children with learning difficulties or SEN ever ever keep up? I speak as mother of child who is reading one set text (Christmas Carol) aged 14 all term and they go through it in class too. I was a voracious reader at that age, and I don't think I would ever ever have managed Moby Dick, although I loved anything by Jack London.

My Dad used to tell me about a Jack London short story where a man battling to survive alone, takes off his gloves to light the last remaining match in the freezing wilderness (as he is too clumsy to light it with them on) Alas, the match blows out or doesn't catch the tinder and he is left, sobbing, doomed!!! Beats the Walking Dead any day...

Good luck to your Dd and hope she enjoys the books.

Bertrand apparently your goddaughter's godmother failed her godparently duty by not getting her a MobyDick audiobook.

Yes, I've seem my god daughter slogging through it. Completely joyless and mechanical.

She knows a lot. But I suspect she will never read anything but Mills and Boon ever again......

Yes Bobochic but even so I can imagine an outcry of 'too hard and not modern enough' if Moby Dick and similar period fiction were one of two books (even if per term rather than half term) at age 12 for the middle sets of a comprehensive in the UK. Of course perhaps your DD's school are all 'top set' and much easier fiction would be given to less able DCs

If they have a kindle or tablet getting the matching audiobook to read along makes a good compromise.

They certainly don't seem to select 'easier' books as the UK syllabus does.

That's French education for you!

Bobochic I am really curious about this syllabus. As HOD English my Dept find it difficult to study one novel in a half term and are always running over. What sort of written responses do they do? Do they study literary context/ structure or just character theme? We study a modern novel, a classic novel and a non fiction text each year plus poetry, media study, Shakespeare, writing and spoken language. How do they fit it all in? I would love to be able to read more as a class.

The Walker version I mentioned is very very good. Really exciting and inspiring and all the original words, just less of them - I don't see how you could go wrong using it. I was blown away by it, and kept pointing out to ds2 (who really is not very literary) all the ways Melville expressed his feelings about the voyage and the whale and Ahab. Please get it - and your dd will be inspired, I promise (and teacher will never know she didn't read whole thing)

Dd (a2) says it's never been discussed. She listens and reads too

Two set texts per half term? So is this purely a reading assignment for homework? In which case, without context, Moby Dick sounds bonkers?

I think most adults would struggle to read the whole of Moby Dick in the original, and it would certainly put them off for life...What was the teacher thinking of?

When I was very young I read all the abridged Dickens in an illustrated [Vict] children's version with the original language and I was hooked, whereas I suspect making me read the whole thing would have been counterproductive, moreover I wouldn't have time to cover more than just ONE Dickens. As it was I read Nicolas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, broke my heart over them and never equated them with boring classic texts.

sorry x post my own post, thought it was lost

Walker illustrated Classics edition of Moby Dick illustrated by Patrick Benson has all the original language (just a bit abridged in parts, mostly boiling up whale blubber bits missed out) stunning introduction to Melville language and themes.

There is an excellent abridged version of Moby Dick with wonderful line and colour illustrations. I read it with Ds2 when home educating him. It has all the original wording but some of the passages are taken out (and short bridging passages put in in italics - mostly the bits about boiling up the whale) I read it when he was 13. Language amazing, and we are able toc oncentrate on the good bits! We also watched the b & w film to further discuss the themes. Will never listen to Captain My Captain poem again without thinking of Moby Dick reference.

I would say listening is an excellent idea, if she follows it at the same time.

Reading it at the same time will give her an understanding of the "shape of the book" and the structure of paragraphing etc much better.

I always read large chunks of a text being studied, with pupils listening to an audio recording as they read along. It works very well. Even strong readers will gain from listening to a professional reading. A great example is Timothy West's reading of Animal Farm, listening to that can only enhance understanding of characters and themes. Obviously, they are also expected to read the text themselves, if it is an exam text, more than once! But often at KS3 we will listen/read a lot of the text and then analyse/ respond to certain parts in detail.

I'm with PPs. I think that well read audiobooks are fantastic at bringing a book or poetry alive, we listened to quite a few as a family during lomgish car journeys. I always admire hearing the actor doing all the different voices. However IMO a DC who has no reading difficulties and is reasonably assiduous should also read the book. When my DCs persevered with a 'harder' book they then were much more comfortable reading that sort of level and found other books easier and more digestible. If Moby Dick is over ambitious at her level then just doing the audio supplemented by extracts in class sounds reasonable.