You, just as three recent Teachers of the Year describe, have much education and training to prepare you for the job. You鈥檝e content knowledge, English teaching expertise, and kid savvy. You are the one best prepared to select the texts for students to use to meet the course curricula and local and state standards. You know鈥攖he texts and your students and what the perfect match will be.
Your school relies upon your expertise in this area, and, when there are challenges, everyone involved needs a reminder of this.
You鈥檙e resourceful. So, if a parent objects to her student reading a certain text, you can and should provide an alternative. BUT, that parent is not on legal footing with an objection to all students reading the text. If the parent persists, hopefully your school has a policy for handling such challenges (have a look at the Board of Education policies listed on your school鈥檚 website or at the policy outlined in NCTE鈥檚 The Students鈥� Right to Read) and, hopefully, the school follows the policy.
Throughout, remember your expertise!
Following are selected words from two 起点传媒policies to help you do just that.
From Guidelines for Selection of Materials in English Language Arts Programs:
Selecting materials requires in-depth knowledge: not just of students鈥� backgrounds and learning experiences, but also of their abilities and interests; not just of educational objectives, but of the best practices and range and quality of materials for meeting them; not just of the particular work being considered, but of its place within the medium, genre, epoch, etc., it represents. In short, responsible selection demands not only the experience and education needed to make sound choices but also the ability to defend the choices made.
This level of expertise can be found in the English language arts professional.
From The Students鈥� Right to Read:
In selecting books for reading by young people, English teachers consider the contribution which each work may make to the education of the reader, its aesthetic value, its honesty, its readability for a particular group of students, and its appeal to adolescents鈥�
English teachers are better qualified to choose and recommend books for their classes than persons not prepared in the field.
And share with challengers that
English teachers forced through the pressures of censorship to use only safe or antiseptic works are placed in the morally and intellectually untenable position of lying to their students about the nature and condition of mankind鈥�
With appreciation for you and your educator expertise!