Reply to Honors English 9A, MP1: What is your child reading?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]All American Boys 
But they will also be reading Of Mice and Men 
[/quote]

Of Mice & Men is a choice in MP2. And it's super short. Why couldn't they read both of these in MP1?[/quote]

Totally agree.  My HS English class in 1986 probably read twice as many books.  I remember we read Great Expectations, catcher in the rye, Frankenstein, a Shakespeare play, the Iliad, and I’m sure there were a couple more I’m forgetting now (maybe Huck Finn?)  And I went to public school in a random state so I feel like it’s achievable for McPS.  [/quote]

Sorry to those of you who don't know this, but...these kids DO NOT READ! The vast majority of them, including your precious IB Magnet students, are not doing the reading. They are overwhelmed and/or do not have the stamina to read books the way you think they can.

I teach 9th grade right now. I've also taught AP Lang in the past. Their reading stamina, as previously stated, is in the garbage and has been for some time. I struggle to get them to retain information when we read books together, in class, using an audio book. It takes insane amounts of contextualization to get them to understand any text, so I've come to learn if it's going to to be challenging for them, it better be interesting too.

This year, we will do All American Boys (in Q1 - mind you, we have had significantly fewer instructional days this quarter because of various interruptions and non-instructional days), MARCH Book 3 in Quarter 2, Flowers for Algernon in Quarter 2, A Raisin in the Sun in Quarter 3, The Poet X in Quarter 4, and probably a literature circle book somewhere in there.

For anyone complaining that their kid isn't reading enough or isn't reading any "classics" - get a library card! No one is stopping you! As a matter of fact, it would be great if you and your kid read those "classics" together, and then they can have a discussion with you about the differences between those "classics" and the books they're reading in class :) [/quote]

Can you explain what you mean by "no reading stamina"?  Like, how much should they be able to read?  My 9 year old reads for 30 minutes or so in a row voluntarily most days, is that not enough?  How do you build reading stamina and how much of it do they need by high school?[/quote]

My 9th graders are struggling to read 5 pages in a 45 minute class period.[/quote]

Then they certainly shouldn’t be in Honors English. [/quote]

It’s most if not all of them.  They have TikTok brain.  They live their lives in life 5  intervals and you can see the physical signs of withdrawls from stimulation such as videos and music.  They are all extremely fidgety, on edge, and ask what the time is every 3-4 minutes.[/quote]

Then put them in regular English and have a section of honors English for those who are ready for at least grade-level content. If they can't do the work, then you need to fail them.[/quote]

Don't worry.  They are failing.  The average grade for my 120 students is like a 48% right now[/quote]

So, what is the school doing to support them?  These kids were failed at the ES and MS levels and now at the HS level.  [/quote]

Personally I have volunteered my lunch hours and up to 90 minutes of my time after school to help my students improve these awful scores.  I have had one student take advantage of this in 4.5 weeks.

The only thing we might be able to do to help these kids is to finally hold them accountable and send them to summer school for the first time in hopes that its a major wake up moment. [/quote]

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