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Sixty-four percent of elementary school teachers said they choose most texts based on students' reading levels, rather than grade level or other metrics. That number goes down for middle- and high-school teachers, but it's still relatively high:

You can also see evidence of the tendency away from rigor on the lists of most-assigned texts. Here are the ten most popular stories for each age group, along with their " lexiles." (Lexiles are a measure of a text's difficulty, ranging from below 200 to more than 1600. The higher the lexile level, the more challenging the text. Lexile levels are based on a text's vocabulary and sentence length, not its themes or concepts.)
Elementary School
According to the Common Core standards, fourth- and fifth-graders should be reading texts with a lexile range of 740 to 1100; four of the 10 most popular books for his age range aren't challenging enough.
Middle School
Middle-schoolers should be reading texts in the 950 to 1185 range; seven of the 10 most popular books for this age group aren't challenging enough.
High School
According to the Common Core standards, ninth- and tenth-graders should be reading texts with a lexile range of 1050 to 1335: Five of the 10 most popular books don't meet that level of difficulty.

Clearly, there's a gap right now between what the Common Core standards say teachers should be doing-assigning tough texts, regardless of student ability-and what actually goes on in the classroom. Fordham will conduct a new, similar survey in 2015 to see how that gap between ideal and reality has changed.

"I'll be interested in seeing how that changes," said Porter-Magee.

One hurdle could be teacher buy-in. Ninety percent of the teachers surveyed said they were either "very" or "somewhat" familiar with the demands of the Common Core. Nearly half said they believe the new standards will improve student learning either "somewhat" or "a great deal." And yet the majority said they'd made little or no change to their teaching as a result of the new standards.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

Eleanor Barkhorn is a former senior editor at The Atlantic.

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Teachers Are Supposed to Assign Harder Books, but They Aren't Doing It Yet

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Because of Winn-Dixie, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and To Kill a Mockingbird are among the most popular texts assigned to public-school students, a new report shows. According to the new Common Core standards, they may not be challenging enough.

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The leaders of tomorrow will be well versed in dead philosophers, according to a new database of college syllabi.

The Open Syllabus Project, a collection of over 1 million curricula from English-language colleges and universities over the past 15 years, released its data on Friday (Jan. 22). Plato, Hobbes, Machiavelli, and Aristotle overwhelmingly dominate lists in the US, particularly at the top schools.

The required readings skew toward the humanities-science and engineering classes tend to assign fewer titles-and not surprisingly, toward the Western canon.

In the US, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein is the most taught work of fiction, with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales a close second. In history titles, George Brown Tindall and David Emory Shi's textbook, America: A Narrative History, is No. 1, with Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi, a memoir about life as an African-American woman in Jim Crow America, at No. 2. The Communist Manifesto is the third most taught in history, and is the top title in sociology.

"It's still a dirty dataset," project director Joe Karaganis tells Quartz, referring to the potential for errors from misspelled or non-uniform titles. In addition, the team behind the project, based at Columbia's American Assembly public policy institute, has had to rely on what's publicly available on college sites.

But with the database now open, Karaganis hopes this will change: As more institutions and academics get involved, the team can start to fill in the gaps and correct mistakes. He looks to triple the number of syllabi by the end of 2016.

See the texts taught at 10 of the top US colleges and how often they appeared over the last 15 years.

10 top US colleges*

Princeton

Harvard

Yale

Columbia

Stanford

University of Chicago

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Duke

University of Pennsylvania

Brown

* This list is compiled from the US News' current national universities rankings cross-referenced with available syllabi on the Open Syllabus Project.
Image by Marissa Smith on Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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These are the books students at the top US colleges are required to read

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The leaders of tomorrow will be well versed in dead philosophers, according to a new database of college syllabi. The Open Syllabus Project, a collection of over 1 million curricula from English-language colleges and universities over the past 15 years, released its data on Friday (Jan. 22).

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A MiddleWeb Blog

As I've admitted before, I am a PD junkie. Even though I have been teaching for over 20 years, I read every new book that comes out on teaching English. I feel the same way about these books as I do about attending professional conferences. If I gain one new great idea, then it was worth the price.

I consider each of these new ideas an ingredient that, once combined with my own seasoning, makes the special sauce that defines my classroom instruction.

Through my reading and in conference sessions, I've found that one curricular tradition that has taken a huge beating in the last several years is the teaching of the whole-class novel. It almost feels as if a gauntlet has been thrown down, and English teachers are forced to take sides: continue to teach whole-class novels or adopt the student choice model entirely.

I don't believe it has to be either-or. Personally, I find that a combination of whole-class novels, free voluntary reading, and read-alouds produces the trifecta of a winning reading curriculum.

