Death of the Novel in the Classroom?

Most can remember the slew of novels that were required reading during high school—Wuthering Heights, A Brave New World and All Quiet on the Western Front are just a few commonly assigned titles I recall reading. But with standardized assessments and NCLB, are novels on their way out of the classroom?

Laura Hamilton, of the RAND Corporation, addressed this topic at a November 20 forum on standardized assessments hosted by the Center on Education Policy. According to Hamilton, more and more teachers are assigning short passages to their students to read because this is how reading is tested on most assessments under NCLB. Instead of assigning novels to students and having them write essays on what they read, educators are having the students read short passages and answer multiple-choice questions or, in essence, teaching to the test.

The pressures associated with achieving high assessment scores may have put some of these educators in a position where they see no need to incorporate novels into their curriculum. But if students only read short passages, then that is what they will become accustomed to, and some may not even comprehend why it is important to read a full-length book.

Are novels assigned less frequently than in the past in your school system? How do you think assigning short passages instead of full-length novels will affect students, and do you think assessments have killed the novel in the classroom?

Comments

[Mike]

Great post. I just finished a meeting with my administrative team about this topic. About ten years ago, we for some reason strayed away from the novel based curriculum and ventured into passages and snippets. No wonder our SAT scores are poor, our students find lack of relevance or connectivity to the classroom sometimes. We will be moving back to a novel based curricula in the coming year. I am excited and I know our kids will be better for it.

[Paul B]

I teach 8th grade language arts, and I have time to utilize one class novel in its entirety, The Giver by Lois Lowry.
I don't believe the 7th grade teachers teach a novel because of writing portfolio demands.
We need to engage students with whole novels to help develop their creativities, imagination, and critical thinking. I wish I could teach a theme-based, novel-only, middle school class.

[Karen]

My 7th grade English class is reading A Christmas Carol by Dickens. It's a tough go, and I have to really sell it. I try to show how so many of the themes in the book are still relevant today. The only other novel they read is self-selected for Lit Circles at the end of the year with the theme of immigration.

I wish I had time to read more novels, but I really try to have the students read things that reflect the kind of writing they're required to do for the STAR writing test here in California - persuasive, narrative fiction & autobiography, summary, and response to literature. Shorter works serve as models for their own writing and can also be analyzed and discussed over a shorter time period.

[Barbara Pignataro]

We, at the elementary level, are seeing the end of wonderful language activities like Book Circles and Class Book Reviews as we more and more work toward the NY State ELA model of passages and questions. How sad for our children that the ability to sustain interest and examine characters and their development through a piece of literature are becoming passe!Language Arts teachers are pushing against this data driven,test and check culture to no avail.

[Margo/Mom]

I attended two different school systems--back in the dark ages. One included a number of novels from 7th grade forward (junior high). It had to have been at least 4 a year, possibly 6. I am certain that a number of our writing assignments focused on our understandings/analysis of the things that we read. By 10th grade we were also reading criticism, etc by others.

Then my family moved to another school system. In this system "the novel" was taught in 11th grade. We read one novel (Moby Dick) which we slogged through for the better part of the year. The teacher thought he was demanding great rigor because he had a required an essay on "The Abstract Quality of Whiteness." After I got an "A" on that one, I think he stopped reading my writing and just stuck A on top of everything I turned in.

Senior year we had a "lit book" that provided the kinds of snippets that Mike alludes to. I thought it was pretty funny that we were supposed to learn about literature by reading ABOUT it, rather than reading IT. The text was a pretty standard one, so I suspect that there were a good many classrooms getting by with this kind of thing. We did get to read one play (MacBeth) in its entirety.

Since these discrepancies occured long before NCLB, I have to assume that there are other factors that affect what is taught (BTW--the first system would have smoked the second with regard to any comparative scoring that might have been available--such as percentage of kids going to college, # and percentage of Merit Scholars, etc).

