THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

FROM ANN MORGAN, UK-BASED AUTHOR

The makeup of bookshelves is changing. Since my 2012 quest to read a book from every country, it’s been great to see many of the nations that had no literature commercially available in English translation back then becoming represented in the world’s most-published language...This year, that much-needed expansion of many people’s reading looks set to accelerate. In response to the #BlackLivesMatter protests that spread around the globe in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in the US, there has been a lot of discussion about diversifying the voices we listen to and the texts we read...I think this is a great thing. Having discovered how transformative reading books from a multiplicity of communities and perspectives can be during my quest, I am keen to encourage everybody to read widely because I am convinced that sharing stories is one of the most powerful tools we human beings have for fostering understanding, empathy and cooperation across cultural, political, racial, religious, social and geographical divides.

FROM REBECCA WINTHROP, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR UNIVERSAL EDUCATION

Remote learning has propelled children’s ability to learn independently to the forefront of every stressed out parent’s wish list. This ability, often described by education experts as “student agency,” has long held a privileged place in reform movements aspiring to help students develop the breadth of skills needed for a fast-changing world. When young people are actively engaged in what they are learning, they develop a stronger mastery of content and become more creative and critical thinkers. For one thing, learning how to learn is fast becoming an essential skill for any young person—regardless of socioeconomic background—who will need to enter the world of work and navigate multiple shifting jobs over the course of his or her life...But the ability to learn independently, as many parents around the globe found out amid pandemic-schooling, is not necessarily a skill that every child brings to his or her schoolwork...Yet children are learning all the time, as any expert in child development will tell you...But they may not be learning what the adults and educators in their lives want them to learn. The trick is for schools to approach teaching that channels students’ natural [curiosity and] makes lessons relevant to students’ lives, affording them the ability to apply classroom content to the real world.