To think Michael Gove has actually got something right for once?

[privitandpetunias]

Article in the guardian saying that Mr Gove wants to remove the American literature from the GCSE curriculum and replace it with English literature (sorry can't do links). This is something I have often thought that there are so many great novels out there that are part of our cultural heritage that it would be great for our children to study.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I've done P&P with my Yr 11 this year, as well as M&M. I'd say the boys responded equally well to both tbh - high ability set.

[ravenAK]

Hackmum 'All the schools I know talk about how many students have attained five A* to C or more at GCSE. Unless that's changed - and all that matters now is whether students have passed English lan or maths - then getting your students to a C grade in English literature will have an impact on that figure.'

You'd think, wouldn't you.

But it appears that under Progress 8, the higher grade - almost invariably going to be Eng Lang for lower ability students, as it's a gateway qualification - will be double weighted.

The lower grade (almost certainly Eng Lit) will only count in the 'open' group, after all the Ebacc stuff. Given that it's quite a bit easier to get a C in certain other subjects, it's unlikely to be where schools playing the league tables will focus their greatest effort wrt lower ability students..

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/295604/progress_8_info_for_schools_Mar14_-_final_21_March.pdf

[TillyTellTale]

I did a combined GCSE English Language & Literature. We did OMAM and Macbeth. I actually really liked OMAM, and I came to it as someone who'd read most of the 'classics' well before I was 16.

I'll preface the following by saying I'm really ill and light-headed at the moment (thank godlets for e-readers!) , so my reading comprehension may be suffering, but I'm confused by the insistence that OMAM is inadequate for pupils who want high grades.

I got an A for my Macbeth coursework and my OMAM coursework. I didn't even have to stray outside of OMAM to discuss Steinbeck's reoccurring theme of learning disabled adults and social attitudes towards them, which I noticed due to having read other works by him previously. Note that. I didn't. I just quoted Burns, and talked about the book itself. It's pretty good.

*I see that it's a competition to be the most cultured. So here's my contribution. So far, mostly while unable to stand up without falling over, I have read What Is Man? And Other Essays by (the American) Mark Twain; Terry Treetop and the Lost Egg by Tali Carmi; Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J.M. Barrie; Swordfights and Lullabies by Deborah Geary; and I'm just moving on to Sophie Kinsella's Die Weihnachtsliste.

[TillyTellTale]

P.S. I like Steinbeck, in case that's not clear. And Jack Kerouac is shit. Analysing Kerouac? How much room can you take up with 'self-indulgent little turd, whose views of free love are excessively male-centred'?

Oh, I read Crown of Renewal by Elizabeth Moon as well.

[susannahmoodie]

Oh and also, I think resources on m&m etc could be shifted down to y 9 and therefore not wasted?

[NearTheWindymill]

susannahmoodie Hoorah for the voice of reason. >>>>bows

[ravenAK]

That's what we're doing re: OM&M at Y9 susannahmoodie (although personally I'd be happy just to park it up entirely for a few years) - & I agree with you that doing new resources is one of the best bits of the job. Secretly looking forward to getting stuck in...

It's not simply the loss of OM&M, TKAM, The Crucible & Death of a Salesman etc etc per se that's getting a less than enthusiastic response from some of us, though.

[BanoffeeSplitz]

But would, say, "Half a Yellow Sun" be allowed under the new rules? Since the author is Nigerian not British.

And just how insular and ignorant would would we think America was, if they banned all but American authors from a study of English Literature... C20 or otherwise

This from someone who is a bit about over-reliance on OMAM as a safe set text especially for upper sets - (though tbf I don't know if it is over-relied on). But don't think what Gove has done is right at all.

[CountessVronsky]

If you consider Half a Yellow sun (which I love) then you could equally consider Heart of Darkness and The Heart of the Matter and probably The Quiet American and so on.....

[ravenAK]

It wouldn't qualify as 'fiction or drama from the British Isles from 1914 onwards', so I can't see it being a set text, no.

