News Brief

01/28/13

Nonfiction Revamps English Education

Technician Online (NC) (01/28/13) Awad, Sara

Redesigning the high school English curriculum under the Common Core Standards Initiative has begun, and the College Board is pushing for the inclusion of more nonfiction narratives on student reading lists to help prepare them for university-level coursework. The initiative also is expected to further emphasize rhetoric, with Daniel Synk, a graduate assistant in Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media, saying, "I think the best way to prepare for college coursework is for students to have practice with independent thinking, question what is presented to them, and think about implications of things instead of what they are explicitly." Most agree that adding nonfiction could improve the curriculum, but they also indicate that fiction should not be removed entirely. Curriculum and instruction graduate research assistant Shea Kerkhoff Vessa says imagination and creativity are important parts of the U.S. education system, noting that students should be allowed to take fine arts and technical courses. "History and science teachers need to teach literacy skills because the English department is too packed already. ... I think the focus will change to looking at the power of language versus the beauty of language," she says.

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