Reading/Studying novels in English - no more?

[LuxOlente]

A local 'good' state school, decent GCSE results pre-Covid. Parents' Evening showed off a library and the English classrooms handed out reading lists of 8-9 novels per year - Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein and Darren Shan, some Dickens, Shakespeare. The usuals.

However after the first year, DS has read zero books for school. He still reads at home for pleasure. Classwork, however, is the teacher printing off a page of a novel, plonking it down and giving the kids some questions on it. They "did" Oliver Twist this way for a few lessons, without ever reading the book. Another book they "studied" was to be handed a copy for half an hour to read quietly in class, then reading the final three pages together and 'answering questions on it.' No analysis, critical thinking, nothing about themes or theory. Just silly pop quizzes about events that happen in the paragraph given - they've not even read the book, so how can they be asked to do more?

The school library was never re-opened.

He hasn't been prescribed a single essay all year, and 'as they've had a hard year', rarely gets any homework in any lesson.

Is this the new normal for an English curriculum? He's deemed to be a strong student in it but it's not as if it's hard to answer a bit of multiple choice nonsense off a randomly photocopied paragraph. He says they never write "long work" and his handwriting remains appalling, which he says no one comments on. The children simply mark the work of the person next to them. Not the teacher.

Not the normal here. They study 4-5 books/plays/poetry each year in KS3. As in, these are the whole text, and they'd then study excerpts of other things.. And there is daily personal reading time where children are expected to read for pleasure and can take books out of the school library or read something from home.
Peer review is considered to have merit, but the teacher marks at least every 6(?) weeks.

I taught MFL and had a lot of contact with the English department and this was not my experience. They would study whole texts and expect them to be read.
Similar at the school my DC went to.

What year is your DC op? Has he just finished year 7? Maybe things will improve as this has been a very challenging year for all.

Re his writing - the main thing is that it needs to be readable. Is it? If so then that's fine.

End of year 7, yeah. I know it's been 'a hard year' but I do dislike that Covid gets used as an excuse for everything. "No homework for the little wee poppets because Covid. Let's not read any super hard books hey, because Covid." Driving me mad really.

Honestly no, I don't think his writing is readable. Letters are all the wrong sizes and in the wrong place on the line. He was forced into cursive in primary which has made it worse. I point out his words are basically spelled wrong, as an e will be half finished and resemble an o or a, an s will blur off into a horizontal line slurring into the next letter - he can spell, of course, but how can anyone deem it 'correct' when he scrawls so badly? I have tried to 'be the bad guy' with quick handwriting exercises at home on the special lined paper, but I need backup from the school. And there, no one says a thing. Probably because they haven't seen it!

I agree as it goes about "because COVID" being used as an excuse for some ridiculous things. I do think, tho, that teachers and students have had a difficult time of it and it must have been very very hard to teach in person and remotely over the last 12 months. Not saying you don't agree! And it's not a reason not to mark books.

If I were you, I would try to spend some time focusing on improving your DS's writing over the summer. I am surprised that his primary school didn't flag it up tbh. Is there any chance that there could be other issues - such as dyspraxia? I am not an expert but if there are other indicators it might be worth pushing for an assessment.

The reason writing needs to be readable is so that a GCSE examiner can mark it, bottom line. If it is not going to get there in the next three years, he needs to have some other "normal way of working" as it is expressed, in other words using a laptop as his standard way of working in lessons. This is if it is genuinely unreadable. In 10 years of teaching I only came across two students for whom this was true (they were brothers, oddly enough) - I literally was unable to make out any of their writing at all. I had other students whose writing was poor, not neat, badly formed letters, not joined up - but I could read what they said which was what mattered.

This makes me want to cry as an English teacher. The open night texts are GCSE texts. At this point he will read a full novel but he really should before. We teach novels such as Coraline, The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas, Skellig in Year 7, as well as The Tempest. I am at an independent school but my DC are state and they've done similar - certainly a Shskespeare play every year. I would raise this with the Head of English via email. Ask for an overview of Year 8.
The Covid excuse also irks me. Generally I'm finding that kids have more motivation and time than ever. I've seen incredible commitment to essay and project work this year. I appreciate I may not teach across the social range but the change is quite marked.

Not normal. Head of English here. I would NOT be happy. Our year 7s have done 2 novels in class this year (replaced the Shakespeare with a second novel as they are a lower ability year group AND covid has caused even worse gaps). Every year does a novel, a Shakespeare, poetry, non fiction etc.

Not normal at our comp either. During last lockdown ds has to print off poems before class and they went through the analysis. The print out was so that he could make notes