Gove kills the mockingbird with ban on US classic novels ...what do you think?

[mrz]

www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/article1414764.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2014_05_24

The schools where all kids have ipads will indeed be laughing whereas those schools unable to provide such luxuries will be wondering how they will fund the changes.

Mrz, it really isn't that big a disaster, secondary schools do have money to buy textbooks. My school is skint and it still managed to find money to buy the top two maths sets a textbook which costs £20 each so they could sit an extra GCSE. Textbooks are part of the running costs of a secondary school.

noble, I would agree with you if I felt that changes to the curriculum had been carefully thought through and unlikely to change again.

I am really not confident about either of those things

Interestingly thereare a number of posts on Twitter one from a teacher saying the HoD has bought ipads for all and now they can't afford exercise books or other essential equipment

The problem with books, is as pupils can now have access to the texts in exams, that means my DCs school for example will need to buy 300 at least copies of whatever set text, to keep as clean copies for the exam (no notes or highlighting allowed).
iPads etc. are not allowed in the exam hall.

where Maths has had changes to its curriculum sometimes yearly, in the 9 years I've been teaching. One memorable year we bought a new set of textbooks for a new GCSE only for it to be out of date the next year, causing much confusion (the names and content of all the modules changed). I know that English has had its own curriculum changes, but if they have managed to hang onto Of Mice and Men since I was at school, then to be honest they should be counting themselves lucky in the resources department.

I'm not saying that it's not shit, Pearson do very well out of government tinkering, but changes in syllabus leading to the need for new resources isn't new, and is something that schools have been managing for years. Science have been pissed about horrendously over the years too, dread to think how they have managed their resources, at least in maths Pythagoras is always on the menu. If people want to complain about the waste, then that's fine, but they need to be aware that the issue is far bigger than a few set texts.

Schools will be well aware that these upcoming major changes to GCSEs and A-levels will put a strain on the budget. They're all happening at pretty much the same time so I guess they'll have to prioritise. Core subjects will probably be covered first, so English should be ok.

Of course one option, which I expect some schools will go for, will be to get the kids to pay.

Whether the kids will have access to the texts in the exam hall is an interesting point. Given that these new exams are supposed to be tough, will that actually be allowed?

"English literature, which is no longer compulsory, focuses on four areas of ‘classic literature’. Unseen texts will be a new requirement."

noble, you don't have to tell me, I am a science secondary teacher whose seen the changes first hand for the last 23 years.

And I don't think exam are tougher for not having the text in the exam, after all I took my classics book into my exam (with notes) for my second degree.

The issue is the perpetual changing. Just because its happened before and we have always muddles through isn't a good enough justification for future spending... unless the changes have been carefully thought through and unlikely to change again.

I think exams are often harder for having texts to consult etc, because you can then expect far more of those taking the exam in terms of providing evidence etc than you can if they're just working from memory.

Unseen texts is just analysing a passage from a novel not studied, printed on the exam paper, isn't it?

where if you have a look on the 'policies you would like to see' thread, I posted that I would like politicians to stop tinkering around with education! I really don't think that's going to happen though, every new education secretary likes to make their mark. Maybe if these new qualifications are the unmitigated shambles that I suspect they will be, due to being poorly thought-out and rushed through, there'll be a revolution and education policy will be taken out of government control. Wouldn't that be nice.

It would be utterly wonderful, noble. Alas I doubt it'll happen.

Tbh, I'd just like education to move away from the high-pressure, high-stakes, zero-sum game we seem to have these days. It does no one any good.

it would be!

The suggestion that French students are reading 50 classics in one school year and studying them in "very great detail" is just implausible. That is more than one book per week of the school year and how many literature classes will they have in that week alongside their other subjects?! Even if they can plough through them I just don't believe it's possible to cover that many books in great detail. Good to read a lot but I think pupils should have time to read books of their own choice as well as curriculum materials so I don't think 50 school texts is anything to strive for!

Annotating a text you're accessing on your phone would be pretty tricky.

Schools with fewer than 1000 students are seriously strapped for cash at the moment. This extra expense will no doubt be filling my HT with horror.

'Raven...with a top set, is there really no room for sneaking a few extra books in there? Get them to read over a holiday then discuss in class? Aren't you trying to prepare them for A-level?'

It's quite hard to justify 'sneaking in' an entire extra text when you'd be taking time away from the in depth study of what's actually on the specification.

I'm all about promoting wider reading - I run a book club at school & regularly discuss extra reading in class.

Actually, the higher set I have this year are good all-rounders, rather than future Eng Lit A-Level students - the vast majority of them want me to deliver the necessary for them to attain their A*-B with the minimum of off-piste faffing. The set above them, now - those are the ones who really read extensively for pleasure, & they're the ones who'll be going on to A-Level.

I'd rather the books we study in class be the best texts available for teaching 14-16yos the critical & analytical skills they need to achieve a good GCSE, proceed to A-Level confidently if that's what they want to do, & become lifelong intelligent readers for pleasure.

It's...irritating that Gove's fads are superseding the professional judgment of teachers & examiners in choosing those texts. It's not a major disaster, no, but it's certainly not helping.

I think the issue with adding in texts which are not for in-depth study (by which I guess they mean for use in the exam)is that there is simply not time. Suggesting that students read text A or text B in holidays is unfair - reading for pleasure ought to involve an element of choice. Kids are savvy - if they see no "point" in something, they won't do it. And by "point", a lot of teens mean "will it be in the exam".

evil annotating a book that you are accessing on your phone is really easy. Certainly with iBooks anyway, I imagine the kindle app has a similar feature. You can also highlight key phrases etc.

If you're wondering whether the screen is too small, I've read loads of novels on my iPhone while bfing, it's fine!

But if kids are annotating texts, then surely they need to be replaced yearly anyway?

They annotate in pencil then rub it out. It's more than highlighting - notes in the margin etc. I love my kindle but you can't put post its in it.

Raven, just out of interest, what books will your higher set be studying over the course of their GCSE? I saw there were six sections on the AQA spec, but it wasn't clear if kids had to study all of them. I'm interested in whether the requirement has gone from 6 books to 4, in which case there'd surely be room on the curriculum for more reading?

we supply 'clean copies' (used for the exam, but also in class, so prior to the exam a popular detention task is to get a naughty kid to rub out or tippex over all the rude drawings etc).

Students are encouraged to buy their own for annotating. Most of the top sets do.

Of course, a lot of the texts we study are available free online, so yes, we make extensive use of electronic annotation.

Evil, I'm not sure what you mean, you can add notes, the equivalent of a post-it, on iBooks, and (DH says) the kindle.

Raven, when you say online and electronic annotation, do you mean the kids on their own devices?

New spec or current noble?

Not decided for new spec (I'm lobbying hard for LOTF, Richard III as a comparison with Othello & relegating R&J to Y9).

Currently: CA is R&J compared with 'To His Coy Mistress' & 'Sonnet 130'.

Exam texts are 'The woman in Black' & OM&M, & the Relationships cluster of poems.

Yup, kids on own devices. we make a PDF available to them (don't tell Susan Hill ).