Major curriculum changes in the English Department at Homewood-Flossmoor High School will have students reading current novels — and some old favorites.
The District 233 school board is expected to approve $193,000 for next books at the April 18 board meeting. The proposal was reviewed by the board’s Planning Committee at its March 19 meeting. The new materials will be used in classes starting in August.
The selections should be good for five years. Older books will be retired.
Staff will order 720 copies to make certain books are available for each student in English I, English II and English III.
New for freshman English I is “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie and “The Odyssey: A Graphic Novel.”
English II is adding “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang, “Our Missing Hearts” by Celeste Ng and “The Other Wes Moore” by Wes Moore. Works by 20th century authors August Wilson and George Orwell are on the list.
American Literature and Rhetoric/English III will have 13 books on its list, including “James” by Percival Everett, “The Beauty of Your Face” by H-F English teacher Sahar Mustafah, “The Children’s House” by Lilian Hellman, as well as classics “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck and “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller.
Other classes, like the new LGTBQ+ Lives and Literature class, have low enrollment and require only 30 books. The curriculum includes “The Play” by Dustin Lance Black, “House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune and “The Stonewall Reader” an anthology, as well as Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” poetry collection.
Global Voices/English IV will read “A Long Way Gone” by Ishael Beah, “Punching the Air” by Ibi Zoboi and Yusek Salaam, and “The Namesake” by Jhumpa Lahiri.
New for the International Baccalaureate program is “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
To review the complete list, click here.
Jennifer Hester, director of curriculum, said, “The English Department started by redefining their vision and mission and their commitment to students.”
Hester said teachers looked at the seven courses in the curriculum and “realigned (them) to standards and proficiency scales and their assessments.”
For each text, staff included learning targets, for example “synthesize information from multiple sources” or “use organizational structures to highlight corrections between the elements of an argument.” The readers also gave an “academic value” for each selection.
For example, “The Other West Moore” for English II “supports students’ development of analyzing how themes of identity, choices and the influence of environment develop by comparing the lives of two men with the same name but different outcomes.”
The classic “Leaves of Grass” by Walt Whitman is on the list “to help students analyze tone and specific language, both literal and figurative, used to determine the author’s purpose, strengthen claims using valid reasoning, and adapt writing style as appropriate to purpose and task.”
The work by the English Department led to a better alignment with Common Core standards that outline what students should know and be able to do at each grade level. The standards are used by 41 states, including Illinois, with the goal to ensure all students graduating high school are prepared for college and careers.
Materials were also reviewed for meeting the diversity, equity and inclusion standards the board set out in its Profiles of a Viking. Profile of a Viking has five categories – Diversity and Inclusion; Innovation and Problem-Solving; Reflection and Resilience; Communication and Collaboration; Citizenship and Character.
Hester said at least two teachers read a text and decided how the text helps support the teaching of the standards. Works were assessed by text structure, language features, sentence structure, what background will be necessary to understand the text and complexities of those features.
The board has previously reviewed new materials, but the committee members said they couldn’t accomplish reading that many texts in the 30 days before their vote.
“From a governance perspective, you need to hold us accountable,” Superintendent Scott Wakeley said. Staff has read and vetted the books, but “if something comes out that’s controversial or objectionable, then we have to be very specific.” Families will have an opt-out option.