Education Week - November 14, 2012 - Special Report - S15

Scales Tip Toward Nonfiction Under the Common Core

he common standards expect students to become adept at reading informational text, a shift in focus that many English/language arts teachers fear might diminish the timehonored place of literature in their classrooms. In schools nationwide, where all but four states have adopted the Common Core State Standards, teachers are finding ways to incorporate historical documents, speeches, essays, scientific articles, and other nonfiction into classes. The new standards envision elementary students, whose reading typically tilts toward fiction, reading equally from literature and informational text. By high school, literature should represent only 30 percent of their readings; 70 percent should be informational. The tilt reflects employers’ and college professors’ complaints that too many young people can’t analyze or synthesize information, or document arguments. Some passionate advocates for literature, however, see reason for alarm. In a recent paper issued by the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based group that opposes the standards, two language arts experts argue that those distributions make it inevitable that less literature will be taught in schools. Even if social studies, science, and other teachers pick up much of the informational-text reading, co-authors Sandra Stotsky and Mark Bauerlein argue, language arts teachers will have to absorb a good chunk as well, and they will be the ones held accountable. “It’s hard to imagine that low reading scores in a school district will force grade 11 government/ history and science teachers to devote more time to reading instruction,” the paper says. De-emphasizing literature in the rush to build informational-text skills is shortsighted, the study argues, because the skills required to master good, complex literature serve students well in college and challenging jobs. The problem is worsened when teachers make “weak” choices of informational texts, such as blog posts, Mr. Bauerlein said in an interview. “If we could ensure that the kinds of stuff they’re choosing are essays by [Ralph Waldo] Emerson or Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery, then that would be wonderful,” said Mr. Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta. “Those are complex texts, with the literary features that make students better readers in college.” The only required readings in the standards are four foundational American writings, such as the Declaration of Independence, and one play each by Shakespeare and by an American dramatist. Students also must “demonstrate knowledge” of American literature from the 18th through early-20th centuries.

College and workplace demands are propelling the shift in text
An appendix to the standards lists texts that illustrate the range of works students should read across the curriculum to acquire the skills outlined in the standards. Those titles are not required reading, but are being widely consulted as representations of what the standards seek. Stories, poetry, and plays share space with nonfiction books and articles. Kindergarten teachers are offered Tana Hoban’s I Read Signs, along with P.D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? For 4th and 5th grades, the standards suggest Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince as well as Joy Hakim’s A History of US. Middle school suggestions include Winston Churchill’s 1940 “Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat” speech and an article on elementary particles from the New Book of Popular Science along with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. For 11th and 12th graders, T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is suggested, as are Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Woodhome Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore. The language arts teacher is drawing on newspaper articles, novels, and poems to explore the theme of individuality. Children are choosing from a range of novels with a “realistic feel,” Mr. Lawrence said, including House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman, and The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake. They read newspaper articles about a school uniform rule and the creation of avatars—virtual alter egos—in video games. Through discussion, the students zeroed in on 10 major components of individuality, such as intelligence, beliefs, and physical appearance, and they explored them through the real and imaginary characters they read about, Mr. Lawrence said. They will write two-page essays exploring the theme further, based on additional research from other articles online, he said. “The idea that students are exposed to informational text is somehow taken for granted,” said Mr. Lawrence, whose district serves a predominantly low-income, minority population. “Most of my kids have not been exposed to newspaper articles. Their parents don’t subscribe to magazines. So it’s good for them to see these kinds of things, learn about their structure, as well as the structure of novels.” Sonja B. Santelises, the chief academic officer of the Baltimore system, which has been working with teachers districtwide to design common-core modules and sets of texts in social studies, science, and language arts, said the emphasis on informational reading is crucial as a matter of equity for her 83,000 students. “We’re naïve if we don’t acknowledge that it’s through nonfiction that a lot of students who’ve never been to a museum are going to read about mummies for the first time or read about the process of photosynthesis,” she said. She considers it important to use informational readings simultaneously as tools to build content knowledge

A New Blend
Taking a cue from the standards, many teachers are blending fiction and informational reading as they phase in the common core. At Calvin Rodwell Elementary School in Baltimore last month, Erika Parker and her class of 4- and 5-year-olds were planning a trip to a nearby farm as part of a unit called “fall fun with friends.” She read the children two versions of The Three Little Pigs; they joined her to shout out the famous refrain: “Not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin!” They were addressing a common-core expectation that they learn to compare points of view in multiple texts, Ms. Parker said. She also read the children books and stories about fall weather, friendship, the life cycle of pumpkins, and how to grow apples. They ventured into the schoolyard to learn about tree trunks and limbs and how trees could be grafted to produce new varieties and colors of apples. “We are certainly still reading works of fiction,” she said later. “They love their stories. But they also really get excited about something in real life that they can make a connection to.” Quinton M. Lawrence, too, is trying out a new blend with his 5th and 6th graders at the K-8

By Catherine Gewertz
> www.edweek.org/go/common-reading
EDUCATION WEEK
•

READING IN THE COMMON-CORE ERA

November 14, 2012

| S15

http://www.edweek.org/go/common-reading

Education Week - November 14, 2012 - Special Report

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - November 14, 2012 - Special Report