Is it just my imagination, but mighten't there be some means for teachers to have an impact on some of these curricular choices? I recall one of my childrens' teachers sort of snorting over the complaints of a teacher about the text that they were "forced" to use. She said "if you don't like the text, get on the selection committee." Isn't it just possible that teachers are a tad more passive than they might be in some of these things?

[George]

Here's a question that is relevant to this issue. To what extent should school be a place where all students are required to do certain things that most will never ever voluntarily do again? Like read novels?

I daresay that there are an increasing number of adults who NEVER read novels. They find viewing films a much more entertaining (and efficient) way to digest complex stories where plot, theme, characterization and other elements of the traditional novel are woven together. I recall reading an estimate that 20% of the adult population keeps Borders in business while 80% keeps Blockbuster in business.

Maybe students should study films instead of novels. And then write critical essays about the films they've seen.

[Tracy Thayer]

I'd just be satisfied if our high school students read any novels that were written in this century. Our kids are reading the same novels I read in high school 30 years ago. So, has no one written a good novel since To Kill A Mockingbird? I'm all for classical education, but even when we ask kids to read novels its a 'round up the usual suspects' situation.

[Dr. Marybeth Peebles]

While I am an avid reader of novels (when my hectic teaching schedule allows me time to do so), I understand the changing nature of the learning environment. As George comments above, visual media like films and videos are fast replacing the written media as a means of engaging the minds of our young people. They are used to fast-paced, action-filled, instantly responsive visual stimuli and view reading as boring at best. However, if teachers can get the right book into the right hands, maybe we can resurrect the joy of reading. This implies that we have our students first read novels that are contemporary and interesting. For example, the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, has caught the attention of good and not-so-good readers; young and old readers. Most other novels that long (400+ pages) would intimidate even the best readers, but this book and its sequels keeps them turning the pages.

[Margo/Mom]

I have a son who is a reluctant reader, although a great lover of story. Among the things that I tried was taking him to foreign movies with subtitles. I don't know if it improved his reading any, but he is now an avid independent film goer.

[Bob H.]

Regarding the comment by George (above), you are right--there aren't many novels that are better than the "old" ones such as "To Kill a Mockingbird." I keep looking, but even new ones such as "The Book Thief," while remarkable in its own way, don't attract the rich discussions that the earlier books do.

[T.T.Shumate]

I have been a English teacher for 35 years and I have found that the reading of novels is very important for students. Teaching of a novel involves more time, but it is something that should not be given up. Students of today are always ready to find the easy way out and perhaps go on line for a snap shot instead of reading. This can be avoided with the time and energy the teacher puts into the teaching of the novel. Not enough students read and as a result other skills suffer. Mixed levels in a classroom can be very taxing---it is possbile and I have had much success over the decades.

[virginia Stewart]

From Kindergarten to twelfth grade our students engage in reading novels. We base our entire standards based teaching of language arts skills around novels. Students enjoy the literature we present at each level. Shakespeare is introduced in fifth grade. We mix traditional novels with more contemporary ones and we know that focused rich class discussion makes most novels come alive. I am the founder and director of a K-12 charter school in California and our test scores are great. Even reluctant readers love novels when they are read in class and have projects attached to them.

[decostae]

The number of novels being taught at my high school has dropped sharply in the last 10 years. The amount of independent reading assigned has dropped as well. There seems to be a vaccum in which the students lack the ability to sustain attention when assigned a work longer than a short story. The standardized tests are absolutely a part of the blame. As some administrators demand a focus on test skills and test strategies through drill, the act of reading for an extended amount of time becomes nearly impossible. The students have only studied 3-4 actual novels in grades 9 and 10 before entering 11th grade American Literature. With a heavy focus on unstrucured response to brief questions being a formula for the students, the idea of actually writing a coherent essay about novel themes becomes a monumental task for the 11th and 12th grade students, and their instructors as well. This must change. Fewer students recognize the power of a novel, and fewer yet have the ability to write about them in a coherent unfified formal essay.

