We’re reading Unbroken in my three sophomore classes. You know what that statement really means by now, right?
I read the book years ago and am reading it again now. This time around it’s not as interesting because I know how all the harrowing situations work out for Louie Zamperini. Still, it’s a bestseller and a good page-turner. Not everything in an English curriculum needs to be literature (pinkies out) and Unbroken offers a good opportunity for kids to get back into the habit of reading for fun. Gosh darnit, I wrote the word fun again.
Before I write what you already know I’m going to write, I must qualify that students still do read for fun. I have many that have forsaken their phones for books. I see them reading all the time in class. No student is ever really reading any classic literature, BUT they are reading something that interests them. We often talk about the books after class. I’m interested because I like seeing kids read, have a 12-yr-old that still can turn pages, and I want to know if any of the titles would be suitable for our district. My logic is simple–no matter what kids read, they are getting something out of it. If they don’t read, they get nothing. 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing. Ask singers and artists about that.
One of the things I dislike about teaching English is selling the books to kids. How tiring is it to keep saying, “I love this book” or “It’s great” or “Millions have read it and loved it and so shall you”? Read it or don’t.
But Unbroken is a little different because Louie Zamperini’s story is a Torrance story, and I teach in that district, and he went to a neighboring high school, and he was kind of a big deal. He lived to be close to 100, people really liked him, and they made a movie of his life and the book. That alone should be enough–hey, there’s this book about this Torrance guy and I live in Torrance so lemme see about how good this stuff is. Because, in all my years of teaching, there has been hardly a negative word said by students about the book.
This year, Unbroken is assigned to ALL sophomores. We’ve already been over the kids-don’t-read deal. However, one of my students loaned me the movie. The MOVIE. Those were the salad days of high school–if you read, or if you didn’t, you got the movie to compare to the book or to give you info you didn’t already know. It’s a break in the action, a day you’re glad there’s a snack in your backpack so you can watch a movie and have a little food. Everybody wins.
I will merely write that, at one point during the movie, only six students were watching. Louie Zamperini, the Torrance Tornado.