Defining the problem(s)

What I believe most people dislike about the whole-class novel approach is that (1) it continues to be the main source of reading instruction in secondary schools; and (2) for the most part, the novels are being taught badly. If these two issues are addressed, whole-class novels can have a valuable place in a middle school English class.

First things first: I like teaching whole-class novels. There, I've said it. Over the years, I have found the whole-class novel to be an incredible community building and learning process for my students, and I have come up with some ways that I believe make it a worthwhile experience.

You don't have to commit when you teach a novel, so that all you're left with is a beaten-down carcass of what was once a perfectly fine work of literature. Students will engage with a text if given the opportunity, guidance, and support they need.

I'm in good company

I am not alone in my thinking. Many of my professional mentors whose books line my shelves still teach whole-class novels - not as the backbone of their curriculum but as one component. Another MiddleWeb contributor, eight grade teacher Ariel Sacks, has written an entire book devoted to the topic, Whole Novels for the Whole Class. I agree with much of what she says in the book, and I also facilitate a student-centered class.

I have been teaching similarly to Sacks for several years (ever since I read Readicide and long ago) and I am happy to see her book become so successful because it means that there are like-minded teachers out there. (I also know that many of those who rally against whole-class novels still incorporate the reading aloud of entire novels - in effect sharing a group reading experience with their students.)

The way I used to teach

The first step in achieving a balance of whole-novel teaching and student choice is to quit over-teaching books and killing the love of reading. Like many secondary English teachers, I began my career by teaching novels in the same way I was taught. I assigned a chapter or two at a time with vocabulary words to define, chapter questions to answer, useless worksheets, mundane projects that I believed would add some fun, and a summative comprehension test. The problem: I hated every minute of teaching that way and the kids were bored to tears.

I did love English classes when I was a kid. I distinctly remember truly enjoying reading The Diary of Anne Frank, Flowers for Algernon, The Great Gatsby, The Fountainhead, Skin of Our Teeth, etc. I think loved reading and stories so much that I blocked out how mind numbing it was to complete all of the accompanying busy work. I knew this was how the game was played and I played it well

I do remember somewhat enjoying the teacher guiding us toward his or her interpretation of the work and the rare opportunities for class discussion.

Discovering a novel together

Later, in my classroom, I wanted to capitalize on student discussion and discovery. I was already moving toward eliminating rote work when the right book appeared at the right time. Thank goodness for Kelly Gallagher's Readicide for giving me research-based permission to do what I'd always felt was right for students.

In Chapter 4 of Readicide, Gallagher discusses finding the "sweet spot" of instruction by achieving the right balance between the over-teaching and under-teaching of books. My quest for the sweet spot involves teaching a whole-class novel in a way that provides depth of thought, development of literacy skills, and student engagement.

Like Goldilocks, I am searching for what feels "just right." I am constantly refining my methods and have come up with some techniques that are working for me. Not only do my students enjoying reading a novel together in class, they also are able to meet and exceed the required standards.

Inclusive learning

Because of my background as a special education teacher, I often joke that I teach all of my students as if they are gifted students with learning differences. I say this in jest, but I truly do use the same techniques that I used to meet the needs of students on both ends of the continuum. I scaffold the learning so that each student can be successful while providing innovative, high-interest activities to satisfy their innate curiosity and drive.

Below are some of the supplemental activities, in addition to discussing the novel, that I used when I taught an 8th grade science fiction unit revolving around Lois Lowry's The Giver. It is important to note that I never spend more than three or four weeks on a novel. I have a short attention span.

The Giver: Reading the Whole Book

Prior to reading:

As a class, we discussed the idea of Utopian societies and how they have been attempted over the course of history.

Students worked in groups to develop their own Utopian society including such items as a flag with a representative symbol, a constitution of their beliefs, an advertisement of their unique assets, and a set of rules to be followed.

During reading:

We practiced storytelling using a favorite family memory.

We determined current milestone birthdays and their societal meaning.

During and after reading:

We read additional science fiction such as Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron, and we watched a couple of Twilight Zone episodes ("Number 12 Looks Just Like You" and "Eye of the Beholder"). We listened to the songs "One Tin Soldier," "Utopia," and "Imagine." We discussed the hippie movement and its goals. We compared and contrasted these in discussions of the ideas of total equality and the definition of perfection.

We debated whether it would be good or bad to have our negative memories removed.

We made connections to global, modern society today.

Help from touchstone texts

Since I last taught The Giver, two things have happened. First, I moved across the country and now teach sixth grade and a different set of novels. Second, I read Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers and Bob Probst, a book that has, once again, helped me add depth of thought to my reading instruction.

