We're Teaching Books That Don't Stack Up from washingtonpost.com
By Nancy Schnog Sunday, August 24, 2008; Page B01
An interesting editorial about English teachers and the teaching of literature--what students are NOT getting from their summer reading lists... Some pertinent questions...
I too think that many novels are put on required reading lists at inappropriate grades--her point about dissecting literature is probably true, as well.
I guess my beef has always been with programs like Accelerated Reader--where students are tested and then told what level of book they should read. If the book that they are interested is too low or too high--forget it. I understand the premise, that students should be reading in their zone of proximal development, but are we really sending the right message when we require kids to read certain books and give them points for reading these books from limited lists?
Let me give an example as to why I'm a little cynical... Last year, I wanted to bring my new class of seventh graders to the media center to explore the shelves and find some good books to check out. After briefing students on my expectations--blank stares... "What is it?" I asked... "Mrs. W, how can we check out a book if we don't know our AR reading level?" Um...I'm thinking...you've got to be kidding me!
"A book isn't available to you unless it is at your reading level" is the message the students learned the year prior. I see that not all books are appropriate reads for all kids--but if a kid is having a hard time finding the right selection, isn't that what the librarian or teacher is for, not some score based on a 5 minute vocabulary test? And really, the 5 rule (or whatever it's called) seems to work great... If there are 5 or more words on a page that you don't understand, possibly the book is too hard.
I don't know about you, but I've probably stopped reading as many books as I've completed--that's called knowing when the effort is no longer worth it to you. No wonder so many kids haven't found the joy in reading a good book, when we don't allow kids to explore, test, practice, and enjoy what speaks to them...
And programs like these really stink for the high scoring AR readers. Several of my students scored at the 12 and 13 level (Okay, to me that doesn't even make sense--clearly these 7th grade kids do not have the schema or background knowledge to read texts that are written for an adult audience...) There are like three books in the middle school library that these high level readers can choose from...
And now that they know their AR score, how do they pick a book to read in a public library, or a book store for that matter? How do they find a book without it's AR ranking printed boldly on the spine?
I think that when they rank these books, they count the words on a page, words per sentence, and letters per work and then based on this, an reading level score is tabulated. Some wonderful books with content that is age appropriate is overlooked by kids because it scores too low based on some calculation algorithm--that doesn't take into account many other variables like theme, age of the protagonist, etc.
My suggestion for librarians, teachers, districts, whoever--is to help kids choose the right books by reading them first. Okay, you can't read them all, but all teachers should have a list of books that they can recommend that are appropriate in content and reading level for a variety variables: reading ability, gender, age , etc.
Wow--now that was a tangent!
What I think is book selection for teaching reading and teaching literature in the 21st century should include both classical texts and contemporary--fiction and nonfiction--multicultural texts, and texts that are self-selected by the kids. Teachers should have choice when selecting novels for instruction--every class is different, and the unique needs of a classroom community should also be taken into account when choosing a book for whole-class instruction.
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