Ch.3 Choosing Which Books to Teach-Pytash

I honestly agree that choosing which books to teach is highly impacting on how well a classroom will respond to the different lessons.  A book must intrigue the reader, yet still provide a challenge.  As teachers  it is our job to help students understand classic literature.  A point brought up by Jago that I really liked was how important it is for even teachers to reread texts.  She says, "I spent most of my spring break reading, rereading, and thinking about the Compson family. It is not simply a matter of generating new handouts or creating a day-by-day plan...but, rather, a deep knowledge of the book itself that I needed to acquire"(50).  Sometimes when I read a book I do not understand all of the ideas and concepts the first time.  When I go back and reread the text the ideas become simpler for me to understand, and I benefit from this a lot.  Even though we are teachers, we are not superior to the complex writings of the classics. 
I also really liked that she wanted her students to record all of the books that they read.  It reminded me of the Multigenre Autobiography project that we put together for Kist's class.  It was a really fun project and I loved seeing all of the different books, movies, and shows that influenced my life.  It really is a "cultural artifact"(45).  This also relates to number seven of Italio Calvino's definitions of a classic: "The classics are those books that come to us bearing the aura of previous interpretations, and leaving behind them the traces of the culture or cultures(or just the the languages and customs) through which they have passed"(41).  Culture is such a fascinating topic to read about in literature, and I believe that I will teach a lot of books that deal with different cultures.