[wildernessagogo]

YABVVVVVVU! The man is a total fool and an ignoramus. That is all.

[noblegiraffe]

They haven't banned American authors. The exam boards could easily propose some international options for the 19th century novel, or for inclusion in the poetry section.

They are being asked to read one play/novel written in the British Isles in the last 100 years. It's not like the British Isles has only churned out crap not worth reading for the last 100 years is it? Are people really appalled at the fact that kids might have to read Orwell or other fantastic options instead of Steinbeck?

[Agggghast]

I am very lucky and am allowed to spend money each year on new texts, get about £5000 for this each year. The HT is proud that we have such a choice of texts and understands the need to refresh the stock on an annual basis. I think this is one of the reasons we are so successful, teachers cannot rely on old planning and it is enthusing and engaging for pupils. Currently I have extra money for the new KS3 curriculum and the whole dept are enjoying writing SOW. I think, and I hate to say this, that Gove et al are correct to remove the over relied on texts from the syllabus because I feel some pupils are held back by the OMAM reliance.

[TillyTellTale]

NeartheWindymill My only problem with the teaching of English Lit 35 years ago was the dogma. I asked my English teacher "if Jane Austen can start a sentence with and, why can't I?". She said "because you girl, are not Jane Austen". That's why I did Maths A'Level.

Short, and without explanatory glossing, but true.

Before you can break the rules without being condemned for ignorance and illiteracy, you have to prove to everyone that you know them. In practice, that means being popular and/or admired. The famous poet e.e. cummings can refuse to use capital letters and punctuation, but if I did the same on mumsnet, people would call me an illiterate goofball, and be quite snobbish.

It is also relevant that Jane Austen wrote her novels almost exactly 200 years ago, and what is considered to be poor grammar has changed. If you read Jane Austen's work, you should notice that some of her very words no longer mean quite what they once did. Language changes. Georgian standards no longer apply.

[NearTheWindymill]

Thank you. So why the chuff couldn't Miss BT (I wrote out her name in full but decided it was a bit too outy) have told me that in 1975? Thank goodness I chose logic.

[ravenAK]

'The exam boards could easily propose some international options for the 19th century novel'

Heh. Might be fun to do Huck Finn just to wind Slithy Gove up. Can't see it happening, though.

[TillyTellTale]

Now, that I can't answer! You'll need a TARDIS, and at the moment, MN doesn't even provide a TARDIS emoticon.

[noblegiraffe]

www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/10857133/Michael-Gove-Kill-a-Mockingbird-Id-never-dream-of-it.html

Gove has responded. It's all bollocks, apparently.

[NearTheWindymill]

Thank you Noble. Makes perfect sense.

[TillyTellTale]

Doesn't that reiterate what people have been saying in this thread? OMAM and TKAM wouldn't meet the compulsory parameters, and there's only so much time in a school year, so teachers won't be able to do OMAM or TKAM any more.

He may not have specifically stood up in the House of Commons and expressed his disgust with American literature, but it has a pretty similar effect.

[ravenAK]

That's a fabulous example of Gove being a disingenuous little weasel, isn't it?

It does indeed reiterate what's been said in this thread.

[noblegiraffe]

He says 'Beyond this, exam boards have the freedom to design specifications so that they are stretching and interesting, and include any number of other texts from which teachers can then choose.'

So he is suggesting that if exam boards only include the core requirements then they are not being stretching or interesting. He has provided an include list not an exhaustive list. I'm not sure how saying that kids need to have read a book from the British Isles written in the last 100 years is expressing anything more than a desire to have kids read some modern British literature. It's not expressing a disgust for anything.

I wonder what the exam boards have come up with.

[ravenAK]

But they've always had to read a modern text from the British Isles.

I've got 405 exam scripts on my desk to prove it.

Classic piece of bait & switch.

[noblegiraffe]

I thought the AQA modern text bit allowed non-Brit texts like The Crucible?