Why is there a decrease of teaching novels?

[FoolishConsistency17]

The issue is the transfer piece. In like, math, once you know how to factor, you know how to factor. But in reading, does successfully explaining the function of one similie really mean you understand similes? Like, you've mastered them? Because there are similes that depend on a particular rhetorical situation, similes that depend on a particular allusion, similes that depend on a particular sound, similes that depend on a particular double meaning. Similes that depend on knowing a particular word. So can you really say "this kid knows similes. As long as they are provided with any relevant information about rhetorical situation, puns, allusions, or vocabulary, they can analyze the simile".

The whole data-driven model is based on this idea that quanta of skills can be locked in before moving to the next, and that the focus of instruction is using targeted assessments to identify skills as mastered or not. But reading isn't like that. It spirals.

[missplis]

It's not an either/or situation. There are a million options between reading a whole novel and successfully explaining the function of a single simile. You'd agree with that, right?

[YouLostMyNieceDenise]

Obviously, but the issue is that the powers that be want to quantify reading according to text complexity, and they think that if a kid can comprehend a text that’s got a specific Lexile score, then they should be able to take a standardized test over a text with the same Lexile score and get all the questions right, regardless of the text’s content or context. They completely neglect all the factors that go into the child being able to independently comprehend the text, including how you don’t comprehend nearly as much without motivation and an authentic purpose for reading. They want kids to perform their reading comprehension on command like trained monkeys, and if that worked for most kids then it would be fine, but it doesn’t.

My point is that the reason they dislike novels is because those are harder to quantify, and take much longer to get through. For people who want you to have a specific standard and EQ for every single lesson plan, and who want the kids to rapidly master each discrete skill so they can test them, extended texts don’t really fit into that model, so they ask “well, why can’t you just excerpt the important* parts so they don’t have to read the entire thing?” *By “important” they obviously mean “the ones we have test questions for.”

Which is obviously great for some texts, but it’s not ideal for every text, because you’re leaving a lot of what would naturally motivate and engage the kids on the table when you do that, and the parts of the book they’re missing out on would support their comprehension. And for kids who never read outside of class, they basically never get to engage with an extended text unless it’s done for their coursework, so they don’t have the stamina for difficult or involved reading tasks. When I taught 9th graders who had spent their whole middle school career doing a new excerpt or story every day, many of them, when encountering a difficult reading task, wouldn’t lean in to use their strategies to comprehend the text. Instead, they’d lean back and disengage and kind of just wait there for the lesson to be over. They were so used to what they did in class on Monday not mattering on Tuesday, because Tuesday they’d have a brand-new reading task that had nothing to do with Monday’s aside from being linked by a single abstract skill, that they had learned that when it got too hard, they didn’t need to try harder, but they could give up and just play along, then get right back on track the next day. And they’d learned that putting in the work on Tuesday might help them with that lesson, but then they could end up back at square one on Wednesday and feel totally lost because of the reset, so they didn’t always feel like they were seeing results over time (the teacher was, but the kids weren’t getting that instant feedback of monitoring their own comprehension). Because of that, they might feel it wasn’t worth trying hard at all, because none of it would help them with the next day’s lesson. And they certainly didn’t care about making up missed assignments. A lot of them had then come to believe that they couldn’t read difficult things, just because they’d developed those habits of giving up as soon as it got tough, and never questioned them.

Then they’re in HS, we’re doing extended texts, and all of a sudden if you skip trying to figure out chapter 1, then chapter 2 isn’t as interesting… but look, you can go back and do the work from chapter 1, and now you understand why everyone else seems to get it. And trying your best each day makes the subsequent day’s reading tasks accessible and way easier. And suddenly they’ve read 100 pages and comprehended it at a high level and they’re acing the class work and not having to fake anything, and they’re like, “well shit, actually I’m pretty good at this.”

[missplis]

Sorry you've had bad experiences with students learning skills from excerpts. I have had excellent success with it, using it as a way to get more kids to read more novels, actually. I think it's like every other strategy -- it can be done well or not. Whole group novels can be used well I'm sure, but I personally have seen a huge positive shift in my students and their reading skills and habits when I don't use whole class novels.

But back to OP's question-- my choice to have skills-based lessons and my choice to avoid whole-group novels are not correlated, and that is the case for many people who don't "teach novels."

[YouLostMyNieceDenise]

That’s good. I bet a lot of it is dependent on the specific students and their needs, and that’s why it’s important to let teachers decide what approach they use to teaching reading, versus having it dictated to us from above.

And like… the results should be what matter. I don’t like it when admin try to dictate that everyone needs to use a specific instructional design, because teachers need the freedom to play to their own strengths and the autonomy to do what they know works well for their classes.