High school students today tend to read an and are generally not learning how to do close reading, concludes a recent study published by the . The study argues that that those factors have contributed to a decline in reading skills among American adults.
According to the study鈥檚 author, Sandra Stotsky, three recent indicators of reading achievement鈥攁n assessment of adult literacy, the test of reading achievement for grade 12 by the , and a report on voluntary literary reading among adults鈥攁ll evidenced a dramatic decline in adult literacy skills since 1992.
That鈥檚 in part a product of the types and difficulty levels of books secondary students are reading in school, says Stotsky. She points to a 2009 report by , the company that makes Accelerated Reader, stating that Stephenie Meyer鈥檚 Twilight and the Harry Potter series top the list of books most widely read by secondary students.
In fact, 鈥�10 of the top 16 most frequently read books by the 1,500 students in the top 10 percent of reading achievement in grades 9-12 in the database for the 2008-2009 academic year were contemporary young adult fantasies,鈥� the paper says. By the time students get to college, Stotsky writes, they have had 鈥渇ew common reading experiences鈥� aside from those young-adult fantasies and 鈥渁lmost all the books they read are relatively easy to read.鈥�
In ALSCW鈥檚 own survey of the books teachers in grades 9, 10, and 11 are assigning, Stotsky found that even the most frequently assigned texts, including Romeo and Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird, are only being read in about 25 percent of classes. That demonstrates, she says, that 鈥渕ost American students experience an idiosyncratic set of readings before they graduate from high school.鈥� A previous study by Arthur Applebee in 1989 showed that more than 80 percent of public secondary schools assigned Romeo and Juliet.
In addition, Stotsky found that while a majority of teachers still use literary anthologies, they tend to teach fewer than half of the texts in them. Teachers overall, she says, have 鈥渁 great deal of autonomy in what they choose to assign.鈥�
Stotsky鈥檚 research also concluded that the readability levels of books assigned do not get more difficult from grade to grade. She found that the mean readability level for books assigned in high school is between 5th and 6th grade, suggesting that teachers try to balance easy and hard books.
The Engagement Factor
Robert Pondiscio, director of communication for 鈥攁n organization that advocates a shared, sequenced curriculum鈥攕aid the ALSCW鈥檚 study highlights a troubling fragmentation in high school English reading lists. 鈥淣ot everyone agrees that there鈥檚 a body of knowledge in the English language that should be taught, learned, and mastered,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s a result, a lot of teachers are more inclined to pick works of literature they want to teach, and allow kids to pick what they want to read.鈥�
Some English teachers, however, said the study overlooks key instructional issues.
Using a standard anthology makes sense in that it provides 鈥渜uality control鈥� and established benchmarks for each grade, acknowledged Jim Burke, an English teacher at Burlingame High School in California. 鈥淏ut you get into complicated territory with student engagement,鈥� he said. Teachers have to consider whether works chosen are accessible, of interest, and represent the diversity of students in a classroom.
By way of example, Burke noted that recently he chose to teach the 2003 novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, which is not considered part of the traditional literary canon, to a freshmen class. The students 鈥渄evoured the book,鈥� he said.
Burke, who has written almost 20 books on teaching, including , conceded that The Kite Runner is not as academically demanding as a book like Lord of the Flies. His students had to look up Arabic words while reading, but the text鈥檚 English vocabulary and use of literary devices are not as rich as that of William Golding鈥檚 book. However, said Burke, 鈥渋t鈥檚 impossible for me to say that this unit was anything but a success鈥攎y kids read a 350-page book in three weeks 鈥� and wrote strong essays on the last day.鈥�
Gail Tillery, who teaches English at North Forsyth High in Atlanta, Ga. and is a member of the Teacher Leaders Network, agreed that engagement is a major consideration. 鈥淭here are two minds about this issue. I can force students to slog through texts and they are miserable and hate it and it鈥檚 absolute torture for everyone involved,鈥� she said, or she can assign modern texts kids relate to and 鈥済et the best writing I鈥檝e ever had.鈥�
Tillery had a similar experience to Burke鈥檚 when she assigned one of her classes the 2005 memoir The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls. 鈥淚鈥檝e never in my career seen kids respond to a book like they respond to this book,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 phenomenal, the book talks we鈥檝e had.鈥�
Questioning Reader-Response
In addition to fragmented reading lists, Stotsky points to another explanation for the reported decline in adult reading skills. Students are no longer learning to do close, analytical reading in high school, she says. Close reading, called 鈥淣ew Criticism鈥� when it began being used in classrooms in the 1940s, emphasizes the relationship between a text鈥檚 form and meaning. Instead, Stotsky says, teachers use a reader-response approach, in which students ground their response to a text in their personal experiences.
For Pondiscio of Core Knowledge, the issue goes back to the coherence of curricula. 鈥淐lose reading of text is easier when you have rich, coherent background knowledge to fall back on, which too many students do not,鈥� he said.
But teachers sought for comment took issue with Stotsky鈥檚 down-grading of the reader-response approach.
Finding a way to bridge students鈥� experiences to the text is a 鈥減erfectly valid strategy,鈥� said Burke, and should be seen as an incremental step toward analytical reading. He says he uses an analytical approach for about 75 percent of assignments and a personal response approach for 25 percent. In his Advanced Placement classes, Burke uses reader-response for 20 percent of assignments, because 鈥淎P kids need to connect to themselves, too.鈥�
Most students won鈥檛 read a text they don鈥檛 feel connected to, added Tillery. For that reason, building a text-to-self link is critical.
Mary Tedrow, an English teacher at John Handley High School in Winchester, Va. and TLN member, noted that while she鈥檚 seen an acute decline in students鈥� reading comprehension skills over recent years, she鈥檚 also noticed a complementary uptick in visual literacy skills. 鈥淜ids are very sophisticated when it comes to making an analysis of visual media,鈥� she said, which she sees as building the same analytical skills as close reading. Students are intuitive about camera angles in movies and have high expectations for visual storytelling, she pointed out. 鈥淚鈥檓 not sure they鈥檙e missing out on critical thinking if they spend time looking at visual mediums through the same critical lense.鈥�
