Response: Jolin's In the Name of God

As I'm sure everyone else is saying, this was a difficult text to read. I still don't know if this is something I would ever consider teaching in my own classroom, however I can see the value in it, and would definitely want to contrast it with a second comparable text that offered the other sides not seen in this text, maybe an American Muslim, or a Muslim who feels oppositely of Nadia in Syria during all of this conflict, which has been going on since 9/11 and even well before that with civil war and the fight for the holy land and the Palestinians. These are wars that have been going on for centuries in different ways, and so it's really always been relevant. My point however is that it's more relevant now more than ever.
I can't really see this being taught in an English class. I see this more likely to be taught in a current world events class, which is offered to seniors at most schools and is a requirement to take in order to graduate. When I took my current world events class, we delved deep into political, economical, and social events that were happening all over the world, but because there has been so much strife in the middle east over the past 15 years, that was really where we focused most of the curriculum and discussion. The war on terrorism has been a hot topic all over the world since 9/11 and since the rise of technology, media, internet, and general access the worlds public has to what is happening around the world.
I think teaching this book in a social studies class would be more effective because there you have students who are able to actively connect this book to what is happening every day in parts of the world, and what is a reality for countless people. As Americans, it is more important than ever to been as knowledgeable as possible, even if just considering our geographical location. Very few of us (Americans) are within driving distance of another country. Most of the world is surrounded by countries that have different languages, economies, governments, laws, leaders, etc.  This is just one example of what it means to be American and why it is so important to expand our horizons and show students a glimpse of what other peoples realities look like.

Response: Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet

The first time I actually read Romeo and Juliet was in the 9th grade. I remember mostly speeding through it, we all had the versions of the play where the translation is on one page and the original is directly across. So we flew through it because my teacher wanted to get to A Midsummer Night's Dream because she had more extensive plans for that play. We read it out loud in groups, choosing our own roles and acting it out, as comedies should. It was funny and fun, and afterwords we watched the movie and were encouraged to translate our own versions, which we also shared and which also turned out to be extensively hilarious.
Back on point, I never liked Romeo and Juliet. I remember thinking it was a sappy story as well as unrealistic. I feel Shakespeare intended it to be ironic and satirical, but instead it was taken quite seriously and tragically. I never want to teach this story, except maybe only to clear up the common confusions, discuss the media and cultural references and modern influences behind it, as well as discuss tropes and how and where students see this play in modern plays, movies, TV, etc.
I feel there are much more unappreciated Shakespeare plays that can be more effective and less overdone in the classroom. Most every single student will know the premise of Romeo and Juliet before you teach it, and it might be more exciting to show students that Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet are not the only plays Shakespeare wrote. In fact, many of his plays I had not even heard of until college. I never knew about King Lear, Othello, and All's Well That Ends Well. These are valuable pieces of literature that I feel do not get as much light as they deserve, and, seeing as how Romeo and Juliet is already a commonly known, referenced, and cliched piece by the time students get to your secondary classroom, there is much merit in opening the door to other branches of Shakespeare that are equally valuable.

Response: Maus by Art Spiegelman

This was the most recent holocaust text I have read since reading "Night" by Elie Wiesel my freshmen year of high school. As they usually do, holocaust texts have a hard and heavy impact when I read them, and it takes a certain degree of seriousness and strong doses of reality. However, these graphic novels allow for both a distance and a different kind of closeness to the survivors stories being told. 

In the 9th grade, I took a pre-AP English class (It was the only advanced English class offered to freshmen) and absolutely loved it. One of the things we did in the class, after reading "Night" the entire class went to the online database which lists the details of every living holocaust survivor, including the story of their experiences in the death camps in WWII. We were asked to pick a survivor who is still living, and, based on their story, create a children's book, changing the survivor and their friends and family into animals, choosing carefully what kind of animals represented the survivor we chose, their family, and the German's. We illustrated and wrote and permanently bound our books which were then sent to the holocaust museum, as well as we sent a copy of the book and a letter the the survivor that we chose. I imagine that my teacher might have gotten part of this idea from Maus. I wish I had read these graphic novels before. I think they are greatly powerful and shed a different sort of light on the stories of survivors.