16 November 2004  American Gods in a High School Classroom   I
was not quite prepared for how low many of my students' skills
would be, since I haven't taught eleventh graders in a few years
and had forgotten what a large transition it is between
sophomore and junior year of high school. In the first two
weeks, when we were studying The Great Gatsby, I often lamented
to colleagues, "They can't read. I'm not a reading teacher. I
can't help them. I'm useless. They can't read. This is going to
be a horrible year," forgetting that I'd said exactly the same
thing at the beginning of every every year about whatever group
of students I had, because what was most vivid in my mind were
the accomplishments of my students from the previous spring, and
most students make quite a long journey from September to May.
(I did end up having to push My Antonia to the next term, as
American Gods ended up taking much more time than I had
anticipated.)  One of the reasons I chose American Gods was
because it is big, and I knew tha