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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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are students even assigned to read entire books in ES and MS? My neighbor told me her kids have never been expected to read an entire book, only excerpts. WTH? Why?[/quote]
I don’t think your neighbor knows what she’s talking about. In elementary school they may read excerpts, but kids definitely read whole books in middle school language classes.[/quote]

While individual teachers might assign whole books, assigning excerpts from books is a common problem across MCPS in MS and HS. [/quote]

They are now required to teach at least one novel study per quarter in secondary English classes in MCPS.

Our school does 2/quarter -- one whole-class novel and one in book circles that varies by reading level.[/quote]

Oh boy! One novel study! How ever will the kids handle all of that.

By secondary do you mean MS or HS? [/quote]

Both. [/quote]

The fact that they’re only required to teach one book per quarter is utterly pathetic.[/quote]

I don’t see the problem with one anchor text a quarter. So you teach The Odyssey as an anchor text. You throw in related texts, such as Atwood poetry or nonfiction about the ancient city of Troy. Students do related research to find criticism, and then write their own.

Easily enough content for a quarter.[/quote]

that’s not how it was described. it was described as one book per quarter.[/quote]

PP who said one book per quarter minimum. That is the minimum full-length books. It was said in response to someone who said kids read 2 books/year, which should not be happening.

The one book/quarter minimum is indeed the anchor text with other texts added on. [/quote]

We've never had four books a quarter.  Last year, freshman year, it was two books, excerpts and a movie for one quarter, which was absurd.

In MS, it was 1-2 books a year.  [/quote]

Ya’ll should definitely talk to the English department at your schools because it’s been one book per quarter and one major writing assignment per quarter for awhile.  That info comes directly from Central Office.  Further this school year they have re-emphasized this and are limiting the number of book choices available for teachers to choose from just to help ensure it’s grade level or above content.[/quote]

Have you seen the choices for the Honors English 9 curriculum? Many are below grade level. But yes teachers are required to use 1 anchor text per quarter — just disagreeing that limiting choice means kids are getting grade-level content. [b]In the pilot, most teachers chose texts well below grade level. [/quote][/b]

Yes I have seen the English 9 choices and I’m fine with them.  If teachers are always choosing the easiest text, then that’s a teacher and expectation setting problem.  I also know that it’s the reading, analysis and writing done with each anchor text along with supplemental material  that determines the quality of the class.

My problem is how much of the books they try to read in class.  [/quote]

Having anchor texts that are below level and reading them in class in so-called honors English is ridiculous and underscores the problem here — class time is spent reading and not learning about how to analyze text and write. [/quote]

Give us the list![/quote]

Look it up![/quote]

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