This book, along with Readicide, Book Love, and The Book Whisperer, are my touchstone texts that each came along at the right time and gave me the exact tools I needed.

In my next article, I will share how I scaffold our whole-class novel experiences from the beginning to the end of the year to achieve a gradual release of responsibility.
Meanwhile: Are you teaching whole novels? And if so, what are some of your strategies?

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Whole Novels vs. Choice Reading: Why Not Both?

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A MiddleWeb Blog As I've admitted before, I am a PD junkie. Even though I have been teaching for over 20 years, I read every new book that comes out on teaching English. I feel the same way about these books as I do about attending professional conferences.

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"But this book is so old!" Sound familiar? Never fear! Here are some foolproof ways to keep the classics fresh for the modern-day student.

1. Pair contemporary poetry and short stories with the classics. Invite students to read modern short stories and poetry and make thematic connections to a classic you are reading in class. Ask students to compare and contrast these supplemental pieces with their main text-what views do they share regarding central topics and themes? How are they different? Poets.org is an excellent resource for this, as you can search for poems by topic.

Examples of connective texts:

1984, George Orwell - "The Censors," short story by Luisa Valenzuela.

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare - "Blood," poem by Naomi Shihab Nye.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald - "Otherwise," poem by Jane Kenyon.

The Awakening, Kate Chopin - "In the Dark We Crush," poem by Julia Cohen.

Hamlet, Shakespeare - "A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease," short story by Jonathan Safran Foer.

2. Get social. Have students choose a character from the classic they're reading and create a Twitter account (on paper!) for that character. They then create an original Twitter handle, like @TheRealWanderlust for Odysseus or @IndependentWoman for Jane Eyre, and write 6 to 10 tweets that carry throughout the arc of the story. Create different rules, like they have to tweet at two other characters or need three original hashtags throughout their tweets. Have fun with it!

3. Make personal connections. Sometimes students can get so bogged down in the older settings, antiquated language and complicated plot details of the story that they forget there are transcendent themes in these classics. Before reading, ask students some questions the book examines. The students give their personal responses, and after reading, they compare their responses to the book's answers to those questions. This is often called an anticipation guide, and it highlights the real-world connections the books offers.

Examples of essential questions:

The Awakening: Is it ever moral to cheat on one's spouse? How far would you go to keep your identity?

The Great Gatsby: Can one truly reinvent oneself? Is it possible to leave the past behind?

4. Recast the classics. This activity emphasizes how culturally specific stories can still be universal by "recasting" the book into the modern day. First, students identify cultural specifics from the story (like setting, time period or religion) versus large, universal ideas (such as family conflict or the desire for independence). Then, the students recast the details into a modern setting. Here's an example of some guiding questions from Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha that could be adapted for your book to help students with their recasting.

1. Instead of being a Brahmin priest, who is the father of Siddhartha? Remember that he would have to be a very high-profile, powerful member of society.

2. Instead of a Hindu society, what society is your "recast Siddhartha" part of?

3. Why might the "recast Siddhartha" want to escape that society? Why is it unfulfilling for him/her?

4. Hesse's Siddhartha leaves his opulent lifestyle to join the ascetics, a group of people that leads an extremely simple lifestyle and rejects life's normal pleasures and material satisfaction. What group does the "recast Siddhartha" join upon leaving his/her own society?

5. Host a Socratic seminar. Shake up the boring back-and-forth Q-and-A tennis match with a student-led Socratic seminar. Instead of having students complete questions on their own, have them read the chapter at home and take notes. In class, students sit in a circle, then receive the questions and discuss them, referring to the text and their notes. Have one person record the group's answers-this will require appropriate pacing and a healthy group discussion to arrive at a consensus. Having the students complete the questions as a group as opposed to individually allows teens to consider multiple perspectives in addition to their own. Print out a class roster and note the quality and quantity of each class member's contributions for a participation grade.

6. Try literature circles. Instead of having all students read the same book, allow them to form small, interest-based groups and choose their own classics! Select the era-Renaissance, Reconstruction, what have you-and allow students library time to browse and choose a title that appeals to them. In their small groups, they can create reading goals and ideas for structuring their discussions. Your full-class lessons would focus on reading strategies and supplemental materials from the era, such as a complementary poem that the class discusses before breaking into book groups and applying it to their own book.

7. Analyze just a short passage. Often students get bogged down by the sheer length of classic novels and works of literature. So keep things smaller-try projecting the richest passage (one or two paragraphs) from their latest chapter on your board. If you don't have projection technology, run off a handout of the passage so everyone has a copy. Read the passage, and then conduct a full class analysis by: 1) identifying where the passage appears in the chapter, 2) summarizing what is being said (comprehension) and 3) analyzing the text by identifying different literary techniques and examining their effects.

