Not-so-great expectations: Students are reading fewer books in English class “There was a trend, it happened when COVID hit, to stop reading full-length novels because students were in trauma; we were ...

“We do one book after state testing, and we did ‘The Great Gatsby.’ … A lot of kids had not read a novel in class before.” — Laura Henry, 10th-grade English teacher near Houston “My son in 9th grade ...

Chris Stanislawski didn’t read much in his middle school English classes, but it never felt necessary. Students were given detailed chapter summaries for every novel they discussed, and teachers ...