A Maine school and retooling English class

English class in a number of U.S. middle and high schools is changing shape, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Instead of prescribing a list of books for an entire class to read together, some teachers are telling students to start reading what they like and then pushing the students to choose more challenging material on their own. Some city school departments are changing rules to allow students to choose more of the books they read for class credit.

The logic behind the "reading workshop" philosophy is that students will read more if they're more engaged in what they're reading. But proponents of the traditional English class approach say students miss out on sharing a common body of literary knowledge with their classmates if their teachers adopt the "workshop" approach.

At the center of the reading workshop philosophy is a school in Maine, the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb. The New York Times article by Motoko Rich focuses on a Georgia public school teacher who retools her English class after witnessing the reading workshop philosophy in action at the private Edgecomb school.

From the Times article:

That first cool fall morning, 17 seventh- and eighth-grade students assembled for their reading and writing class in a large room overlooking a grove of birch and maple trees. Shelves of books ringed the room. The students flopped in forest green beanbag chairs set in a circle on the carpeted floor. At the front Ms. Atwell sat in a rocking chair, a small stack of volumes beside her."

The Georgia teacher, Lorrie McNeill, remade her classroom like the one she saw in Edgecomb. Time will tell how many more classroom makeovers the Center for Teaching and Learning will inspire.