When Bronx teacher Jessica Beck began teaching two decades ago, middle schoolers in her English class often read 20 books a year. Under the city\u2019s new, mandated literacy curriculum, however, she\u2019s hoping to get through four books in class by the end of June.<\/p>\n
She said that\u2019s because much of the kids\u2019 class time is dedicated to reading excerpts and supplementary activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey come to me and they’re like, \u2018Miss, this is so boring. I miss talking about books,\u2019\u201d Beck said.<\/p>\n
With literacy rates at crisis levels among students throughout the five boroughs, the education department has recently implemented major reforms<\/a> to reading instruction as part of an effort called NYC Reads. The city began with an overhaul of the early grades. By fall 2027 all middle schools<\/a> must adopt one of two reading curricula, from EL Education or Wit & Wisdom. Officials said the two programs were selected because they align with the latest science on reading, focusing on phonics, vocabulary, knowledge building and comprehension.<\/p>\n But teachers and parents said they\u2019re worried kids are now being forced to slog through mind-numbing exercises in workbooks, rather than nurturing the joy that comes from reading whole books.<\/p>\n The critique reflects concerns across the country<\/a> about a decline in whole books taught at school. A national survey<\/a> out this week found teachers assign four whole books on average.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a firm belief that following characters for 300 or 400 pages builds a muscle that there’s no other way of building,\u201d said Jonathan Goldman, a parent at Manhattan School for Children.<\/p>\n Lists of the books included in the two city-approved curricula show middle school students are expected to read four to seven books in a school year, depending on the grade.<\/p>\n [object Object]<\/p>\n Goldman, an English professor, said his daughter has been coming home with reading assignments that look more like test prep with short excerpts followed by comprehension questions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe keep being told that our kids don’t have the attention span anymore that previous generations did, and I think that they don’t have the attention span because they haven’t been given enough opportunities to stretch out their attention span, frankly,\u201d Goldman said.<\/p>\n New York City\u2019s literacy overhaul reflects a nationwide course correction from teaching methods that experts said have now been disproven. Critics said popular strategies created bad habits<\/a> by encouraging students to guess words by using pictures, while glossing over important lessons on letter sounds.<\/p>\n [object Object]<\/p>\n As soon as the new curriculum was introduced at the elementary level, parents started raising alarms<\/a> about fewer whole books. Now, as the effort expands to middle schools, those worries have spread. Parents fear the shift exacerbates the attention-span crisis for kids surrounded by screens.<\/p>\n But education department officials insisted that whole books are still at the core of the city\u2019s reading program. They said the new curriculum creates more consistency and ensures kids have the skills they need.<\/p>\n