I’m an English teacher. My fingers were burning as I typed the title. BURNING. Because I know exactly how fucked up it sounds.
But hear me out on why I’m considering not teaching a novel this year in senior English.
We’re nine weeks into the school year, and I’ve got to say things have been going pretty well. We just wrapped up a short story unit with 12 different short stories, all centered around the theme of grief, loss, and rebirth. This “going pretty well” got me thinking.
My seniors LOVED the short story unit. They LOVED the stories we read…and when they didn’t love a story, they were willing to persevere through it because they knew something different would be replacing it in a few days. I was able to choose very timely pieces of writing, including texts by up-and-coming or hot-right-now authors. If a story was a universal flop, I could call time of death on it and move on; there was another story waiting in the wings. If a student was absent a lot, or didn’t do the work, or had a shitty week because their girlfriend broke up with them, they weren’t screwed. All they had to do was join the class again when we started the next story: clean slate. Even kids who said they normally feel overwhelmed by ELA class said this felt manageable. It felt achievable.
Most significant? THEY READ THE STORIES. They actually READ them.
They didn’t pretend to read them.
They didn’t lie about reading them.
They. Read. Them.
When I talked about starting a novel in second quarter, they looked defeated. It was a look of “Well, that was fun, but I guess the fun is over now.” Finally, a couple of brave souls just asked “Why can’t we keep on reading short stories?” Huh. Good question, right? Why CAN’T we keep reading short stories? I mean, several of the short stories are 20+ pages, so it’s not like they’re all quick reads that don’t require more extended focus. Our standards emphasize the need for a broad scope of reading and a need to be able to compare and contrast texts that share a theme.
Yeah, they need to do work with nonfiction texts and articles, too, but why can’t the LITERATURE part continue to consist of short stories? I started to wonder if I was defaulting to a novel out of habit, not out of any actual need. In a perfect world, would my students be task-compliant in reading all the awesome books I love? Well, duh. Yeah. But I don’t teach in a perfect world. If the kids are enjoying something and are learning and growing, would it be wrong to honor their request to continue with more short texts?
I have decided that, at least for second quarter, we’ll put a pin in the plan to read a novel. We’re going to delve into a research paper about how music shapes society, and they are jazzed about that topic. After that, I’ve decided to finish up the semester with another short story unit. This one ties in nonfiction texts, so they’re continuing to work with different media. It just feels right to me, so I’m going with it.
This may be the last time some of them actually read fiction for pleasure. Maybe this is a chance to take one last Hail Mary pass at creating a population who enjoys reading. I don’t want to miss that opportunity because I feel like something is important to me. I want what we read to be important to THEM.
I’m not saying I won’t teach a novel to my seniors this year. Honestly, I’m not sure what I’ll do. However, if kids are telling me they like something, I want to listen. At least for now.
Keywords: E2E, enraged2engaged, student choice, short stories, novels, ELA, secondary English, senior English, lifelong readers, pedagogical questions, high engagement, reading engagement
