NYS CC ELA Regents January 2024 Part II

Text 1

The Reading Wars: Choice vs. Canon (1) 

     The day I arrive for the school-wide “Read-In” this past spring, teenagers and books are

covering every available surface in Jarred Amato’s English classroom at Maplewood High

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School in Nashville, Tennessee—flung across lived-in couches, desks, and chairs. But there’s

not a book one might traditionally identify as a “classic” in sight, and that’s by design.

(5)     In the middle of the room, a group of girls are cracking open the third installment of

March, the graphic novel by Rep. [Representative] John Lewis and Andrew Aydin about the

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civil rights movement, when a student pushes his way through. “Hey, get out of my way,” he

says playfully to the girls, grabbing a copy off the top of the stack. “I’ve wanted to read

March!”

(10)     Things weren’t always this way. Four years ago, when Amato arrived at Maplewood High, he assigned his freshmen Lord of the Flies—a staple of high school lit [literature] classes for more than 50 years—but he couldn’t get students to read the book. “It’s a classic for some reason, but I don’t know what that reason is. Because it’s not good,” says Calvin, a graduating senior, who laughed when I asked if he finished it.

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(15)     Frustrated, Amato surveyed students about their reading preferences and found that

most didn’t know: They almost never read outside of school and generally had negative

attitudes about reading. Many students felt like the books they were assigned at school didn’t

reflect their experiences, and featured characters who didn’t look, think, or talk like them.

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     The issue of a disconnect between young readers and the books they’re assigned isn’t

(20) new, though. Like previous generations, American middle and high school students have

continued to spend English class reading from a similar and familiar list from the English and

American literature canon: Steinbeck, Dickens, Fitzgerald, Alcott, and, of course, Shakespeare.

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     But now, as social attitudes and population demographics (2) have shifted, teachers across

(25) the country are saying that the disconnect between the canon and its intended audience has become an epidemic, driven by rapid changes in the composition of American schools and the emergence of always-on digital platforms that vie for kids’ attention. By middle and high school, teachers concede, many of today’s students simply aren’t reading at all. …

To Amato and a growing number of teachers, the solution has been to move away from

(30) classics in English class and instead let students choose the books they read, while

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encouraging literature that is more reflective of the demographics and experiences of

students in America’s classrooms. In teacher training programs, in professional publications,

and throughout social media, choice reading has become a refrain that can sometimes sound

like dogma,(3)  and for some it has become a call for advocacy.(4)

(35)     But while the student choice reading movement is growing, it is by no means universally accepted or supported in all classrooms. Other educators have warily pushed back on the approach, worrying that too much student choice is putting young adult (YA) and graphic novels—not highly regarded and vetted (5) literature—at the center of the English literature curriculum. While not all books are enjoyable (or easy) to read, challenging books help boost students’ comprehension and reading proficiency, they argue, and force them to grapple (6) with difficult, timeless questions about love, life and death, and societal dynamics. …

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     Doug Lemov, an educator and managing director of the Uncommon Schools charter

network, tells me a story of visiting a special school for elite soccer athletes a few years ago.

Looking around the room, he noticed that many students in their choice-based English

(45) classes had selected books about soccer. “They should not be reading books about soccer. All they know is soccer,” says Lemov, who, along with coauthors Colleen Driggs and Erica Woolway, has written Reading Reconsidered, a book that pushes back on choice reading.

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Lemov believes that student choice reading has been overhyped by schools and makes a

couple of assumptions that don’t add up: First, that adolescents know enough about books

(50) to know what they like to read; and second, that there’s greater power in the freedom to “do your own thing” rather than in developing a deep understanding of what you’re reading. …

And though it may not foster a love of reading, the data also shows that teacher-led

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explicit instruction in reading a particular text (especially in different genres), combined with

lots of reading, can reap four to eight times the payoff compared with students’ choosing

(55) books and reading on their own, according to Timothy Shanahan, founding director of the Center for Literacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. …

     Yet while the data suggests that we are failing to interest many of today’s students in

reading, it seems that educators are starting to find some equilibrium between choice and a

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regimented list of must-reads: Shakespeare can exist in class alongside books kids want to

(60) read. …

—Holly Korbey

excerpted and adapted from “The Reading Wars: Choice vs. Canon”

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www.edutopia.org, July 9, 2019 

1: canon- a collection of writings considered to be the most important or influential

2: population demographics- characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status

3: dogma- accepted beliefs

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4: advocacy- support

5: vetted- critically examined

6: grapple- struggle

Source 2

Why Kids and Teens Need Diverse Books and Our Recommended Reads

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Think back to your middle or high school English class and the books you read. Great

Gatsby? Lord of the Flies? Maybe 1984 or Les Misérables? While those are all important

works, the literary canon has long been dominated by white authors, white perspectives,

white characters — and those voices are often male. There are so many other voices we need

(5)to hear from. …

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Diversity and engagement...

