Language Arts Adoption to be considered by Board on Wednesday 1/20
me
"Language Arts Adoption." I am sending the following letter to the
board regarding this proposal, which will do little to improve LA
instruction across the district.
Dear School Board Members,
As one of the teachers who sat on the Adoption Committee for Language
Arts I feel a professional responsibility to inform the board of a few
facts as you consider the Language Arts adoption proposal from the
district.
• We were not what can be realistically called a text adoption
committee. We were tasked only with selecting novels to be taught at
each grade level. We should be referred to as a “book selection”
committee. We were not allowed to consider any anthologies or
textbooks.
• There has been no text adoption for Language Arts at the secondary
level in over 20 years, yet there has been great improvements in texts
that help students learn writing, grammar and rhetoric, as well as
literature. We were not given the opportunity to consider any of them.
I worry that given the current fiscal crisis, it may be a very long
time before there is another opportunity to do so.
• There is no support for teachers included this list of novels. There
are no discussion guides or support materials of any kind, unlike the
professionally developed researched materials usually provided with
text adoptions for Science, Math, Social Studies or other classes.
• New and/or struggling teachers, and those who are assigned to teach
new curricula they’ve never taught before, will be required to
research and develop curricula on their own, thereby eliminating any
possibility of real curriculum alignment with regard to providing
quality instructional materials beyond the books themselves.
• Language Arts is a multi-subject class where the products of
learning are as much of the content as the novels we teach (e.g. how
to writing a literary analysis or a research paper. We are expected to
meet college-readiness standards in reading, writing and
communication. Yet there is nothing from the district to support
writing or communication instruction. There is no writing/rhetoric
text or reference books to support student learning.
• These books are novels and plays only. If teachers want to provide
poetry, short stories, essays and other materials, there will be no
consistency, nor any assurance that they are not being taught at other
grade levels, or indeed, that they will be taught at all.
While many schools are in need of novels. and I think the list of
novels is a good one, I believe that to call this proposal a “Language
Arts Text Adoption” is inappropriate. It wipes out ten years of work
at many schools where staff have worked hard to develop integrated
social studies and language arts curricula, often purchasing novels
with building funds to support the integrated approach. All these
issues suggest that the Language Arts adoption should be considered
with a very critical eye, especially in light of the fact that
Language Arts reading and writing assessments constitute half of the
state-mandated tests.
Respectfully,
Maggie Everett, M.Ed.
Roosevelt High School