GILROY
– In a meeting that attracted several school district
heavyweights, the Reading Literature Advisory Group solidified two
crucial changes to the English department’s instructional materials
Wednesday night.
The advisory group, which has struggled since late September to
complete a list of literature selection criteria, worked swiftly
through the few remaining issues.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – In a meeting that attracted several school district heavyweights, the Reading Literature Advisory Group solidified two crucial changes to the English department’s instructional materials Wednesday night.
The advisory group, which has struggled since late September to complete a list of literature selection criteria, worked swiftly through the few remaining issues. Members unanimously supported the pilot of a textbook and declared that diversity should not be a standard consideration for each novel.
“The process sometimes goes faster at the end, because you have some of the harder conversations out of the way, you’ve already gone through the difficult process of hashing those things out,” Principal Bob Bravo said. “It’s a hard concept to try to put into words.”
Several new faces joined the usual audience of Alliance for Academic Excellence parents, School Board Trustee Tom Bundros and Gilroy Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Jacki Horejs.
Superintendent Edwin Diaz said he attended the meeting to get a better feel for how the group was actually conducting its work, noting that he was pleased with the progress.
Former city councilwoman Lupe Arellano also was present, as she was at the previous meeting, saying she was interested in watching the criteria selection process because she was involved in book selection
several times in the past.
Trustees Bob Kraemer and Jaime Rosso sat in the audience, and Bravo – who does not usually attend entire meetings – remained in the room until adjournment.
All told, the nearly 20 onlookers outnumbered the advisory group that also had high attendance with 11 of the 13 members present.
Bravo said he was pleased with the resulting criteria list.
“It looks promising, I’m looking forward to seeing the final report,” he said.
Still, some parents attending the meeting voiced their concerns about the process that will be used to develop a book list applying the group’s criteria.
“As a parent and as an educator, I just don’t see how this list will be used to develop a list, an end product,” said GHS parent Jackie Stevens, who teaches in Morgan Hill. “When developing a curriculum, no book should ever be looked at in isolation. … You look at your curriculum first, and then you decide which books should be used.”
One issue that remains unresolved is whether certain criteria will be weighted, or considered more important than other criteria. Because the group could not come to a consensus after debating the subject on several occasions, group facilitator Juanita Contin suggested the group provide Bravo with arguments both for and against weighting or employing a point system.
Julie Varner, a GHS parent, said that weighting criteria would be a subjective process depending on who was awarding points.
Weighting is actually more objective, argued parent Rhona Chan, because if a number of books all fit certain criteria, their quality can be better evaluated based on which have more points.
“If you’re using this as a research tool, it lends reliability and credibility to your instrument because it can be utilized over and over.”
Chan, along with English teacher Jane Singleton, will write up an argument in favor of weighting while English teachers Tom Simmons, Susie Huerta and Debbie DeWall will take the opposite stance.
Bravo will decide whether to weight the criteria before turning the list over to the English department to be used when a new book list is selected next spring.
Teachers can keep the criteria list in mind, Bravo said, as they pilot textbooks next semester. The English department last month began the process of adopting a textbook and the advisory group supported that decision by way of a vote Wednesday.
Twelve teachers volunteered to pilot either a Prentice Hall or McDougal Littell textbook in one of their classes. Both textbooks will be piloted across all four grade levels in regular, honors and Advanced Placement classes.
The high school would like to use textbooks across all grades.
“The question now is a little more in the ballpark of district finances and how we’re going to make that happen,” Bravo said.
The advisory group is tentatively scheduled to meet again on March 24 before GHS presents its decision on a textbook and reading list to the school board in April.
The question of considering diversity in a book list took up much of the two-hour meeting. A major concern about the current reading list is that some books were chosen for diversity rather than literary merit.
The group answered that question by designating diversity as a criterion that will be applied to each course, rather than individual books.
Each course will ideally include works authored in various historical periods, representing a variety of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The texts should also depict different cultures and genders from the perspective of both the authors and the texts’ protagonists, the group said.
Two issues the group thought were important to be considered, but not required, will be tagged as a “For Your Information” item. Works that are controversial or invite or encourage reading within the first 50 pages will be noted.
Parents in the audience expressed concern after some teachers indicated they might use piloting materials for more than one class. Unless the publisher’s program can be used in its entirety, it will not be effective, parents said.
While the criteria list emphasizes have thematic depth, it does not stipulate that novels provide a variety of themes, an issue that some Alliance members see as worrisome, especially for sophomores, who read books with similar themes.
Stevens said the criteria list may not be used in such a way that will give GHS students the “global look” that they currently lack.
The group’s discussion of how to include diversity in the list troubled parent Mark Zappa.
“I believe the criteria is giving too much weight to cultural sensitivity and the criteria should instead focus on the best books for students’ success, regardless of whether it was written by a dead, white European male, or a living, 20th Century Hispanic female,” he said.
GHS Literature selection criteria
1. Literary Merit:
a. Work allows for increasing depth of knowledge with each subsequent reading
b. Text comprehension requires critical thinking/analysis
c. Work contains rhetorical and/or stylistic devices that contribute to meaning
2. Thematic Depth – in order to have thematic depth it meets the following standards:
a. The work has contemporary significance; that is, relevance to the problems and issues of our times (Mortimer Adler)
3. Present on “reputable” recommended Reading List (s):
a. College Board: 101 Great Books
b. American Library Association: “Outstanding Books for the College Bound”
4. Accessibility:
a. Considers the literacy and language skill levels of students
5. Diversity:
a. Course works reflect a variety of genres and historical, cultural and gender perspectives
* List is subject to revision.
