APS - 10th Grade English

[Anonymous]

Our teacher didn't say anything like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone go to Back To School Night last night at APS? My child's 10th-grade English class back-to-school night was a little surprising. Yes, it is an English class, but all lessons are focused on global communities, absolute power, and reading options based on POC struggles, etc... There was a BLM fist in the presentation. I had to reconfirm that the class was actually English, and not an elective or sociology. A parent asked if this was the same for all Arlington 10th-grade English classes, and the response was yes.

Am I the only one concerned that English classes are now being hijacked to push social justice? Not complaining about social justice per se, but seems like this really distracts from what most people think a student should learn in a traditional English class. I am not a Younkin supporter, but I do feel this is over the top.

What should a student learn in a traditional English class? I went to a terrible, underfunded, majority white (rural New England) public school in the 1980s, but we still read To Kill A Mockingbird, A Raisin In The Sun, The Pearl, The Grapes of Wrath, The Outsiders, The Crucible, Fahrenheit 451, Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Letter, Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, and the Great Gatsby. Seems like kids today are just reading about the same themes with more modern/diverse characters and new authors, but many of the books I see on these lists are still award-winning, best-selling books that will be classics the The Kite Runner, Never Let Me Go, and The Color Purple.

Quite frankly, I'd like my kid, and any other kid in the classroom, to be able to have an open discussion without fear that one wrong statement/misstatement that is not politically correct is going to get them labled by a teacher that appears to have a more active agenda than most English teachers.

My guess is that someone who teaches English in a public high school and chooses books like this does so because they expect to be helping young teenagers learn how to understand complex themes and formulate and articulate responses to the material. You wouldn't last long in a 10th grade classroom if you punished kids who said dumb things. At the same time, students need to learn the difference between having and stating an opinion about class material and being offensive, and a high school classroom is a safer place to learn that than, say, the workplace.

My guess is that this is part of it for some teachers; but for some others, it is really their personal agenda. They can teach those things through a variety of literary pieces that cover the ages, perhaps better than they can teach them with just highly selective modern works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t see any of that. My child is in intensified but I think the curriculum is the same. They told us first quarter novels are I know why the caged bird sings and Persepolis (focus on personal narratives). They also have a new book they’ll use and it has nonfiction selections like a Supreme Court decision.

Same. In addition to the two books above (the second of which is a "graphic novel"), my kid's teacher said they'll be reading 1984 and something Shakespeare, probably Julius Caesar.

My DD's Intensified English 10 was the same as this. Mr. Klein at YHS.

Yup. Still another teacher, but same thing. The OP was definitely not in a room with me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t see any of that. My child is in intensified but I think the curriculum is the same. They told us first quarter novels are I know why the caged bird sings and Persepolis (focus on personal narratives). They also have a new book they’ll use and it has nonfiction selections like a Supreme Court decision.

Same. In addition to the two books above (the second of which is a "graphic novel"), my kid's teacher said they'll be reading 1984 and something Shakespeare, probably Julius Caesar.

I could have sworn my kid read 1984 at DMHS…

[Anonymous]

APS has a new ELA curriculum for high school HMH’s Into Literature. Perhaps review the curriculum online and ask your child’s teacher how the curriculum will be applied for the school year. You can be friendly and non combative and just see how the class will align with the mandated curriculum. I am not sure how it works but I believe that the curriculum is a floor and the teacher can assign additional books etc.

[Anonymous]

I still don't understand what makes this about "social justice" compared to the books people read in high school 20 or 40 years ago, other than the authors and characters being people of color. In which case, "social justice" isn't the right term.

[Anonymous]

Focus should be on writing and using proper grammar in preparation for college rather than discussing literature all year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Focus should be on writing and using proper grammar in preparation for college rather than discussing literature all year.

writing and using proper grammar is middle school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APS has a new ELA curriculum for high school HMH’s Into Literature. Perhaps review the curriculum online and ask your child’s teacher how the curriculum will be applied for the school year. You can be friendly and non combative and just see how the class will align with the mandated curriculum. I am not sure how it works but I believe that the curriculum is a floor and the teacher can assign additional books etc.

Do you mean the new "textbook" APS adopted but which our child's teacher made a point to tell us are "on display" in the classroom by requirement but which our students will never open and the teacher will not be using?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Focus should be on writing and using proper grammar in preparation for college rather than discussing literature all year.

Students write better papers when they have better discussions of the literature.
But don't worry. They aren't discussing all that much literature - if you're talking about novels. But they are doing a lot of reading and writing of short pieces (ie no long papers)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS has a new ELA curriculum for high school HMH’s Into Literature. Perhaps review the curriculum online and ask your child’s teacher how the curriculum will be applied for the school year. You can be friendly and non combative and just see how the class will align with the mandated curriculum. I am not sure how it works but I believe that the curriculum is a floor and the teacher can assign additional books etc.

Do you mean the new "textbook" APS adopted but which our child's teacher made a point to tell us are "on display" in the classroom by requirement but which our students will never open and the teacher will not be using?

They are supposed to be using it. If they are not I would contact APS’ ELA department and ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Focus should be on writing and using proper grammar in preparation for college rather than discussing literature all year.

I'm confused. Are we mad that they aren't reading enough? That they aren't reading the right things? What are they supposed to be writing about in English class, if not literature? "What I Did On My Summer Vacation"?

You guys ought to get together and aligned your complaints a little better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS has a new ELA curriculum for high school HMH’s Into Literature. Perhaps review the curriculum online and ask your child’s teacher how the curriculum will be applied for the school year. You can be friendly and non combative and just see how the class will align with the mandated curriculum. I am not sure how it works but I believe that the curriculum is a floor and the teacher can assign additional books etc.

Do you mean the new "textbook" APS adopted but which our child's teacher made a point to tell us are "on display" in the classroom by requirement but which our students will never open and the teacher will not be using?

They are supposed to be using it. If they are not I would contact APS’ ELA department and ask.

I'd rather go with the teacher this time around, based on previous student and parent comments on the rigor and quality, how good a teacher they are, and how much has been learned from them. Not using the workbook does not mean the teacher is not covering the curriculum; and after many years of teaching the class, I think this teacher's got it.

Contrasting that with another child's English teacher in a different high school grade level who will use parts of it, but by "ripping out" selected sections and presenting them as handouts because (paraphrasing from BTSN presentation) if the kids had to just follow the textbook through, they would "lose" the students' attention, interest, engagement, and they would hate English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Focus should be on writing and using proper grammar in preparation for college rather than discussing literature all year.

I'm confused. Are we mad that they aren't reading enough? That they aren't reading the right things? What are they supposed to be writing about in English class, if not literature? "What I Did On My Summer Vacation"?

You guys ought to get together and aligned your complaints a little better.

Clearly people have different reasons for their complaints. Why should they align them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Focus should be on writing and using proper grammar in preparation for college rather than discussing literature all year.

I'm confused. Are we mad that they aren't reading enough? That they aren't reading the right things? What are they supposed to be writing about in English class, if not literature? "What I Did On My Summer Vacation"?

You guys ought to get together and aligned your complaints a little better.

Clearly people have different reasons for their complaints. Why should they align them?

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