Balancing act with books -- chicagotribune.com.
Balancing act with books Schools try to find right mix to keep students interested By Tara Malone | Chicago Tribune reporter
October 19, 2008 English teacher Jason Baker tries to hook his students on such giants of American literature as Hawthorne and Hemingway by conjuring the authors' timeless images of a scorned single mother or a love-struck soldier.
But the portrayals end decades before his students were born—a gap he and other teachers hope to narrow by rethinking their reading lists. "Macbeth" isn't going anywhere. Nor are literary staples like "The Great Gatsby" and "Lord of the Flies." But more contemporary works such as Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club" or David Guterson's "Snow Falling on Cedars" are edging into classrooms as educators try to balance the classics with works whose tone and theme are more accessible to today's teenagers.
The push has become more urgent because research shows many students are shelving books altogether. The percent of 17-year-olds who do not read for pleasure has doubled in the past 20 years, according to a recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts. Just 43 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds said they read literature in 2002, continuing a decline that began two decades earlier. "We're talking [about reading] a play, short story, novel or poem in the last 12 months. . . . It's a low bar. We're not even saying you had to complete the book," said Sunil Iyengar, the group's director of research and analysis.
The drop in how much teens read outside of class has spurred changes in what they read inside it, teachers say. Many educators pair old novels with newer books or media—comparing "Romeo and Juliet" with a hip-hop song about unrequited love, for example. "There's always a conflict between what kids want to read and what they read in school," said Alleen Nilsen, an Arizona State University English professor and textbook author. "My philosophy . . . is that those lists in high school were made in my parents' generation, when only 10 to 20 percent of kids when to college."
