Nobody Reads Novels Anymore: Reframing the Discussion Around Texts

33% of all high school graduates will never read a book again. 42% of all college graduates will never read a book after college. 

To say that people aren't reading would be a lie, though. As a culture, we read more than we ever have before. We just do it differently now.

I want to propose major shifts that we make in our classrooms to better prepare our students for the type of reading, or text processing, they will do in their future.

This discussion has to start with a reframing of the definition of a text. I want to propose that the term text needs to be used more broadly in a modern context. The way I want to frame the concept of a text for this post is that it is simply a vehicle through which an audience receives information.

Think about how most information used to be delivered. Major events? Newspaper. Information about an individual? Biography. Vicarious experience? Novel or short story.

Source: http://img.memecdn.com/newspaper-fail_o_2453947.jpg

These concepts defined what we viewed a text as, so we devoted our ELA classrooms to the study of these mediums.

Now think about how most information is delivered today. Major events? Social media. Information about an individual? Wikipedia. Vicarious experience? Movies and TV.

Despite the fact that we know this is how information is delivered in the modern age, why do we still devote so much time to the traditional definition of a text?

Proposal #1: Change our "Reading Literary" and "Reading Informational" categories in the claims and standards to "Processing of Information" to be more adaptive to the fluid definition of what a text is.

Now that we've talked about how the ways we ingest information is changing, what about the ways that we share information?

What is the most common way students communicate their ideas in an ELA classroom? The infamous essay. 

I love essays. I really do. Chuck Klosterman's ability to connect seemingly meaningless aspects of pop culture into an insightful critique of human nature as a whole is a truly profound talent that I can never get enough of. 

However, Chuck Klosterman is a writer, and more specifically, an essayist. We might have a few of those come out of our classrooms over the years we spend in our classrooms, but with the way we focus on essays, you would think every single one of our student's futures depends on whether or not they can write an essay.

You might be thinking, "But what about the SAT and the college application essays?!" I'm not saying that we should stop teaching essays. I'm saying that we should be teaching the concept of sharing information as a process that has universal properties that extend well beyond the page. 

Think about a commercial or advertisement. It has a hook and an introduction. It generally includes a structure and organization of the main ideas. It likely has some sort of conclusion. We could teach students to make a commercial while teaching them the same components of an essay, and in terms of products they will make in the future, an advertisement is definitely on the likelier end of the spectrum than an essay. 

Proposal #2: Change the "Writing" and "Speaking/Listening" claims and standards to "Communication of Ideas" to allow for a wider application of the skills we want students to learn. 

These two shifts in language don't really make a difference on their own. It is the concept that they embody that needs to be the focus in our classrooms. We are getting to the point where if a student only knows how to read a traditional text, they will be at a disadvantage in the real world. We need students who can decode advertisements. We need students who can evaluate the tone in a news broadcast. We need students who can filter the fact from fiction on social media. 

The world is changing faster than ever. Are our students going to be ready for what they really need when they get out into the world of the future?