For example, if there are many words with negative connotations, what effect does that have on the tone of the passage? What kinds of metaphors and similes are being used, and what does this figurative language communicate to the reader beyond the literal? In this way, you will be using the classics to teach skills that will work for all types of reading and media. Once you have done this a few times as a class, try breaking up students into small groups and letting them try it on their own. Eventually, they will be strong enough to do it independently!

8. Borrow classic techniques for students' own writing. This works especially well for satire, like Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal." As you read with students, identify not just what but how the author satirizes. After identifying the technique, students apply it by creating their own satires. For example, in Huckleberry Finn, Twain establishes the character of Pap as an untrustworthy "bad guy" with his drunkenness and his physical abuse of Huck. Therefore, when Pap launches into his racist tirade in chapter six, the reader is forced to question these hateful attitudes. Because they come from Pap, Twain shows that racism is wrong. Students can apply this technique-communicating a view through an unreliable voice-to an issue they personally care about, be it a school policy, community issue or something more global.

9. Teach your favorites. No teaching strategy is more effective than simply sharing your passion. It's contagious! Sharing your favorite classic books, authors, passages and lines will help ignite a spark in your students. Post awesome book quotes around your room; talk about your memories of reading these books for the first time. At the end of the day, genuine enthusiasm and a personal endorsement go a long way in keeping the classics fresh!

Learn how you can get copies of classic literature for as low as 99 cents with Literary Touchstone Classics from Prestwick House. Each Literary Touchstone Classic features reading pointers and a vocabulary guide!

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9 Ways to Keep the Classics Fresh in High School English

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"But this book is so old!" Sound familiar? Never fear! Here are some foolproof ways to keep the classics fresh for the modern-day student. 1. Pair contemporary poetry and short stories with the classics. Invite students to read modern short stories and poetry and make thematic connections to a classic you are reading in class.

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Young adult fiction allows teens to read about characters facing challenges that may resemble ones they're dealing with in their own lives.

For preteens and teens confronting the death of a loved one, a traumatic or violent encounter, the pressure to make a difficult choice, or an all-consuming question about their identity, books can be lighthouse in these troubling waters.

Beyond blockbusters like "The Fault in Our Stars" and "The Hunger Games" - both of which do an excellent job of getting readers to consider life's complications - there are fantastic reads that ask audiences to think about issues faced by teens and consider ways to cope with them. For those confronting these tough circumstances themselves, these books will surely provide solace in an upsetting or confusing time.

Here are some books your preteen or teen can use to understand or examine difficult moments she or a loved one has dealt with. As always, young adult novels may include sensitive subject material, like sexual assault, bullying, violence, abuse, and other challenging topics that could upset some readers. The books on this list may discuss such topics, and in some cases may build plots around them.

A finalist for the National Book Award in 2015, this novel couples grief with coming-of-age. When her neighbor Franny drowns, 12-year-old Suzy convinces herself that a jellyfish sting took her friend's life. This tale follows Suzy as she tries to work through the mystery of Franny's death and the reality of growing up.

Winner of a long list of awards, "Thirteen Reasons" is a thriller revolving around Hannah Baker's suicide. After her death, Clay, her neighbor, receives cassette tapes explaining the thirteen reasons that Hannah decided to take her life. In an attempt to come to terms with her suicide, Clay follows the clues she recorded to discover the truth behind her tragic life and death.

When this book came out in 1999, my students could not stop talking about it. They had never read a story that dealt so frankly and honestly with sexual assault. Nominated for a National Book Award that year, this novel illustrates the silencing that sexual assault survivors often face. Readers learn of this trauma through Melinda, a high school student who struggles to heal after she's raped by an upperclassman. When her attacker assaults another person, Melinda finds her voice and speaks her truth.

The refugee crisis needs to be examined by young readers, and this novel, written in free verse poems, can serve this crucial need. Though intended for an audience at the younger end of the young adult spectrum, Lai's text shows the struggles of a family in crisis as it moves from Vietnam to the United States. As members of the family create new lives for themselves, they are confronted with bullying and sadness. This novel earned a National Book Award for its grace in handling one of the world's most pressing challenges.

Another National Book Award-winning novel, Alexie's tale finds it genesis in his own experiences of growing up on a reservation. Junior leaves the reservation for a school in a rich, white neighborhood where - to his great surprise - he makes friends despite being taunted by the majority of the students he encounters. A coming-of-age story that helps readers learn about the specific identity issues facing those in indigenous populations, Junior's story brings to light a conflict faced by millions in the United States and will resonate with readers working through their own questions of identity.