[Pete]

The problem begins with how we teach reading. Having kids analyze a story like a professional is like teaching art by having them compare their work to Monet. If you assign a book for class, your students ask how many pages do they have to read, you're doing it wrong. When I ask my high school science honors class how many have read a book that was not required, only about one third raise their hands. They have learned to dislike reading. First, kids must learn to like to read. My own kids hated reading until I found their genre and gave them summer reading while we traveled. I would not read Shakespere for 30 years after graduation. Reading should change constantly with what is current. Teach kids that books contain so much more than the movie version. If we can't teach love of reading, then book reports and critical analysis are a waste of time. We are not there for 12 years and a test. We are supposed to be teaching skills for a lifetime. Cramming them full of the classics is counterproductive. Dickens may have been a good writer, but he got paid by the word. Shakespere wrote for the stage. Try reading opera. Let's look at the goal and ask if current methods are helping or hurting our students. Books provide factual information, opinions, and, perhaps most important, escape. Instead of moldy oldies, read Toni Morrison, James Paterson, John Girsham, Tom Brokaw, JK Rowlings, Christopher Paolini, and a host of others. If you don't know these authors, you should read more.

[Regina]

I teach Social Studies at the middle school level. We recently have added rigor to our humanties program by integrating Language Arts, Social Studies and Science around shared themes, essential questions and novels (a mix of old, new a variety of genres). The students read 2 core novels (at their level, so we do use data to support their reading development) a marking period plus a different guided reading novel. In addition, the honors class reads a few independent novels for long range independent projects. By the end of each 6, 7, and 8th grade year the students have read, discussed, analyzed and wrote about at least 8 novels. We have Language Arts (reading and writing) as one class, double period,daily.

[Jon]

I teach 8th grade social studies and am also our school's department chair. We are doing everything we can to incoporate more novels. Over the last two years we have introduced in 8th grade, The Viking Warrior by Judson Roberts, Genghis Khan a Wicked History while in 7th we read the Breadwinner and Wadjet Eye. In 10th grade we read parts of the Jungle by Sinclair, Night by Elie Wiesel and next year all 11th graders will read Kite Runner. We are hoping to work more in conjunction with our English department and continue to expand the number of novels our students read.

[Carol]

Novels are worth reading and worth teaching because they are one of the ways we can really perceive our lives as human beings and reflect on how similar we are to others and yet how different. Both matter in this world. Because what is taught in our early years seems somehow to sharply affect us for the rest of our lives, learning to read simply for the joy it gives as well as for the insight into our humanity is something that does serve us the rest of our lives, even if we don't always continue reading novels. (Helping students learn to read poetry falls into the same category.)

But docostae has it right about starting by getting kids to read things they are interested in. The analysis and the reading of more complex materials can (and should) follow. Nevertheless, a good teacher can often get students to read and to love what they never dreamed of even liking. When a student tells me his favorite literature studied during the year was Milton's "Paradise Lost" (!) or Donne's "Valediction Forbidding Mourning," I know we have had a good year reading. When a student who says in September that he never reads but admits at the end of the year he finished three novels that he liked, I know we have had a good year reading.

In this world of "bottom lines" and "relevance," the real bottom line is this: we are a part of all we experience, and teaching novels well is valuable to our students' growth. How much more relevant can you get? The key is doing it well, not murdering a novel by hundreds of pointless study guide questions or spending weeks and weeks slogging through the book. Doing it well means guiding students to make choices in finding good/great literature to read and in discovering its richness through their own writing and conversation with others who have also read it. That's what should happen in a classroom. If you remember from your education characters, or plots, or great ideas that you will never forget, if you have returned to a book you studied in school and found it richer than you remembered, if you have recognized and understood better people and ideas in your life because of books you have read, then you know what I say is true. Reading matters, and novels should be part of that reading in school.