糖心动漫vlog

What gets taught in English classes remains among the most hot-button of all curriculum topics in schools, with some in the field criticizing the lack of diversity in selected texts鈥攁nd others, calling into question the literary quality of newer books or young adult literature compared to classics.

In fact, the list of the most commonly assigned books in middle and high school English classes hasn鈥檛 changed much since the 1980s, according to a new survey of U.S. teachers conducted by the National Council of Teachers of English.

All of the top 10 titles, a sampling of the traditional canon, were written more than 60 years ago鈥攁ll by white authors. The list also includes three Shakespeare plays: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet.

And while a vast majority of teachers鈥�93%鈥攕ay they use diverse literature in their classrooms, most say it makes up 50 percent or less of their course curriculum.

The demonstrate that years-long efforts by 糖心动漫vlog and professional organizations in the field to diversify the works that students read hasn鈥檛 knocked the classics out of their top spots in U.S. English classrooms. They also provide further evidence that claims from some Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators, alleging that 鈥渓eft-wing ideology鈥� has overtaken K-12 schools, are largely unfounded.

鈥淲e are reading the same books that our parents and grandparents read,鈥� said Tonya B. Perry, the president of NCTE.

鈥楢s with anything, we need balance鈥�

The survey doesn鈥檛 pinpoint exactly why the list has remained so similar. Most teachers reported having some degree of choice over the texts they selected. In open-ended responses, some teachers said they intentionally kept the classics in rotation.

鈥淚 am teaching American literature, so there are certain pieces in the canon that cannot be left out,鈥� wrote one 11th grade teacher in rural Tennessee. 鈥淚 would like to have time for more diverse literature, but I would not incorporate that at the expense of a work like The Great Gatsby.鈥�

Still, most teachers said they had some required reading set by their school or district, and about 44% said they faced some censorship that limited the book choices that they could make. About 9 in 10 respondents said they wanted to use more diverse literature in their classrooms.

鈥淭eachers know that diversifying the text that they put in front of students leads to the development of a lot of different literacy skills鈥攃ritical thinking, perspective-taking, other human skills like empathy,鈥� said Rex Ovalle, the chair of NCTE鈥檚 secondary section, and a high school English teacher in Oak Park, Ill.

Ovalle has seen students who said they didn鈥檛 like reading connect with books that featured characters and stories they could relate to, he added. 鈥淲e know that intellectually, we know that instinctually, but we鈥檙e not able to make progress,鈥� he said.

But Janet Harrison, a 9th grade English teacher in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw schools in Fort Worth, Texas, said the NCTE鈥檚 top 10 list likely doesn鈥檛 paint a full portrait of English classrooms. She, for instance, teaches some of the books on the list, but the majority of her year is spent on other titles.

鈥淎s with anything, we need balance,鈥� said Harrison, who was not involved with the survey. 鈥淵ou need some of the classics in order to understand the allusions, and some of the things that are talked about in literature. And you need the contemporary to ensure that our students are seeing themselves in these works.鈥�

In other research, teachers have said they take similar approaches in other subjects, such as social studies鈥攂alancing students鈥� need to know about high-profile historical figures in politics or business with an attempt to include multiple perspectives and diverse voices.

Teachers pair classics with more modern offerings

To conduct the survey, NCTE used the National Center for Education Statistics鈥� database to contact all U.S. secondary teachers whose emails were listed on school websites between January 2023 and June 2024. The final survey includes 4,096 responses from teachers across 50 states, whose demographics approximated the racial and gender breakdown of the U.S. teacher workforce.

NCTE asked teachers to list the top 10 most frequently used texts in their classrooms, inclusive of books as well as poems, short stories, or other works.

The report compares the most commonly cited titles to the list compiled by the researcher Arthur Applebee in 1989, who surveyed department chairs in public, parochial, and independent schools serving grades 7-12.

This list likely obscures some variation in the supplemental texts that teachers bring into the classroom. Only 1 in 5 teachers said they had no choice over the texts they used; the rest had varying degrees of flexibility.

In open-ended responses, several teachers talked about pairing classics with more modern offerings.

鈥淥ur students see very little diverse literature in their required texts or in texts that are built into our bottled curriculum,鈥� said one high school English teacher in Nebraska. 鈥淗owever, by weaving in pieces of literature (poems, novels, stories, etc.) that reinforce the same themes as classic novels but with a more modern background, students are more likely to connect with the lessons in both the modern text and make connections to the classic text that they may not have without a more diverse text.鈥�

In Harrison鈥檚 classroom, she pairs Romeo and Juliet with Long Way Down, a novel told in verse by the contemporary young adult author Jason Reynolds.

Her students take to Romeo and Juliet immediately, she said. 鈥淚 teach 9th graders. They鈥檙e all about falling in love, and it鈥檚 always immediate, and there鈥檚 always consequences.鈥� They can understand the two warring families in the play as rival gangs鈥攁 theme that connects to Long Way Down, which explores the effects of gun violence and revenge on one family and community.

鈥淭here鈥檚 this theme of this feud that costs lives, that鈥檚 so meaningless, that鈥檚 in both stories,鈥� Harrison said.

Censorship of LGBTQ+ stories looms large

Harrison has been lucky, she said鈥攐ver her career, she鈥檚 had a lot of autonomy over her text selections in the classroom.

Still, she said: 鈥淚 live in Texas, so there鈥檚 always been that kind of voice in the back of your head that worries about the community you鈥檙e in, and whether having books of certain subjects could get you in trouble. Recently, it has ramped up.鈥�

Over the past four years, 20 states have imposed bans or restrictions that would limit how teachers can discuss racism or sexism. Local attempts to ban, challenge, or restrict books in public schools rose after 2020, and are still at high levels, according to the American Library Association and PEN America, which track incidents.

In the NCTE survey, about 44% of teachers said they experienced censorship from their school or district. When asked why specific books were censored, the most commonly cited reasons were LGBTQ+ representation and sexual content. (The next most common answer was inclusion of material related to race and/or racism.)

Teachers also expressed less interest in assigning books about the LGBTQ+ community than in other diverse literature, such as books about people of color or people with disabilities. One in five teachers said they were not interested or strongly not interested in using these books.

In open-ended responses, some teachers connected community pushback to this disinterest.

鈥淚 am a teacher in a small, rural, conservative school district,鈥� wrote one teacher in Wisconsin. 鈥淚 am not interested in being a lightning rod for controversy when there is plenty of literature to choose from to teach our students the state standards/requirements.鈥