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A thread on a chronological KS3 English curriculum, to spark debate:
1. Nothing wrong with teaching chronology. But why not a timeline on the wall or in student books, adding texts as you go & giving interesting related info? But as an organising principle it's problematic imo.
1. Nothing wrong with teaching chronology. But why not a timeline on the wall or in student books, adding texts as you go & giving interesting related info? But as an organising principle it's problematic imo.
2. First, whose chronology? British? If so, then Y7-9 will be stuffed with British writers & little else. Limited scope for cross-cultural comparison & intertextual discussion deriving from it â archetypes, genres etc. Diverse texts not studied in own right. No bigger picture.
3. Most published writing from those periods was by men. So Y7-9, students read little or no writing by women. What does that say to students? Boys as well as girls!
4. Start with Beowulf & end with Romantics or the Victorians? For me that in itself, as a learning experience, and introduction to the serious study of literature for all 11-14 year olds, is full of problems, some of which follow.
5. Beowulf can end up being âthe story of Beowulfâ more than what Eaglestone calls âthe walk in the rainâ through texts. Fine, if just that one but not if all texts are too difficult/long to experience in their entirety. depriving students of experience of immersion in a text.
6. It takes no account of interest/pleasure/engagement (dirty word for some but not for me). The curric is set in stone â you canât shift chronology â not open to adaptation & responsive to students & their progress & development.
7. It doesnât build in cross-period comparison to look at vital literary issues such as development of genres, conventions & language itself. Just read a few Romantics in Y8, or Include a few but also Amanda Gorman & Benjamin Zephaniah alongside Wordsworth, Blake & Shelley!
8. It sidelines incredible contemp writing & literary study as a living, breathing cultural experience, to find out about & plunge into, with own reading sparked by classroom work. This is a prime aim of English as a subject, to foster pleasure in a living world of texts!
8. It sidelines incredible YA writing, suggesting a hierarchy of value, in which no YA books are âworthyâ of study. Yet many YA texts present rich âchallengeâ & are full of possibilities for developing understandings about genres & literary concepts.
9. or is it 10.? âThe Girl of Ink and Starsâ or âOneâ or âIn the Sea There are Crocodilesâ or a collection of diverse stories (e.g. in âIridescent Adolescentâ) can open up the big ideas of literary study really, really well, with comparisons & connections ripe for discussion.
10. To sum up, the chronological approach fits in texts as âcultural iconsâ in time order rather than what will best suit students & develop them as readers, risks suggesting to students that English is a âdeadâ rather than a living subject and...
... it misses out on huge opportunities for cross-cultural, cross-period, cross-genre study & thinking that will not only be essential for future study but also set students up as adult readers. That's not to say, 'don't study 'Beowulf' or the Romantics at KS3, but rather...
...put together texts that are in conversation with each other, over time & cultural context, and above all, select them on the basis of how 11-14 year olds can be progressively introduced to wonderful texts of different kinds & ways of thinking about literature. THE END.
