According to a story by Lyndsey Layton in the Washington Post, English teachers across the nation are cutting back on fiction, because they have been told that the Common Core standards say they must.
The standards say that reading must be 50% fiction/50% nonfiction, and increase in high school to 70% nonfiction. Teachers are dropping novels and poetry and short stories to comply.
But David Coleman says that people are misinformed.
He points to a footnote on page 5 of the 66-page document. He says that English teachers can keep teaching mostly fiction, while math and history teachers teach more reading about math and history. (Had math and history teachers been teaching fiction up until now? Is this a change for them?)
But the math and history teachers say they have to keep teaching math and history. The history teachers always use informational text, and math teachers may not have time to have their students read what Euclid wrote in 300 B.C.
An English teacher in Massachusetts told the reporter, “Reading for information makes you knowledgeable — you learn stuff….But reading literature makes you wise.”
A note on the history of reform in U.S. education: There is many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip.
Fiction? Non-fiction? Greek legend? Myth? Fact?
“Had math and history teachers been teaching fiction up until now?”
Well, my history teacher sure taught me a lot of fiction.
Poetry becomes an optional extra. That is a tragedy. “Where Are The Poets and Where is Einstein?” addresses this on my blog.
One thing they do not want is wise. Otherwise there whole plan falls apart. For them to obtain what they want they need dumb and controlled. That is why what is going on is going on it is for the slaves and the elite and that is it. Remember this “I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.”
Access ERWC to see what has happened in California. Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2012 17:54:28 +0000 To: rke25@hotmail.com
Literature teaches many things – apparently unbeknownst to David Coleman, it even contains information! – and perhaps foremost introduces students to the range of motivations in the human heart, such as avarice, deception, power seeking, megalomania, etc. You know, all those motivations behind corporate education reform.
No wonder Coleman and the like seek to eliminate it.
This would be a great “non-fiction” article that could be incorporated into an English/LA class.
I don’t teach on a grade level/subject area that would allow me to incorporate some of the articles on how this was foisted on us (students and teachers), but then again there are the last few days of school in June.
The fact of the matter is the *standards* don’t place any specific requirements on the amount of fiction or non-fiction texts. The introduction claims they do, but it isn’t backed up by any actual standard, despite the fact that there are dozens of “range of reading” standards defined in the document.
The ratio of fiction to non-fiction is a curriculum issue, not a standards issue. The correct amount of fiction or non-fiction is determined by what is required in practice help students meet the standards.
Regardless, Coleman could at least clear up his interpretation by giving a specific example of how a high school should manage various types of reading, which I’m sure he won’t do, especially since in America high schools can’t guarantee what range of courses a student will take at any given time, e.g., if a student doubles up on math classes, should the school count all the pages in two math text books as “informational reading?” Do math texts count at all?
“Common core” is another Bill Gates-type “reform” that is garbage and needs to be thrown there.
This was a niece piece from Publishers Weekly.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/53002-what-common-core-means-for-publishers.html
What educational credentials, training or experience does David Coleman have to be recommending and promoting any of this?
To paraphrase David Coleman’s oft-quoted quip, I must say that “I don’t give a s**t what David Coleman thinks.” I would rather listen to experienced education professionals and rely on my own hard-earned professional judgement.
Alan, Coleman is a Rhodes scholar but has never taught at any level, including college. His mother is the president of a college in Vermont.
My question was rhetorical. Coleman’s teaching experience is limited to a bit of tutoring while an undergrad at Yale. Ironically, it sounds like his own education was likely very rich in literature.
I am shocked that this man was trained as a classicist. How could a classicist reject literature?
@Dufrense Which college?
If Coleman is complaining that no one understands his 66 page document with a key fact in a foot note on page 5, maybe HE needs some remedial non-fiction writing instruction so that the core of his core statement is actually understood – rather than misunderstood.
Or perhaps you don’t possess the disciplinary literacies involved in reading this kind of informational text, Adam!
Or maybe we don’t give a shit what Coleman thinks…he taught for how long? Ooops…NEVER!
“(Had math and history teachers been teaching fiction up until now? Is this a change for them?)”…Hilarious..and spot on!
So, today..just now.. one of our English teachers came to my room (I am science) looking for “some non fiction”.
He wanted Hot Zone, in particular.
Seems there was no money to order materials to implement the common core.
He says he is supposed to teach Hot Zone to general ed 9th graders. (Have I mentioned that our school in massively ESOL?)
In the science department, we sometimes do Hot Zone with AP students (and are able to answer the kids’ science questions , too!), so I have a class set to loan. And some materials.
Think I will teach The Man Who Planted trees or some other fiction this year.
Sigh.
Since you are a Science Teacher, Ang, you could find some “literature” that denies global warming–and that would be the fiction reading you need to adhere to the CCS! Heck, you could write your own books AND sell a new Science curriculum!
And, while you’re at it, how about teaching the opposite of evolution? Surely, the higher-ups will give you merit pay!
Have you folks heard of Grant Wiggins? No, he’s not Ender’s cousin–sorry for an allusion from the world of fiction. Grant (nomen est omen) is an ed guru who is very influential in NJ, where many teachers have had to use his UBD materials. Check out what he said a little while back about getting rid of ficion http://www.fluency21.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1663. There’s some very troubling (sexist? elitist? stupid?) stuff there.
Was there a footnote when Coleman said people won’t give a sheet what you have to think? The backtracking begins with footnotes.
Common Core vs Common Sense
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/12/05/13wolk_ep.h32.html?tkn=SNRFRGtjYM7m81yy%2Fabgp8KwGOSGX4J7dvca&cmp=ENL-EU-VIEWS1&print=1
“I don’t give a s**t what Coleman thinks” is my current battle cry. The hubris here is astounding (hubris is a concept I learned from LITERATURE).
It seems to me that there will never be agreement on which works should be taught and which should be regretfully eliminated. I asked my sophomore son what he valued. He is a fan of American Rust, The Man and the Sea, and Shelby Foote’s writing about the civil war. Are these all classics? Probably not, but they are all good inspiring writing.
I have been having this discussion everyday. SO MANY misconceptions. Here is my latest article
(rant) on this. I would love your feedback: http://www.rozlinder.com/?p=2155
the fundamental problem is that teachers, taken as a statistical normal curve lot, are insufficiently militant in regard to curriculum and “accountability.” we have allowed greaseball politicians, both red and blue, bureacrats, and abstracted academics to hijack the most important of all enterprises: education of the young.
those of us who have tenure (the non-tenured young’uns are too vulnerable) need to organize and fight. not via NEA. NEA is another acronym for USDOE. and via none of the other unions: AFofL/CIO does not care about children and their minds.
email me. jbuand@gmail.com
let’s get very effin serious about this. organized. we have a moral obligation to protect our students from government/corporate pigs. did i say “pigs”? dudes, i am old.