{"id":164,"date":"2013-01-21T17:50:57","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T17:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/?p=164"},"modified":"2015-09-08T21:49:22","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T21:49:22","slug":"fictional-educations-and-the-new-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/2013\/01\/21\/fictional-educations-and-the-new-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"Fictional Educations and the New Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"

What:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the last few months my grade twelve students and I have been sharing various articles and essays that look at the study of literature and the role that English courses play in what is often referred to as \u201c21st<\/sup> century curriculum\u201d development.\u00a0 These articles are written by educators, English teachers, and administrators and have appeared in a number of mainstream newspapers. \u00a0The subject of English curriculum and the place of the printed page have been hotly debated.<\/p>\n

The message is the same and all too clear: literature has expired. \u00a0It has reached the end of its shelf life. \u00a0And \u201cnot with a bang but a whimper\u201d. \u00a0Time to wipe the shelves clean and make way for a new kind of curriculum. Education is to be replaced with schooling, literature with nonfiction, expressive, creative writing with \u2018templated\u2019 market analyses.<\/p>\n

RIP literary imagination.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t even get a eulogy.<\/p>\n

Last September, The Star<\/i> published, \u201cLiterature is the New Latin<\/a>\u201d written by Michael Reist, an English teacher of 30 years.\u00a0 In the article Reist contests that \u201cWe have entered the three-minute world. Anything that takes longer is just not worth it. This is the new attention span. The length of material students are required to read in school increases around the same time their use of screens increases. By Grade 7 or 8, the curriculum begins to include novel study, and high schools require the reading of significantly longer and more complex texts \u2014 or at least they used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last December, Joel Stein of Time Magazine<\/i> published \u201cHow I Replaced Shakespeare<\/a>\u201d. In his article he highlights the dictate of the Common Core State Standards<\/a> in the US: prepare students for the workforce. \u00a0He quotes David Coleman, the new president of the College Board, and one of the chief creators of the Common Core: \u201cAs you grow up in this world, you realize people really don\u2019t give a s\u2014 about what you feel or what you think\u2026 It is rare in a working environment that someone says, \u2018Johnson, I need a market analysis by Friday, but before that I need a compelling account of your childhood.'\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier that month, The Telegraph<\/i> reported in \u201cCatcher in the Rye dropped from US school curriculum<\/a>\u201d that the CCSS has approved a directive that will ensure that by the year 2014, 70% of what is taught in high school courses, will be non-fiction.\u00a0\u00a0 This non-fiction will consist of \u201cinformational texts\u201d, in an effort to ready students for college and the workforce.\u00a0 This new school curriculum will affect 46 of the 50 states.<\/p>\n

According to The Telegraph<\/i>, \u201cSuggested non-fiction texts include Recommended Levels of Insulation by the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Invasive Plant Inventory, by California\u2019s Invasive Plant Council. The new educational standards have the backing of the influential National Governors\u2019 Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, and are being part-funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her article, \u201cWhat English classes should look like in Common Core era<\/a>\u201d Carol Jago presents research from the 2010 Kaiser Family Media Study<\/a>.\u00a0 For those who believe that students do not have time for reading in their over-structured, hectic schedules, Jago contests, \u201cyoung people ages 8-18 consume on average 7 \u00bd hours of entertainment media per day: playing video games, watching television, and social networking. These are the same students who tell their teachers they don\u2019t have time to read. Children have time. Unfortunately\u2026 they would simply prefer not to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In response to the allegations that literature is dead, that English classes offer very little of substance for students in their future workplaces, that the study of fiction is an outdated practice, and that when students are given a choice, they do not read fiction on their own, my grade twelve English students and I are conducting an experiment to see what happens when students are involved in the process of curriculum development. \u00a0Over the next three months we will engage in conversations and debates about education, its focus in 21st<\/sup> century curriculum, and student accountability for personalized learning.<\/p>\n

How:<\/strong><\/p>\n

We will continue to read articles and essays about the topic. We will discuss and debate, reflect and write.\u00a0 Students will blog about their thoughts and experiences with peers and faculty over the next few months. They will read fiction, write fiction, look at curriculum design and development, use pen and paper, laptops, blogs and video.<\/p>\n

Student Predicted Outcomes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students believe they will show that 21st<\/sup> century curriculum is multi-facetted. They communicate through multiple platforms and with multiple literacies. \u00a0 The study of literature is essential for their learning. \u00a0Education is not about job training. This site will be a place where I will share, record, and document our experiment.<\/p>\n

We welcome your feedback and suggestions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What: Over the last few months my grade twelve students and I have been sharing various articles and essays that look at the study of literature and the role that English courses play in what is often referred to as \u201c21st century curriculum\u201d development.\u00a0 These articles are written by educators, English teachers, and administrators and … Continue reading “Fictional Educations and the New Curriculum”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,20,41],"tags":[14,21,19,22,18],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-21st-century-curriculum","category-action-plan","category-defense-of-literature","tag-21st-century-syllabus","tag-common-core-state-standards","tag-curriculum","tag-english","tag-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}