While each StudySync unit has an anchor text that students can read an excerpt from in class, the full-length text will no longer be taught in class, O’Neal explained. This is the fifth year the district used StudySync as its state board of education-approved curriculum, the district’s ELA teacher on special assignment, Leya O’Neal said. Santa Maria-Bonita uses StudySync, an integrated digital and print curriculum, for its junior high school ELA programs. “Students no longer experience the satisfaction of completing a book in its entirety, understanding the full plot, character development, motifs, and symbolism.” “The rationale for this questionable mandate is that district-adopted ELA programs include unengaging and disconnected excerpts from novels however, students become frustrated because excerpts come to an abrupt end or are not given adequate context to be fully understood,” the letter said. Then later in the year, according to the letter, the district instructed teachers not to read full novels in class. The letter states that at the beginning of this school year, “teachers were told to stick to pacing guides and only use district-adopted programs and a few specific, supplemental materials.” Nearly 50 district teachers signed a letter, which was read at a March 24 school board meeting, opposing the curricular requirement. District officials say that reading full novels in class creates gaps, does not meet standards, and that teachers can still assign long-form reading outside of class. Some Santa Maria-Bonita School District (SMBSD) junior high and elementary school teachers, like Foote, are frustrated by district curriculum and pacing guides that no longer allow them to teach full novels during class. Teachers are frustrated that these resources leave full novels out of the picture.īut now, Foote said, “those books are just sitting on my shelf.” Santa Maria-Bonita School District wants English teachers to stick to pacing guides for their lesson plans and use the largely digital StudySync curriculum. “I’ve had students where moms have cried and opened up: ‘You’re 14, I’m going to tell you how grandma got here.’ You can’t put a number on that.” “I had students whose parents were arguing with them at the dinner table, because it’s about immigration and undocumented status,” Foote said. Reading Enrique’s Journey, a story of a Honduran boy’s quest to reunite with his mother, had a particular type of impact. Santa Maria-Bonita teachers are frustrated by a district mandate on how novels can be used in the classroom By MALEA MARTINĮditor’s Note: This is the first in a two-part series on the Santa Maria-Bonita School District’s decision to not allow teachers to teach full novels in their classes.Įighth grade English teacher Kevin Foote can recall numerous moments in his 10 years teaching at Tommie Kunst Junior High when books left an inimitable impression on his students.
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