Whole-Class Novels

Welcome, Educators!

Introduction

English Language Arts teachers often strive to find the perfect recipe for reading in their classroom. We may never find the penultimate gold star, but we can continue to research and expand our perspectives about making reading engaging, beneficial, and celebrated.

In order to address the picture, it's important to separate our reading instructions into categories: choosing the text and approaching the text. Teachers need to building their expertise in representation because of the vital role we play as facilitators of equal education.

Overall, whole-class novels are the fulcrum to students' learning. Building a community of readers requires intentional pedagogy.

Question & Answer

  • What is the "Literary Canon's" role in today's secondary ELA classroom?
    • Instead of using classic literature to transcend time and space, educators often rely on extracting simplistic benefits from the "Literary Canon." Context is everything. We as a society don't expect people in their careers to spend weeks on topics that aren't related to their goals. We can't expect students to spend weeks on classic literature without shifting the goals to fit contemporary contexts.
  • Why is implementing diverse whole-class novels difficult?
    • Funding. It's the tale as old as time. Schools have a hard time paying for sets of contemporary texts because they may seem temporarily valuable. However, the problem still lies within the lack of shifting priorities. At the end of the day, where is money going to and where is money not going to?