Top 5 Ideas from Carol Jago's Seminar on the Common Core

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Here are the Top 5* Ideas that English Department members took from Carol Jago's seminars on Wednesday's "Cross Pollination" and Thursday's sessions on how the Common Core should influence instruction in reading and writing.

1.  Don't Beat the Novel to Death! Instead, Carol said, pick out 5-7 essential passages that kids should know -- and maybe spend a lot of time on each of those.  One teacher said:

In my own experience, I think I lingered too long on books in the past, thinking I had to teach everything in those books. That might’ve benefited a few kids in the class, but for too many, this might’ve sucked the life out of the book. I think I’ve grown as a teacher understanding how far I should go with a book to keep kids’ attention—while still challenging them with what we address—but then being able to move on without risking losing them because they feel we’re beating a dead horse (or dead Kurtz, or dead Gatsby).    

Another teacher said: 

I have a problem with over-teaching literature. I love her reminder that not all of the book has to be nit-picked. Looking at my upcoming calendar for Jekyll and Hyde, I am already thinking about each day how I can lessen the emphasis on decoding EACH and EVERY detail in order to spend more time on a few passages.

2. The Spark Notes quiz! Carol suggested that teachers spend too much time creating quizzes.  The sparknotes quiz (put Sparknotes summary up on the overhead, ask kids to tell you "what else happened" is one solution.  One teacher said:  

I have always given reading quizzes to hold my students accountable for reading passages as their homework assignment, but I think I will try “here’s the sparknotes version, not tell me 3 things you remember happening” idea for a quiz.

3. We are in a very good position with our current curriculum and with our friends in Social Studies.  Carol said that most schools she visits do not ask kids to write ANY research-based essays.  She says that most schools don't ask kids to read textbooks or outside books in social studies.  One teacher said:

 I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel here, especially when they have nothing [specific about what the tests will look like] to show us.  I also think that if there needs to be an increase in non-fiction, she should make it very clear that the English department, which is responsible for the fiction that is supposed to be 30% of their entire reading, should not feel that they need to throw away the choices we’ve made and replace them with non-fiction. That 70% certainly comes from the reading they do in science and social studies and business classes.

4. Coordinating/Supporting fiction with non-fiction and visual texts.  Carol gave many examples of how to increase the amount of "argument analysis" we do with students in small, simple (and in high-interest) ways.  On the very easy end, it involves looking at photos and artwork and asking kids to talk about what they see and what it means (providing evidence from the text.  On the other end, it means adding NF texts, like those from the Atlantic or adding NF titles to "lit circles" (which are concluded with discussion and short writing, but not over-assessed.)  One teacher said:

I plan on making our SSR requirement a non-fiction for next year. I 100% agree with her that students need to be reading more of this type of print to better navigate through the world. I will be asking the library for some pointers in this area. I love how she talked about her husband’s selection of books on his nightstand and made the point that future husbands are in our classroom. We need to pick things they will naturally gravitate towards wanting to read.

5. Young Adult Literature.  This was one of the topics that Carol asked the audience to refrain from throwing tomatoes at her.  I received feedback on both sides of the issue:  that "texts should be in the kids' ZPD," or that "YA is a valuable teaching tool to increase the love of reading.  One teacher said:

I liked that she was not a fan of adolescent literature that is written in a dumbed down fashion so as not to be off-putting to readers. I liked her insistence that we shouldn’t be “teaching” with books that students can read and interpret on their own satisfactorily.

Another teacher commented that Carol is:

Ignoring the research showing that student-selected texts which are age appropriate should be a part (certainly not all or even a majority) of the classroom for students to see it as valued and important. Dismissing it to outside reading doesn’t work. These are the texts that are engendering a love of reading for many beyond the nerdy girl.

As I review my notes and get more feedback from teachers, I'll create another posting.

*Top 5 in terms of some popularity among responses.