Creating Continuity and Coherence in High School Literature Curricula.

Abstract

In this study we examine how experienced teachers of literature create a sense of coherence and continuity in high school English classes. We studied experienced teachers' curricular decision-making in 19 semesteror year-long literature classes. Basing our findings on interviews with teachers and students, classroom observations, and analyses of instructional materials and student work, we argue that two mechanisms contribute to coherence and continuity in the curriculum: the curricular structure that is created to support curricular conversations (oral and written) that engage important issues across extended periods of time and the conventions that are established to govern students' participation in the domain (what will be talked and written about, in what ways, and by whom). All of the classrooms we studied created a stable and predictable set of domain conventions, but only a few created curricular structures that encouraged the continued exploration of related ideas over extended periods of time. Overall, similarity in broad topics and goals within the curriculum masked great diversity at the level of classroom practice.