Geared toward readers on the older end of the YA spectrum, this novel tells the story of Miles and the ways in which his life changes when he meets Alaska. As he finds himself learning about her friend group, he deals with issues of self-harm, sex, and drugs. Several reviewers remark on the book's classification as YA literature because of its frank depictions of sensitive topics. I would wager, however, that most teens have encountered many of the same situations as Miles confronts in the novel, and reading about his experience may help them make more sense of theirs.

On the cusp of his 13th birthday, Johnny finds himself fatherless and basically motherless. And questioning his gender. And confused about his sexuality. And using alcohol to cope. The novel shares the story of Johnny's journey through these issues, creating a narrative focused on love, struggle, and perhaps even redemption.

London, the novel's courageous and charming protagonist, is going through a lot: she's dealing with a big secret, an unwieldy love triangle, and an abusive, alcoholic father, all while she has to face the challenges of living in inner-city Boston and Detroit. Lacking a permanent home and family to call her own, London must come to terms with her racial, sexual, and gender identity on her own.

With all of the great new titles in the market, I want to be sure this list honors a few classics. I still have my copy of "Forever," tattered and yellowed from being passed around my entire sixth grade class. I imagine the education my class at Kratzer Elementary School got from Blume's novel still follows all 25 of us. Katherine and Michael's love story is still relevant to readers today, which is why the novel is still in print - 40 years after its original publication in 1975.

Reluctant readers in my classrooms devoured this book. Written as a diary, this engaging novel tells the story of a young girl swallowed by drug culture. Readers looking for a fictional account of the terrors of drugs will be moved by the ultimate outcome of the protagonist.

Readers craving more great stories can check out the American Library Association's list of best books. NPR also offers a list of 100 Favorite YA Reads, many of which tangle with the issues mentioned above.

Hopefully, these books will help readers feel that they are not alone in whatever they or their friends are facing.
Looking for more enticing YA reads? Check out 7 Young Adult Books That Include Diverse Voices and 10 Young Adult Books That Defy Gender Stereotypes.

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10 Young Adult Books That Teach Teens About Difficult Issues

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Young adult fiction allows teens to read about characters facing challenges that may resemble ones they're dealing with in their own lives. For preteens and teens confronting the death of a loved one, a traumatic or violent encounter, the pressure to make a difficult choice, or an all-consuming question about their identity, books can be lighthouse in these troubling waters.

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The school year is winding down, which means that teens (young people of any age, really) can finally give the classics a rest and dive instead into the young adult novels that really reflect what it's like to grow up today. Not so fast, though: Lots of YA books, for all their fantastical plot elements and contemporary detail (in at least one of these novels, witches and iPods are never far apart), address some of the same themes the classics do, including race, female sexuality, mental illness, and obviously enough, love. In honor of the classics, YA, and the joy of reading of both together, we've rounded up eight of the most-taught books in America and paired them with contemporary reads that tread the same, timeless territory.

In Shakespeare's classic romance/tragedy, the lovers are torn apart -- or, "star-cross'd," to use the play's phase-by the feud between their families, the Montagues and Capulets of Verona, Italy. In John Green's bestselling novel -- the movie version of which is set to hit theaters in early June -- the lovers are torn apart by cancer.

Both Hazel and Augustus have had experiences with the c-word, but Hazel -- whose thyroid cancer has spread to her lungs -- is the "grenade" in the relationship, threatening to explode at any moment, and break Augustus's heart. The novel, which takes its title from another Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar, continues in the tradition inaugurated by Romeo and Juliet, illustrating love's ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl's Beautiful Creatures contains a number of allusions to Shakespeare's Macbeth. The story centers on a young girl descended from a family of witches -- (spell) Casters -- who draws a non-magical young man, Ethan Wate, into her world and family on the eve of her 16th birthday, at which time it will be decided whether she will grow into a force of good or evil. The book even contains three older witches called the Sisters, a seemingly direct nod to Shakespeare's play. Set in the gothic American south, Beautiful Creatures, like Macbeth, explores issues of family and prophecy, while pulling readers into a world rich with fantastical detail and intrigue.

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn introduced readers to one of the greatest rebels in American literature. From Huck faking his own death (which sets the novel in motion) to his various adventures and schemes in Kentucky, Illinois, and Arkansas, the novel painted a vivid picture of youth and independence, while also shedding light on America's troubled racial history.

In Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, bestselling young adult author Sherman Alexie gives readers another renegade to look up to -- an aspiring cartoonist who flouts the expectations of his Native American community -- while offering a glimpse of another, no less problematic, aspect of America's racial landscape.

Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird examined race and prejudice in mid-century Alabama through the eyes of Scout, the white daughter of a lawyer defending a black man accused of rape. Heidi W. Durrow's novel, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, also looks at race in America. But in this case, the protagonist is a half-black, half-white young girl growing up in a community (1980s Portland, Oregon) that, in the words of Publishers Weekly, "demands her to be either white or black." This alternative take on racial issues will complement Lee's classic while opening additional questions about prejudice, community, and the boundary-eroding powers of friendship.

Writer and comedian ( and former Bookish contributor) Sara Benincasa's Great is a glossy update of Fitzgerald's classic that is no less attentive to issues of class, sexuality, and ambition in America. And its largely female cast will appeal to any reader who finds classic American literature to be somewhat of a boys' club.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel about adulteress Hester Prynne opened a literary and cultural debate about America's sexual double standards and social mores. E. Lockhart's The Boyfriend List tackles a similar problem in a contemporary setting through Ruby Oliver, a down-on-her-luck 15 year-old navigating the wilds of fancy private school Tate Prep. After being dumped by her boyfriend-and shamed by her former friends-Ruby proceeds to see a shrink and recount all her past boyfriends ("official and unofficial") in an effort to reconsider, or not, her life choices. The Hairpin praised The Boyfriend List, saying, "Your heart breaks for Ruby even as she makes you laugh with her wry and true observations about life as a teenage girl."

If you haven't already jumped on the Hunger Games bandwagon, now's the time. Collins' bestselling trilogy pays tribute to Lord of the Flies with its story about a world in which teenagers have to fight each other to the death to survive. Just as in Golding's classic, the experience proves humanizing for some, while others slide all too easily into kill-or-be-killed mode.

John Steinbeck's deceptively slim novel packs a powerful story about a sibling relationship constrained by both economic hardship and the realities of mental illness. In Perfect Escape, Jennifer Brown offers a variation on this theme: In the wake of a cheating scandal, teenager Kenra decides to "get away from it all" by going on a roadtrip with her brother, Grayson, who suffers from acute OCD.

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8 Modern YA Novels to Pair With Classroom Classics

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The school year is winding down, which means that teens (young people of any age, really) can finally give the classics a rest and dive instead into the young adult novels that really reflect what it's like to grow up today.

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Instructional materials are essential tools in the English language arts classroom. They allow students to interact with words, images, and ideas in ways that develop their abilities in multiple literacies such as reading, listening, viewing, thinking, speaking, writing, and technology. Because instructional materials are a primary resource for English language arts teachers, they must be selected wisely.

The cornerstone of consistent, pedagogically sound selection practices is a clear, written policy for the selection of materials in the English language arts program. Such a policy not only helps teachers to achieve program goals, but also helps schools protect the integrity of programs increasingly under pressure from censors, propagandists, and commercial interests.

Because selection policies should reflect local interests and issues and should be consistent with other locally developed policies and curriculum documents, NCTE provides no "boilerplate" to be used as a model by local schools. However, NCTE strongly recommends that English language arts teachers and school boards use the following guidelines to develop or review policies for inclusion of materials in English language arts programs.
Scope of the Policy for Selection of Instructional Materials
What do we mean by "instructional materials"? In the past, the answer might have been simply textbooks and workbooks. Today, however, the range has broadened considerably, including young adult and graphic novels, informational text, websites, and ever-changing technology. The focus of this document, then, is not on selection in the narrow sense of textbook adoption, but on curriculum and program planning that entails selection of a wide range of materials, both print and digital, that can be used in whole-class study, small-group work, and by individual students in extensive study.

As schools clarify the scope of the policy, they should consider not only purchased materials, but also materials that are provided online as well as those generated by the teacher and even the students (e.g., student writings discussed in class or small groups). Also, the scope of the policy should not unwittingly stifle spontaneity and creativity in teachers by requiring a formal selection process for all materials used for instructional purposes. Sometimes the most effective learning experiences are those that make use of unanticipated instructional materials: a letter to the editor, a blog or tweet, for instance, or a newly released video version of a literary work read by the class.

