Crucify Me Now English Teachers of the World #10SummerBlogs

I was an English teacher for the past three years, so much of what I am about to write about is almost blasphemous.  In the past week I have done a lot of reading and research in the area of Competency Based Education, and have been working with some great educators to get the ball rolling for CBE in our district.  If I were to go back into the classroom this upcoming school year I would probably scrap a large majority of what I was doing.  So here it goes English teachers...this post is primarily directed at you, but could be of some interest to the rest of you educators.

1. Get rid of you class sets of novels and reading materials.  Most teachers (probably all) don't agree with standardized testing, so why do you standardize your reading?  I always love the excuse; "well it's the activities we do that are differentiated."  Seems odd to me that you would differentiate the activities, and assessments but not the actual material to complete those.  The other argument is: "Well, but everyone needs to read (insert famous classic here, usually Shakespeare or To Kill a Mockingbird).  My simple question is why?  What makes those materials any better than anything else and why would your students care?  Your argument for teaching anything should never be, because we just have to do it.  The nice part of this is it saves your district money.  Think of all the reading material that can be found online...for free and because your implementing student voice and choice it is modified and differentiated and you don't have to worry about kids cheating, not doing to work, or that dreaded thing call Sparknotes.  
   
   
2. Allow and don't restrict resources.  Your students are in a society where resources are available all the time at the click of a button.  Why in the world do we shun Sparknotes, Wikipedia, and many digital resources?  Wikipedia is actually pretty credible.  The CEO has stated that people should never cite it in an academic paper, but he also states that no encyclopedia should be.  Sparknotes is a great resource for students to use if they are having an issue with understanding, but if you take our standardized reading, this really shouldn't be an issue.  Open up another realm to researching by allowing YouTube, Wikipedia, Sparknotes, digital resources, etc.  Never require a book source, that's ridiculous.  When you require something it automatically puts a stamp of "sucks" on it so by saying "you need a book/print source" good luck getting kids to be fully engaged in that.
3. APA is greater than MLA.  I was always under the assumption that everyone was on board with MLA formatting, as I was an English person and that's all I was told.  Turns out most courses in colleges in most other fields are actually using APA.  Now there are plenty of applications that can simply format papers for you with the click of a button (just use these because they are great), but I think there is value in teaching both of these formats and probably APA more so than MLA.  Then there is the other issue in education about the overall idea of standardized formatting, does a proper citation really reflect the writing?  Does proper formatting reflect writing?  No, it doesn't.  we need to start focusing on the writing over the formatting.  An easy way to do this is have students write then have them use those fancy applications later, then you don't have teach and reteach, you can simply focus on the writing.
4. Terminology sucks.  Quit teaching all this useless, technical terminology in your ELA classes.  We're not here to teach content, we're here to teach skills.  When you throw all these terms that relate to grammar, punctuation, syntax, literature, etc. all you are doing is making sure students memorize stuff.  Take out the terminology and instead focus on what truly matters.  What truly matters?  Think about for some time and I can guarantee you it is not whether or not a student can appropriately identify a pronoun.  I'll have more on this later when I get the go ahead to publicize more information on the REACHITFD program the school district I work for is implementing.
5. Change what reading and writing mean.  Reading in the 21st century simply means learning.  Writing in the 21st century simply means sharing.  It's as simple as that.  Does a kid need to learn from reading an article or book?  No, they can learn from images, videos, interviews, etc.  Does a kid need to share information solely through writing?  No, they can share through video, pictures, blogging, social networking, web design, etc.  I am not saying traditional reading and writing are not important, but what I am saying is so are those things.  Learning from a wide range of material and utilizing different resources to hare information is just important.
6. Nothing is necessary.  I am a strong believer that there is not one single book that every person NEEDS to read.  And a side note, there is not one single book that anyone NEEDS to read be a more productive citizen.  I love To Kill a Mockingbird, Huck Finn, and Of Mice and Men as much as the next English teacher, but I am not so naive to believe that all of my students do.  TKAM was a required book when I was a freshman in high school.  I never read it, because I was lazy, and I outsmarted the system.  I would make my way to school about 10 minutes earlier on a daily basis, hop on a computer, and read the shorter Sparknotes.  I would then go to class, participate in discussion, take a quiz and pass with flying colors.  Why?  Because the current and traditional system is flawed.  We were told not to use Sparknotes, which made it that much more appealing.  I was always told TKAM was a book everyone needs to read.  Why?  Nobody could give me a straight answer, besides, it's just a great book.  I love the book now and have read over and over again, but I did this by choice, which made it so much more enjoyable.

At this point you might be red in the face, which has developed off of all of the questions or rebuttals you have about the above.  What do we do in English class?  In a perfect world we wouldn't have just an English class, you would have integrated classes.  For now though, you focus on skill sets, write some essential questions, and have students answer these through whatever means you see fit.  Tie back to the content in some way as far as resources are concerned, but don't teach content.  Don't "cover" information, units, material, etc.  Get rid of the old and bring in a new way of educating.  You are smart.  I had a professor in college who said English teachers are the smartest people in the history of the universe.  Sounds a little conceded, but there is a reason he said it, and if it's true you should be able to shift your practices to give the best opportunities for your students.  I invite you to ask questions by leaving a comment or shooting me an email at aschmidt@fdschools.org. I am also willing to sit down (face-to-face or virtually) and walk you through some planning to make this a reality if you are receptive to change.  Unfortunately, not everyone is receptive to change, so for you take a deep breath and move on to a different blog, because obviously mine is not what you are looking for.