Instead of perpetuating the idea that so-called “classics” are the only literature belonging

in classrooms — and steadily distancing our modern students from the joys of literature —

isn’t it time we ensure that the fiction we teach matches the world in which we live? In the

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last decade, the young adult and children’s markets have noticeably expanded their offerings

(10) of diverse authors, characters, and stories. …

It’s logical to argue that students would be more engaged if they saw themselves

represented in literature. After all, what is literature but a mirror of human experience?

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Reading the classics is wonderful, but solely providing stories about unrecognizable

characters in time periods long past restricts the interconnection and inspiration our young

(15) people can and should feel from reading.

“It’s important that more books by authors of color featuring diverse characters make it

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into schools because all students (no matter their race, ethnicity, or sexual background) should be able to relate to the characters in novels and see that their culture is being represented in literature,” says Tiffany Brownlee, author of Wrong in All the Right Ways, a modern YA (20) retelling of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. “As a teacher, I always try to look for ways to include novels by authors of color in my curriculum to expose my students to different lifestyles and cultures that they wouldn’t normally be exposed to. And you’d be surprised at how high the level of engagement can rise when a student’s race or culture is being taught in class. Let me just say, it soars!”

(25) “Reading engagement is the foundation for building successful readers and a strong

literacy environment,” says Carrie Kondor, EdD, Associate Professor and Reading

Endorsement Chair at Concordia University-Portland. “Diverse books are an essential

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component of increasing reading achievement for all students because of engagement. As

humans, we seek out and enjoy connections. Students must have the opportunity to engage

(30) in texts that relate to their experiences, their cultures, and their interests.”

Empathy(1) and representation

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Studies have shown that reading fiction builds empathy. A 2013 study in the American

Psychological Association’s journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

discovered that when readers visualize scenes while reading stories, there is an actual and

measurable surge of empathy. Imagine then the impact if schools were full of diverse books

(35) — providing a literary peek into the lives of not only students themselves but of those around them. …

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Relevant stories for teens

In the throes(2)  of adolescence, literature can deeply impact one’s emotional development

and the way you see the world. “I think teen readers of realistic fiction want to read books

where what is going on in the world is reflected back to them,” says Renée Watson, author of (40) numerous books including Piecing Me Together, which received a Coretta Scott King

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Award and a Newbery Honor. “As an author, I want to create work that helps young people

face and cope with reality, not escape it. I believe books that center around children who are

often underrepresented in literature affirms their experiences and whispers to them, ‘You are

not alone, your story matters.’ ”

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(45) In an era of technological devices and near-constant stimulation, diversity in literature

may be a pathway toward keeping literature relevant. “Relatable topics and topics of personal

interest get teens to put down their phones and pick up a book. Anything that appeals to

their personal lives and interests (romantic/friend-based/familial relationships/fantastical

worlds/the LGBTQ community/etc.) makes a teen want to read,” says author Tiffany

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(50) Brownlee. “When the teen can relate to what they’re reading through the characters (with

an emphasis on characters with diverse backgrounds), settings, or topics discussed in the

book, it suddenly becomes so much more engaging for them. They get more out of a text

when their diverse backgrounds are represented, and that’s what’s important. Not just getting

them to read, but getting them to take something away from that experience, too.”

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—The Room 241 Team

excerpted from “Why Kids and Teens Need Diverse Books and Our

Recommended Reads”

https://education.cu-portland.edu, September 8, 2018

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1: empathy- an understanding of others' feelings and emotions

2: throes- struggle

Text 3

Classic Works of Literature Still Have a Place in Today’s Classrooms

When introducing literature to a new class I ask two questions: “Why do we study it and

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what can we learn from it?” Now, if you’re a teacher you’ll know that it’s not always a smooth

ride to the final destination, which is all part of the fun, but the answer we usually get to,

albeit with teacher sat-nav [satellite-navigation] switched on, is that through literature, we (5)can visit cultures impossible for us to experience ourselves. From our reading, we can begin to understand what it must have been like to live in a particular time, under certain conditions, in different parts of the world. But the best bit is that we can do all this while honing(1)  those oh-so-necessary and desired critical-thinking skills.

And that’s the point: that the study of literature in the contemporary classroom is,

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(10) perhaps, even more relevant today than it has ever been. So, back in September when the Secret Teacher [a teacher blog] posted that the Alan Bennett monologue A Cream Cracker

under the Settee [a literary work] was to be replaced in the curriculum by an episode of

Waterloo Road [a British television series], it’s not unimaginable that English teachers stood

poised, quills aloft, ready to defend the body of work that has shaped the modern world, to

(15) the death. Well, to the staffroom and the discussion forums at least. …

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From the linguistic (2) perspective, studying classic literature from the Western canon

(Shakespeare, Dickens, Orwell and so on) affords students of English the opportunity to

understand, analyse, and evaluate language quite different from their own. Structures, trends

in punctuation and in the way we speak have evolved through the ages and being aware of

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(20) these developments really helps us to understand better, language in its current context.

If we didn’t read and study texts from the past, and only looked to the best seller list,

how would we know of this evolution? In my experience, pupils’ creativity runs rampant3

when they can remix particular structures and styles with their own writing to lend

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authenticity to character, story, and setting.

