The Death and Resurrection of a Coherent Literature Curriculum: What Secondary English Teachers Can Do

ISBN-13: 9781610485586 Publisher: R&L Education Publication date: 06/14/2012 Pages: 164 Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d) This book is addressed to teachers who know that the secondary literature curriculum in our public schools  is in shambles. Unless experienced and well-read English teachers can develop coherent and increasingly demanding literature curricula in their schools, average high school students will remain at about the fifth or sixth grade reading level—where they now are to judge from several independent sources. This book seeks to challenge education policy makers, test developers, and educators who discourage the assignment of appropriately difficult works to high school students and make construction of a coherent literature curriculum impossible.  It first traces the history of the literature curriculum in our middle schools and high schools and shows how it has been diminished and distorted in the past half-century.  It then offers examples of coh