The Death And Resurrection Of A Coherent Literature Curriculum: What Secondary English Teachers Can Do
by Sandra Stotsky /
2012 / English / PDF
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This book is addressed to teachers who know that
the secondary literature curriculum in our public schools is in
shambles. Unless experienced and well-read English teachers can
develop coherent and increasingly demanding literature curricula in
their schools, average high school students will remain at about
the fifth or sixth grade reading level—where they now are to judge
from several independent sources. This book seeks to challenge
education policy makers, test developers, and educators who
discourage the assignment of appropriately difficult works to high
school students and make construction of a coherent literature
curriculum impossible. It first traces the history of the
literature curriculum in our middle schools and high schools and
shows how it has been diminished and distorted in the past
half-century. It then offers examples of coherent literature
curricula and spells out the cognitive principles upon which
coherence is based. Finally, it suggests what English teachers in
our public schools could do to develop a literature curriculum that
gives all their students an adequate basis for participation in an
English-speaking civic culture.
This book is addressed to teachers who know that
the secondary literature curriculum in our public schools is in
shambles. Unless experienced and well-read English teachers can
develop coherent and increasingly demanding literature curricula in
their schools, average high school students will remain at about
the fifth or sixth grade reading level—where they now are to judge
from several independent sources. This book seeks to challenge
education policy makers, test developers, and educators who
discourage the assignment of appropriately difficult works to high
school students and make construction of a coherent literature
curriculum impossible. It first traces the history of the
literature curriculum in our middle schools and high schools and
shows how it has been diminished and distorted in the past
half-century. It then offers examples of coherent literature
curricula and spells out the cognitive principles upon which
coherence is based. Finally, it suggests what English teachers in
our public schools could do to develop a literature curriculum that
gives all their students an adequate basis for participation in an
English-speaking civic culture.