It is important, too, to distinguish between selection of materials and censorship of materials. (See NCTE's Statement on Censorship and Professional Guidelines.) Selection of instructional materials is part of sound program planning. Needless to say, careful selection is a powerful buffer against challenges because it assures that the program planning process was thoughtful and not haphazard. NCTE has previously published many materials on responding to challenges, recommending that orderly procedures be followed when an objection to instructional materials is made.
Criteria
Each school should develop its own criteria for selecting materials for inclusion in English language arts programs, but virtually all criteria relate to two general requirements for selections: materials must (1) have a clear connection to established educational objectives and (2) address the needs of the students for whom they are intended.
Connection to Educational Objectives
Instructional materials in the English language arts program should align with the general philosophy of the school or district, the curriculum goals and objectives of the English language arts program, and the learning outcomes of the particular course or grade level. For instance, some materials may be included because they reflect the school's philosophy of encouraging critical thinking in relation to controversial situations and points of view. Or materials may be included because they meet the curriculum objective of presenting articulate voices from different eras or diverse cultures. Or they may be included to address specific learner outcomes, such as understanding how imagery can underscore theme. As an example, Khaled Hossein's The Kite Runner may serve all of these purposes while Markus Zusak's The Book Thief may serve only some of them. However, because both of these high quality works have a clear connection to educational objectives of the school, both might be included in the English language arts program. Publishers and policymakers have found it easier than ever to compile national lists of "standards-aligned materials" because of Common Core State Standards (CCSS). While such lists may provide insight and guidance, decision-making about the selection of materials should still be shaped by local goals and objectives. Adoption of such lists may also hinder teacher-generated lessons and materials and rigid adherence to such lists limits the inclusion of timely materials that are often powerful teaching tools for any number of standards.

Policies should also reflect the understanding that an English language arts program is not one instructional resource, but many; not one curriculum objective, but several. Therefore, English language arts policies should seek to build a collection of instructional materials that as a whole create balance and emphasis in the curriculum. Clearly, no single textbook or set of instructional materials will meet the curricular goals of presenting various points of view, situations, and styles; addressing diverse ability levels; and representing the contributions of people of diverse religions, ages, races, ethnicity, abilities, and cultures. Nonetheless, the collection of materials in the English language arts program as a whole should address all of these concerns and should emphasize those which teachers, as informed professionals working within the district's philosophical framework, find particularly important.

Finally, materials must be selected with an eye toward coordinating instruction within and between grade levels, courses, and disciplines. For example, students who read or watch Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games in social studies, English, and health are getting too much of a good thing. So are the students who reported studying Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" every year in grades 7-10. By contrast, teachers of junior English cannot draw on students' shared literary background if teachers at earlier levels have used a potpourri of unarticulated works. This is not an argument for a fixed, lock-step curriculum but for a collegial sharing of goals and ideas for instructional materials as teachers engage in the process of selecting materials.

With the adoption and implementation of the CCSS, much emphasis has been placed on the need to use complex texts with students, leading to requirements for selection procedures to incorporate this dimension as an expectation of educational objectives. The concept of increasing text complexity over time is not new to English language arts teachers, while qualification of what is meant by "text complexity" in CCSS terms is new and must be considered. Appendix A of the CCSS attempts to clarify that text complexity should be determined by three "equally important components": quantitative measures (assessed by readability formulas measuring sentence length and word frequency to assign Lexile or grade levels); qualitative measures (assessed by adults measuring content, structures, knowledge demands, and clarity); and by reader and task considerations (assessed by teachers weighing knowledge of individual readers' motivation, experiences, background knowledge and considering the complexity of task(s) associated with a text (p. 4, 2010). Misinterpretations about determining text complexity are common, with publishers, state and local policy leaders focusing more heavily on the quantitative dimension and Lexile/Readability levels. Over-dependence on quantitative measures of text complexity is erroneous on behalf of publishers and policy leaders and perilous on behalf of students. Teacher expertise is clearly privileged within the CCSS criteria to make text complexity determinations using qualitative and reader/task considerations and requires the careful deliberation of those selecting materials.
Relevance to Student Needs
Materials should be examined for level of difficulty. They must be readable if they are to be truly accessible to students. Because readability formulas tend to be simplistic measures, such formulas should be used cautiously, if at all. Teachers' judgments about the difficulty of a work are more soundly based on complexity of plot, organization, abstractness of the language, familiarity of vocabulary, and clarity of syntax. Also, because the average classroom includes students reading at several levels of proficiency, materials judged as inappropriate for whole-class instruction might be suitable for small-group use or for independent reading by more capable readers.

Reading materials which draw upon students' backgrounds are desirable. Both comprehension and engagement are enhanced when students can activate relevant background knowledge as they read, connecting their personal experiences with vicarious experiences. This does not deny the value of reading about the unfamiliar and even the fantastic. But the relevance of a work to students' daily lives or to the lives of their imaginations is worthy of consideration in the selection process.

