Regarding the Aug. 28 news article “Schools are assigning fewer novels. Are excerpts just as good?”:
As a retired Montgomery County Public Schools junior high and high school English teacher, here is my answer to the question: No.
In the article, Timothy Shanahan, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, supports the use of excerpts: “Let’s say I want kids to explore some aspect of literary creation,” he said. “If we use short stories and excerpts, then all of a sudden I can pull five or six different examples done in various ways.”
Pointing out literary devices is a small part of reading fiction. Novels and short stories are about people, conflict, motivation, resolutions and themes. To fulfill the real purpose of putting a work of fiction in a student’s hands — to encourage an understanding of the world beyond one’s own circle — the student needs to know the whole story.
As for Shanahan’s contention that excerpts can be fine for understanding literary devices: An author uses these devices to serve the overarching ideas of a work. To understand why an author uses a certain style, students must experience the work as a whole.
If students are not prepared to read a novel, short stories can be a stepping stone to longer works. Short stories are worlds unto themselves, complete with a beginning, middle and end, and with characters who face conflicts and find — or fail to find — resolution.
But excerpts? Teachers are doing their students a disservice.
Richard Parker, Clarksburg
Fairfax County Public Schools, from which I recently retired as a teacher, uses the Benchmark Advance literacy program, which relies heavily on excerpts. The program is based on extensive research in the science of reading.
Sounds good, doesn’t it? There is one problem with Benchmark Advance, based on my experience with the fourth-grade curriculum. The program is boring. It is boring for teachers, and it is boring for students.
There are certainly some good lesson plans built around excerpts in the program. But the goal of literacy instruction in elementary school should be to encourage a love of reading. Educators should want children to get in the habit of reading for fun.
There is magic in reading a classic such as “Charlotte’s Web” to a fourth-grade class. There is value for these students in keeping the story and characters in their memory from one day to the next. There are groans when it’s time to stop reading for the day. No child ever groaned when a Benchmark lesson ended — though they did when it started.
Diane B. Norton, Fairfax
Names don’t change at the drop of a hat
Regarding the Aug. 27 online news article “Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America, escalating Canada feud”:
I am an American Canadian. President Donald Trump’s attempt to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” is absurd. It is an international body of water. A U.S. president does not have jurisdiction to rename it. In fact, under U.S. law, he does not even have the power to rename a lake wholly within the country (perhaps unless it is entirely within a national park or other federal property).
I did my doctoral work at Cornell, and I did my research on Cayuga Lake. Could Trump unilaterally rename that lake? I don’t think so.
For one thing, the Cayuga Nation might be peeved. There are roughly 8,000 of them now living in Canada, many on the Six Nations reserve in Ontario. Their ancestors fled north to escape being killed. If the Smithsonian Institution said this, Trump might defund them. But he can’t stop me from saying it.
Roger H. Green, London, Ontario
The writer is a professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario.
My name is Richard Merel, and I can tell people to call me Dick or Richie, but if I want to change my legal name, I have to go to court and explain my reasons to a judge. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday changing the name of Lake Ontario. This is, sadly, another example of Trump skirting proper procedures. In this case, Lake Ontario doesn’t belong solely to the United States; it’s shared with Canada. To change the name, start negotiations with Canada. Let’s see how far that goes.
Richard Merel, Hermosa Beach, California
Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior — the first letters of each, when put together, spell out HOMES. If Lake Ontario is renamed, does this make President Donald Trump a HOMES-wrecker?
Margaret Thompson, South Boardman, Michigan
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