EdWeek just ran a long complaint about assigning boring books in English class, carrying some extra heft because it came from a school district superintendent.
One of my colleagues, at our modest community college, organized a day-long read-aloud-a-thon of Paradise Lost. I thought this was possibly completely bonkers: just the sentences alone, with their massive clauses interjected between subject and verb, present a slog for students to get through. And the subject matter is pretty dense too. The devil is fun, but there are long sections where Adam and Eve are discussing their harmonious world, or Milton has an angel explaining that actually angels *do* eat food, they just have a different (and more spiritual) metabolism, etc. etc.
The event was open to anyone; there was food, a slide show of different illustrations of the poem, and background music; some students read, others just listened; there was a table for creative projects (art, found poetry etc.). No particular organization. People just read about 100 lines each, and then let someone else take over. It took about 10.5 hours to get through it, and about 50 people participated at various points, including quite a few students.
And it was *amazing.* Yes, at first, it felt like a Lot. I was afraid students would find it really boring. Milton's not exactly a laugh a minute. But enough readers got into the spirit to dramatize it (it is quite dramatic). More important, though, we didn't stop to discuss it, or take notes, or analyze, or answer questions, or form opinions. We didn't even stop to clarify things that were probably quite murky. We just kept going. And the result was that we ended up moving gradually into this other world, bringing it to life in our own minds. We ended up paying serious, sustained, but unhurried attention to something new and different.
It made me think, all over again, that we really screw up by constantly evaluating people on literature, forcing them to have immediate opinions. Also, that we make a huge mistake thinking that Kids Today can only relate to stuff about being a kid today. What absolute bollocks.
I just point to the Classic Literature Tumblr community. Lots of kids reading and engaging with the classics, and from what is said they're high school and college level.
Retired English teacher here. I remember that some of my students hated ‘Scarlet Letter,’ but others rolled with and realized what it says about the American psyche—oh, and how alluring females can be unfairly punished. Years later one girl told me it was the best book she ever read. And once a chemistry teacher asked me, “What are you doing with ‘Jane Eyre’? I have some boys in the class after yours and they can’t stop talking about it.” I just said I thought the Victorians got a bad rap sometimes. Sure, the vocabulary is latinate and challenging, but what an accomplishment when they finish, and the characters are so complex. I am so sick of people who think the screen is an irresistible inevitability.
So, I agree with you, more or less, but when you say "particularly with students who read little on their own," you need to know: only probably about 5%-10% of kids are reading regularly on their own by the time they get to middle school. It's a HUGE change from even 5 years ago. (A Pew study in 2020 found only 17% of 13-year-olds were reading to themselves regularly, and things have taken a turn for the worse since then).
When I started teaching 18 years ago, all I had to do in order to get independent reading rolling was give them time and books. Then, I started needing to add more scaffolds- check-ins, journals, page goals, finding ways to identify the fake readers, etc.
Now, I'm not even sure it can continue with independent reading. The kids who aren't independent readers don't even pretend to read anymore; I have to spend the time making sure they're sitting and just not disturbing others (making my scaffolds for the border kids almost impossible). Even with the ones who can sit still, I can mostly only get them reading normal text in highly-structured environments, with engaging books, chapter assignments, and group accountability.
That hasn't stopped me from grabbing classics, but I try to stick to ones I'm PASSIONATE about, so I can make sure I'm ready to guide them through with appropriate enthusiasm.
Thank you, Peter, for taking on that man and his narrow thinking.
I think the best teaching I ever did was with my so-called 'average' 11th graders at Paul D. Schreiber HS in Port Washington, NY in 1966. Assigned to teach "Macbeth," I proposed to the students that, because the story involved at least one murder, we should put the alleged murderer or murderers on trial, with a full courtroom. We listened to the recording (Bless Caedmon!) and spent a lot of time reading aloud and arguing about the play, before casting the witnesses and the defendants (they opted to charge Lady MacBeth as well). We persuaded the school principal to be the judge, and any student who wasn't cast as a witness became a juror.
It was electric, and I think everyone got deeply involved.
That was in my second and last year of HS teaching, but if I were doing it today, I would have a small group of students become a 'news team,' responsible for producing a short video report on each day's activities.
Another time, late in senior year, I distributed mimeographed (remember that technology!) pages with the first paragraphs of three unnamed novels, read each aloud, and invited the students to speculate on what might happen next. That was wild, and as I recall, every student became eager to read at least one of the novels. Which was my goal....
(If memory serves, one was "All Quiet on the Western Front," and another was a Shirley Jackson novel.)
We are curious by nature. Too much 'schooling' tamps down those fires. Dumbing down is a sure-fire recipe for killing curiosity.
I ended up as a reporter, covering education, so I got to enjoy great teaching without having to do all the hard work!!
AMEN. I only taught Resource English, but I taught that old warhorse, *The Red Pony,* to a small group of middle school students with reading abilities ranging from 3rd grade to 7th/8th (but who were English Language Learners). They were engaged and excited about it.
And a six-year teacher jumped up into admin? Sounds like someone kicked upstairs because they couldn't teach. That happened a lot in the Oughts.
