Are your middle and high schoolers required to read books?
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Anonymous
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This article about how many kids are no longer required to read books in high school -- even in good public school districts -- is depressing: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/.
Have your middle and high school students been required to read full novels for their English classes? If so, how many per year? I have elementary school students and they have so far been assigned several age-appropriate middle-grade novels each year. Now I'm wondering what to expect in middle and high school. |
Anonymous
| Two in all of middle school. This year as a Freshman, reading The Odyssey, so it's quite a jump. |
Anonymous
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DS read 2 books/novels in 7th grade, 3 in 8th grade, and so far has read 1 novel for English so far in 9th grade. Also poems, excerpts, and nonfiction texts.
I saw that Atlantic article too and have definitely seen the focus on short texts. (DS also still reads outside of school for pleasure, when I take his phone away.) |
Anonymous
| Absolutely - in both middle and high school. Several per year. |
Anonymous
| Yup. Starting in ES. |
Anonymous
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Not very many.
Irving MS honors English (maybe 3 novels, including Chinese Born American (a graphic novel… maybe that was freshmen year) and WSHS honors 9th and 10th. |
Anonymous
| Last week my niece reporeted that she had not read anything for her freshman year. It was so depressing to me. |
Anonymous
| WSHS pyramid (middle school and high school) and my children have definitely read whole books in English class: Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wonder. They also have completed projects in which they independently read books and presented or wrote about them. |
Anonymous
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Agree - Daughter is in honors 10th grade. 3 books assigned for all of 10th, as shared by the teacher. All are short. 2/3 are ones I read in 9th grade in my low-rated high school 30 years ago. The other is newer but also generally on 9th grade reading lists, rather than 10th.
DD is taking a history course that is at least making her write. It makes me feel a little better to know this is a nationwide problem. I guess, next, the undergrad professors will shift to more articles as well. Yikes. |
Anonymous
This is my concern. High school is watered down now probably because several years ago middle school was. Before that it was the insane Lucy Calkins Units of Study destroying language arts education in elementary school. I assume college will have to be next, because of the attention span issues. Pretty soon only places like St. Johns College will have their students reading huge numbers of books and so much of the best that has been thought or said in the west will be lost (hopefully the east will preserve their own liberal arts traditions). Meanwhile given the increasing intrusions of ed tech use in elementary school the attention problems will only continue to get worse, as one teacher reports here: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1231052.page#28468960. So the issues will continue to trickle upward. |
Anonymous
I agree about WSHS. My WSHS kids, on both the AP track and the honors track, all read books regularly in their English classes. The English department at WSHS is strong and picks a selection of mostly quality literature. My kids have read everything from Shakespeare and older literature like Wuthering Heights, to classics like The Crucible to contemporary social commentary like Fahrenheit 451, Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird. There is a good variety of short stories, modern works plus independent reading. Their "choice" reading lists have a nice variety to appease a very broad range of sensibilities from parents, everything from a Jane Austen novel to Kite Runner (parent approval required), and they allow students to pick their own titles not on the list, with approval. For example, one of my kids didn't like any of the 10th grade "identity" book offerings on the list, so he found an autobiographical historical fiction coming of age story written by a WW2 vet of his experiences in the battle of the Pacific, right after high school. The teacher approved books like this, which giave the kids more owership in their reading, and also helps avoid parent controversy about the booklist suggestions. My other kid just read one of the book list titles. I have helped with book review for WSHS as a volunteer, and am very comfortable that under the current leadership at the school and within the English department, WSHS students are receiving a very comprehensive and thoughtful exposure to literature in their English classes, not just in the advanced classes but in the standard honors track as well. I cannot speak to Irving except to say that when my kids attended pre covid, the former head of the English department also provided a nice foundation in literature. From the post above though, it sounds like since the retirement of that teacher, the English department has losened its rigor. |
Anonymous
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I don’t think novels are the only important kind of reading there is. In fact, learning close reading of other kinds of material might be more important as a life skill. (I did not read the Atlantic article- so no context).
My kids read tons of novels at home, but also don’t enjoy dissecting novels in English class. I’m not sure I see a ton of value in it either. Maybe once a year to discuss point of view and how to engage a reader. But all other reading it important for life- how to critically read news, science, historical documents, etc. |
Anonymous
| My 8th grader has had to read ONE book so far this year, of her choosing!!! Insane. |
Anonymous
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Child #1-- 4 books in 7th grade, 2 books in 8th grade, 1 book each year in high school
Child #2-- 4 books in 7th grade, 1 book in 8th grade, 2 books in 9th grade, 1 book in 10th grade, 0 (so far) in 11th grade Child #3-- 4 books in 7th grade, 1 book in 8th grade, 1 book (so far) in 9th grade Child #4-- so far, 0 books in 7th grade I'm surprised by how little required reading there has been in 8th grade through 12th grade, and I'm hoping my youngest does wind up getting assigned reading in 7th grade the way my older children all did. |
Anonymous
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This thread makes me so glad that my kids are no longer in FCPS.
7th grade - Animal Farm, The Outsiders, The metamorphosis, Maus 8th grade - I Robot, Romeo and Juliet, Frederick Douglass autobiography, and something else I can't remember 9th grade - Picture of Dorian Gray, Hamlet, Kindred, Dracula, and some choice book from a short list 10th - Invisible Man, Ceremony, Macbeth, Great Gatsby, The Oresteia, and 1 or 2 other things I can't remember. |