"Age-appropriateness" alone is never sufficient reason to include particular materials in the English language arts program; nevertheless, materials should be suited to the maturity level of the students for whom they are intended. Evaluating "age-appropriateness" can be problematic, but legal decisions have provided some guidance in this area. Generally, when courts evaluate the age-appropriateness of material, they do not consider it in isolation. They weigh the value of the material as a whole, particularly its relevance to educational objectives, against the likelihood of a negative impact on the students for whom it is intended. That likelihood is lessened by the exposure the typical student has had to the controversial subject or manner of presentation. A negative impact is also less likely if the typical student of that age is sufficiently mature to view the subject or manner of presentation within the context of the overall purpose of the work. When these mitigating factors exist and the material serves a legitimate pedagogical purpose, courts consider the material age-appropriate. For instance, one court found the overall merit of a particular magazine article to outweigh the potentially negative impact of the author's repeated use of a profane expression (Keefe v. Geankos, 1969). The court noted that seniors in high school were "not devoid of all discrimination or resistance" and doubted that students of that age had been or could be protected from exposure to such expression.
Procedures for Selection of Instructional Materials
Good schools, recognizing the importance of support from parents and the community, operate within a framework for democratic decision making. Materials selection and challenged materials policies are important parts of that framework. Well-established procedures for selecting instructional material ensure public involvement and professional guidance. Therefore, it is essential that materials selection policies clearly describe the steps involved in the selection process and the personnel responsible for each step.
Responsibility for Selection
Selecting materials requires in-depth knowledge: not just of students' backgrounds and learning experiences, but also of their abilities and interests; not just of educational objectives, but of the best practices and range and quality of materials for meeting them; not just of the particular work being considered, but of its place within the medium, genre, epoch, etc., it represents. In short, responsible selection demands not only the experience and education needed to make sound choices but also the ability to defend the choices made.

This level of expertise can be found in the English language arts professional. Therefore, although administrators and school boards are often legally charged with the responsibility of selecting instructional materials, this responsibility should be delegated to English language arts professionals.
Selection Procedures
Selection procedures may vary in terms of the size of the group, nonteacher participants, and schedules, but certain elements are important. In general, selection is most appropriately done by the English language arts teachers who are closest to the students-that is, by teachers at the building level. The group's charge must be clearly specified and understood by all. The process should be part of the school's annual schedule, and adequate time must be set aside for the work at hand.

As part of its evaluation process, the selection group should discuss every work under consideration for inclusion, giving extended attention to materials that are likely to be assigned for whole-class use. However, good English language arts programs typically involve classroom libraries and extensive reading lists that individualize and expand student choices. Consequently, selection often makes use of published reviews of materials and opinions of informed peers, including district language arts coordinators, librarians, and leaders in professional associations.

All selections should be made on the basis of the materials' strengths in terms of the selection criteria. Once selections are made, the selection group should be encouraged to maintain a file of written rationales, if only in the form of meeting notes, which explain how selections meet the selection criteria.

The selection criteria should be made public in written form. The actual materials selected will become known in due time through course syllabi, booklists circulated to students and parents, and various assignments. But the list of materials can be made available for comments by students, parents, and the public at any time, with the understanding that further informal selection and changes are sometimes made as teachers perceive numerous opportunities during the course of the year to better meet students' needs through other materials.
Opportunity for Informal Selection
Creative teachers take advantage of opportunities to use materials which do not lend themselves to the formal selection process e.g., current online newscasts, websites, videos, blogs, e-books, articles, student writing samples, or materials for short-term projects. Such supplemental materials may be selected by the appropriate instructor; but again they must meet the general selection criteria of educational relevance and ability to meet student needs.
This position statement may be printed, copied, and disseminated without permission from NCTE.

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Guidelines for Selection of Materials in English Language Arts Programs - NCTE

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Instructional materials are essential tools in the English language arts classroom. They allow students to interact with words, images, and ideas in ways that develop their abilities in multiple literacies such as reading, listening, viewing, thinking, speaking, writing, and technology. Because instructional materials are a primary resource for English language arts teachers, they must be selected wisely.

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Do you consider access or grade level tradition?

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Do you consider access or grade level tradition?

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Do you consider the community reaction? 

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Do you consider the community reaction? 

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Do you consider your personal taste or knowledge of a text?

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Do you consider your personal taste or knowledge of a text?

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Do you consider student interest, text appeal, or literary merit?

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Do you consider student interest, text appeal, or literary merit?

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Do you you use qualitative factors such  as density, organization, text features, graphics, or genre?

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Do you you use qualitative factors such  as density, organization, text features, graphics, or genre?

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Do you use quantitative factors such as lexile levels and readability formulas?

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Do you use quantitative factors such as lexile levels and readability formulas?