AMEN.
One of my colleagues, at our modest community college, organized a day-long read-aloud-a-thon of Paradise Lost. I thought this was possibly completely bonkers: just the sentences alone, with their massive clauses interjected between subject and verb, present a slog for students to get through. And the subject matter is pretty dense too. The devil is fun, but there are long sections where Adam and Eve are discussing their harmonious world, or Milton has an angel explaining that actually angels *do* eat food, they just have a different (and more spiritual) metabolism, etc. etc.
The event was open to anyone; there was food, a slide show of different illustrations of the poem, and background music; some students read, others just listened; there was a table for creative projects (art, found poetry etc.). No particular organization. People just read about 100 lines each, and then let someone else take over. It took about 10.5 hours to get through it, and about 50 people participated at various points, including quite a few students.
And it was *amazing.* Yes, at first, it felt like a Lot. I was afraid students would find it really boring. Milton's not exactly a laugh a minute. But enough readers got into the spirit to dramatize it (it is quite dramatic). More important, though, we didn't stop to discuss it, or take notes, or analyze, or answer questions, or form opinions. We didn't even stop to clarify things that were probably quite murky. We just kept going. And the result was that we ended up moving gradually into this other world, bringing it to life in our own minds. We ended up paying serious, sustained, but unhurried attention to something new and different.
It made me think, all over again, that we really screw up by constantly evaluating people on literature, forcing them to have immediate opinions. Also, that we make a huge mistake thinking that Kids Today can only relate to stuff about being a kid today. What absolute bollocks.
I just point to the Classic Literature Tumblr community. Lots of kids reading and engaging with the classics, and from what is said they're high school and college level.
Retired English teacher here. I remember that some of my students hated ‘Scarlet Letter,’ but others rolled with and realized what it says about the American psyche—oh, and how alluring females can be unfairly punished. Years later one girl told me it was the best book she ever read. And once a chemistry teacher asked me, “What are you doing with ‘Jane Eyre’? I have some boys in the class after yours and they can’t stop talking about it.” I just said I thought the Victorians got a bad rap sometimes. Sure, the vocabulary is latinate and challenging, but what an accomplishment when they finish, and the characters are so complex. I am so sick of people who think the screen is an irresistible inevitability.
So, I agree with you, more or less, but when you say "particularly with students who read little on their own," you need to know: only probably about 5%-10% of kids are reading regularly on their own by the time they get to middle school. It's a HUGE change from even 5 years ago. (A Pew study in 2020 found only 17% of 13-year-olds were reading to themselves regularly, and things have taken a turn for the worse since then).
When I started teaching 18 years ago, all I had to do in order to get independent reading rolling was give them time and books. Then, I started needing to add more scaffolds- check-ins, journals, page goals, finding ways to identify the fake readers, etc.
Now, I'm not even sure it can continue with independent reading. The kids who aren't independent readers don't even pretend to read anymore; I have to spend the time making sure they're sitting and just not disturbing others (making my scaffolds for the border kids almost impossible). Even with the ones who can sit still, I can mostly only get them reading normal text in highly-structured environments, with engaging books, chapter assignments, and group accountability.
That hasn't stopped me from grabbing classics, but I try to stick to ones I'm PASSIONATE about, so I can make sure I'm ready to guide them through with appropriate enthusiasm.
Thank you, Peter, for taking on that man and his narrow thinking.
I think the best teaching I ever did was with my so-called 'average' 11th graders at Paul D. Schreiber HS in Port Washington, NY in 1966. Assigned to teach "Macbeth," I proposed to the students that, because the story involved at least one murder, we should put the alleged murderer or murderers on trial, with a full courtroom. We listened to the recording (Bless Caedmon!) and spent a lot of time reading aloud and arguing about the play, before casting the witnesses and the defendants (they opted to charge Lady MacBeth as well). We persuaded the school principal to be the judge, and any student who wasn't cast as a witness became a juror.
It was electric, and I think everyone got deeply involved.
That was in my second and last year of HS teaching, but if I were doing it today, I would have a small group of students become a 'news team,' responsible for producing a short video report on each day's activities.
Another time, late in senior year, I distributed mimeographed (remember that technology!) pages with the first paragraphs of three unnamed novels, read each aloud, and invited the students to speculate on what might happen next. That was wild, and as I recall, every student became eager to read at least one of the novels. Which was my goal....
(If memory serves, one was "All Quiet on the Western Front," and another was a Shirley Jackson novel.)
We are curious by nature. Too much 'schooling' tamps down those fires. Dumbing down is a sure-fire recipe for killing curiosity.
I ended up as a reporter, covering education, so I got to enjoy great teaching without having to do all the hard work!!
AMEN. I only taught Resource English, but I taught that old warhorse, *The Red Pony,* to a small group of middle school students with reading abilities ranging from 3rd grade to 7th/8th (but who were English Language Learners). They were engaged and excited about it.
And a six-year teacher jumped up into admin? Sounds like someone kicked upstairs because they couldn't teach. That happened a lot in the Oughts.