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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]Our public school never assigned a whole class novel. At the end of the year starting in 2nd they did do "book club" where kids would pick from a group of several books and discuss them with the group of other kids who picked the same book. There was occasional short passage reading comprehension homework in the reading packet as early as 1st, but that was highly teacher dependent and most years the kids didn't even have homework. When they did have homework one part of it might be "read for 15 minutes and log it."

Contrast that with our private, where whole class novels start as read-alouds in the primary grades but become homework or classwork (depending on the kid) in upper elementary and the middle and high school literature curriculum could have come straight out of the 1990s, with many of the same assigned books parents might recognize from that era.[/quote]

What are some of the novels?[/quote]

At which grade?

Off the top of my head, in 5th grade they read Prince Caspian, The Golden Goblet, and 2 others I'm forgetting. 6th grader is currently reading Bud, Not Buddy and will be reading City of Ember sometime later this year. 7th grader read The Hobbit, Inside Out and Back Again, something from Shakespeare, and others I'm forgetting. I know in 3rd grade they read Charlotte's Web, but there were more I'm not remembering (and 3rd is the last year where novels are mostly read alouds - they do other assigned reading in ability groups). 4th includes Misty of Chincoteague, Sign of the Beaver, and Because of Winn Dixie.

I know by high school they are reading Beowulf, Lord of the Flies, and other lit that most of us would remember from, well, high school.[/quote]

This elementary reading list sounds like some school out of 1990.  Hard to believe any elementary school is picking these instead of newer literature where characters are mostly non-white and mostly have some theme about marginalized people and racism [/quote]

The book choices drive me crazy.   Our  elementary school does have class books they read together dealing with the history of racism in the Deep South.

Mildred D. Taylor has a series of excellent books that are perfect for the 4th or 5th grader. She writes historical fiction.  It starts with Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry.      It’s about the Logan family and how they deal with racism down South starting in the 1930s.  The readers start to learn what The Jim Crow Era was all about.

It has four sequel books -   (Let the Circle Be Unbroken (1981), The Road to Memphis (1992), The Gold Cadillac (1987), and All the Days Past, All the Days to Come (2020))

[u]Mississippi Bridge[/u] is about a man watching from the porch of the general store as the passengers board the weekly bus from Jackson. When several white passengers arrive late, the driver  orders the black passengers off to make room for the Whites. Then, in the driving rain, disaster strikes, and the bus crashes into the lake. Set in Mississippi in the 1930s, this is a gripping story of racial injustice.

These five books that follow a Black family will give your child a look into what it was like to have been a Black kid in the South 90 years ago.  My son really liked these books.

Historical fiction is a good way to read an interesting story if the writer is good and it has the reader learning about history in  a fun way.  [/quote]

What do you mean that the book choices drives you crazy?

[/quote]

I think there are too many fantasy books assigned.  There is too much science fiction.  There are too many books over 100 years old when there are better, more relevant books.

Some books are timeless like Number the Stars  by Lois Lowry, a book about a ten year old girl and the German occupancy in WW2.  Inside Out and Back Again is a good choice for elementary school, a more current historical book about the Vietnam War and the family going to the US.

Students don’t do well in history.  These books tell stories happening during significant times in our country and others.   Save the fantasy for after school.   [/quote]

While I agree that kids should read “relevant” books and that schools should do a better job teaching history, I disagree with your conclusions.  I think it’s valuable for kids to read about important topics like war, but that should only be part of a wider exploration of literature.

For one thing, historical stories about war, while valuable, may not be especially relevant to the everyday lives of kids.  For another, fantasy and science fiction can sometimes offer a fresh viewpoint to explore more abstract concepts like philosophy, social issues, etc.  Moreover, books offer many advantages, and I think it’s beneficial to kids to sometimes show them that books don’t have to be a chore one undertakes to achieve an underlying goal, but that they can also be a source of enjoyment and that reading for fun is worthwhile in itself.

I find it especially interesting that you are concerned about students not doing well in history, but complain about reading too many old books.  Those books are themselves part of history.  They provide insight for kids into the actual thoughts and feelings of the time.  The author doesn’t have to do extensive research to strive for historical accuracy, they are just writing what they know.  Moreover, it can provide context for kids that history isn’t about abstract other people who lived a long time ago, experiencing “historic” events, but it’s about ordinary people just like them, living their lives day by day.[/quote]
 
You’re assuming the students can learn that books don’t have to be a chore and can be  fun by reading fantasy and science fiction.  Those types of books are torture for some kids and are a major chore while some love it.  Some kids love the realistic stories about family lives from different places and times written in books with historical backgrounds.  The American Girl stories were very popular. I don’t believe that just because someone wrote a book in the 1800s it means that you can get a sense of what it was like unless that’s what’s written in the book.

There are books that are being read in most schools that are more than 50 years old and they are still very important.  Night by Elie Wiesel is about a 15 year old boy experiencing WW2 as a Jewish teen.  It’s a relevant book in our current world.

I like books like Wonder, The One and Only Ivan, A Long Walk to Water and even the old fantasy book called The Borrowers.  But I do wish there was more of a push to start promoting up and coming storytellers that specialize in writing stories for children.

[/quote]

I sincerely hope you are not in a position to influence the reading curriculum of any school.[/quote]

US 12th graders in 2024 have had the lowest reading scores since the assessments started in 1992.  You should be more concerned with who’s in charge of the various counties reading curriculum in the DMV.   None of the states even crack the top 20.  Maybe the stale book lists are at fault.   [/quote]

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