(1) Personally, I do think Speaker is better, and moreover would fit your theme more. EG really isn't about alien culture so much as how humanity reacts to the idea of alien culture; the aliens barely appear in the book. Speaker, conversely, is alllll alien anthropology (one of my major scifi kinks--see my Le Guin comment).
(2) I totally don't think it's necessary to have read EG to read Speaker. It makes the experience richer, sure, but they're entirely different books. EG is really just a loose prequel to the trilogy that follows, in my mind. Also, I suspect that EG (a) is so widely read by kids on their own (in my fourth-grade class, it was just assumed that you were familiar with it; it was like a cultural touchstone) and (b) has made inroads in enough middle/high-school curricula that a large proportion of your students will at least be familiar with the basic idea.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 07:40 am (UTC)(2) I totally don't think it's necessary to have read EG to read Speaker. It makes the experience richer, sure, but they're entirely different books. EG is really just a loose prequel to the trilogy that follows, in my mind. Also, I suspect that EG (a) is so widely read by kids on their own (in my fourth-grade class, it was just assumed that you were familiar with it; it was like a cultural touchstone) and (b) has made inroads in enough middle/high-school curricula that a large proportion of your students will at least be familiar with the basic idea.