(25) One of the challenges teachers face is the need to edge learners beyond their comfort

zones but in doing so, we challenge their thinking and we bolster their confidence to become

even more skilled in the use of their own language. Or as the CBI (Confederation of British

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Industry) might say, we’re equipping them with essential skills for the real world.

There are more benefits to the study of literature. Understanding a story through the

(30) experiences of a character enables us to feel what it could have been like and helps us

consider the impact of events, significant or otherwise, on ordinary people. Gaining a broad

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view of society, through the eyes of another, fosters understanding, tolerance and empathy(4)

and the value of these capacities cannot be underestimated in today’s world.

Understanding the past does, we hope, prevent us from repeating the mistakes of our

(35) predecessors but, more than that, it helps us appreciate how attitudes have changed overtime. This, in turn, promotes a deeper understanding of why we are who we are today.

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While we must safeguard the teaching of classic literature or risk depriving our young

people of the wealth of knowledge, enjoyment and sense of heritage and history to be gained

from our classics, we should also be open to the idea that more contemporary texts, of (40)varying titles and formats, have a justifiable place in the curriculum too.

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Any text, if taught well, will engage on some level or another. A few years ago I received

a thank you card from a student at the end of her school career but it didn’t convey the usual

gratitude for helping her complete the course, or for getting her through the exam. It simply

read: “Thank you for introducing me to beautiful literature – I have learned so much from

(45) it.” And that golden moment is enough to convince me that great literature, from any time, is something that all our young people should be entitled to. That’s the point.

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—Sally Law

excerpted and adapted from “Classic Works of Literature Still Have a Place in

Today’s Classrooms”

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www.theguardian.com, December 11, 2012

1: honing- perfecting

2: linguistic- the study of language

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3: rampant- wild

4: empathy- an understanding of others' feelings and experiences

Text 4

Giving High School Students the Tools to Question Classic Literature

Generations of students have read Shakespeare and Hemingway for high school literature

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class and Jeanne Dyches, assistant professor in Iowa State University’s School of Education,

would like students to question that tradition.

“As a field, we need to think about how our disciplines are advancing certain stories,

(5) silencing certain stories and socializing our students to think that what we’re teaching them is neutral,” Dyches said. “We need to have a conversation around why certain texts are taught year after year.”

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The titles often at the top of high school reading lists are considered “classics” or required

for “cultural literacy,” she said. However, the authors — typically white European men — do

(10) not reflect the diversity of students in the classroom. Dyches says assigning these texts without questioning issues of race or gender may exclude students who do not see themselves in the text, and make them feel their voices are not valued. This lack of questioning also normalizes the experiences of students who belong to dominant groups.

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That is why Dyches encourages educators to consider the ideology ingrained (1)

(15) in the texts they assign, and give students the tools to question what they are reading. For a new paper, published by Harvard Educational Review, Dyches spent time in a high school literature class teaching students to critically examine and question the discipline of English language arts. …

Her research found the lessons sharpened students’ awareness and recognition of

(20) messages of power and oppression within classic literature. By the end of the study, 77

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percent of students — a 27 percent increase — recognized the politicized nature of teaching

these traditional texts. Dyches says while most students were uncomfortable talking about

oppression and injustice in a specific text, students of color demonstrated more awareness

of these issues.

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(25) “We all have different experiences and reactions when we’re having conversations that

challenge us to question and consider race, gender, and sexuality and all the messy

intersections,” Dyches said. “It’s OK for students who have never heard these things to still

be grappling with their own racial understanding and social-cultural identity. But we must still create opportunities for students to learn, wrestle with and apply new critical lenses to (30) their educational experiences and the world around them.”

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Bland, yet timeless

Dyches surveyed students at the beginning and end of the study to understand their

perceptions and relationships with the texts they were reading in literature class. In their

responses, students described the texts as “bland and ineffective,” adding that they “can’t

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relate to any of it,” yet they still considered the titles to be “timeless” and important “to

(35) improve upon their reading and writing skills.” Dyches said students read the texts because

they believed doing so would prepare them for college.

Their responses illustrate a commonly held belief about the “value” of classic literature,

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which is based more on tradition than literary standards, Dyches said. The problem is

students and educators alike do not think to question why this is the case. In fact, Dyches says

(40) until she started researching social justice issues, she was unaware of the historical

perspectives and ideologies she promoted through the texts she assigned.

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Not only does she want to empower students to question what they’re reading in class,

Dyches also wants teachers to recognize the political context of their decisions. Educators,

like all people, have different biases or beliefs, Dyches said. However, if teachers know this

(45) and address those biases in the classroom, she says that is a step in the right direction.

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“We’re all political beings and whether you recognize it or not, you’re always teaching

from your belief systems. It’s essential to recognize and understand how our ideas or beliefs

influence our teaching. I would argue you’re being just as political when you assign ‘Macbeth’

as when you assign ‘The Hate U Give,’” Dyches said. …

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—Iowa State University

excerpted from “Giving High School Students the Tools to Question Classic Literature”

www.sciencedaily.com, January 29, 2019

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1: ingrained- firmly established