By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
ssoldan@mihomepaper.com
Brandon — The Brandon School District is expanding their plan to update the required readings for the high school English Language Arts.
In the 2020-2021 school year, the ELA teachers had a goal of getting students to read more, and implemented free reading times, where students could read a book of choice without being tested or pressure.
“Before the choice reading, most of our students did not identify as a reader, that was not something they considered themselves,” said Kristen Kelsey, BHS English teacher. “After the independent reading, the number of students who consider themselves readers grew by 30%, which is a pretty big gap.”
The affect of the choice reading was apparent to not only the English department, but in other areas of the school.
“There was a notable difference not just in ELA classes, but outside of English classes,” said Kelsey. “We had reports of teachers in other discipline say how the students had their reading books with them in science class, or how administrators notices that kids would have them at lunch. Teachers were surprised how kids, when they finished their assignments early, rather than getting out their phone, they’d pull out a book. The kids are actually choosing to read.”
In April of 2022, the school district updated the ELA readings for the English 11 students in the 2022-2023 school year by replacing “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley in the curriculum with a choice of six books: “The Serpent Kind” by Jeff Zentner, “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, “All American Boys” by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon, and “Firekeeper’s Daughter” by Angeline Boulley.
“In that same survey, they were asked how often they finish the entire book, which was not promising,” said BHS teacher Rebecca Dawson. “However, once they received a choice to choose a book they were interested in, that increased 17.2%.”
During the regular board meeting on Monday night, the English team gave a presentation to update the board of education on the progress of the English 11 unit, and the plans for the other grades to update their curriculums.
“We kind of did some research on how old our books are. While they’re still phenomenal books, they’re not necessarily connecting with the students anymore,” said Dawson. “What’s really important is that students enjoy reading and develop a love of reading. So, by giving them that choice, enjoyment has increased by 13%. Prior to that, students didn’t have much joy in reading.”
In ELA 9, 10 and 12, students will receive an option of four books to tie into the current curriculum without replacing a core text.
“Our goal continues to stay the same, to encourage enjoyment in reading and engagement as well,” said Dawson. “We hope to keep the curriculum and standards the same, just updating our reading options.”
Students who pick the same book will do book-club style conversations on those books.”
In English 9, students will have a choice of “Everything, Everything” by Nicola Yoon, “In the Wild Light” by Jeff Zentner, “Far from the Tree” bu Robin Benway, or “The Inexplicable Logic of my Life” bu Benjamin Alire Sáenz.
“English 9, one of our core units that we teach, is Romeo and Juliet, so we’re exploring the ideas of love and allegiance, and all of these books have ties that connect to that,” said Kelsey. “So our base book will be Romeo and Juliet as freshmen and then we have the book club after that.”
In English 10, students will have a choice of “Warrior Girl Unearthed” by Angeline Boulley, “Projekt 1065” by Alan Gratz, “Salt to the Sea” bu Ruta Sepetys, or “I Must Betray You” also by Ruta Sepetys.
“English 10 is American Lit, so so much of American Literature is very much steeped in history,” said BHS teacher Gwen Stine. “Kind of going around that idea, these are all connected by the power of one. You see that in books, in some of the earlier readings, early American readings, and then also with The Cruicible, and that would be kind of that main tie-in.”
English 12 students will have a choice of “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt, “The Seventh Most Important Thing” by Shelley Pearsall, “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, or “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens.
“English 12 has been a class that has kind of changed in what we’ve been teaching,” said Stine. “The goal here is to kind of continue with that idea of seniors and both hope and redemption as they’re starting kind of their next chapter, that seemed to be a theme that worked really well, especially as they’re writing college scholarships and applications and all sorts of stuff.”
The district is hoping to purchase the books prior to the end of the year for use in the second semester.