I think you'll find this report as fascinating as I did. How times, and reading offerings, have changed. It is fair, though, to say that some old faithfuls have remained!
Be sure to see the graph at the bottom of this post.
Renaissance Learning has released its fifth edition of the What Kids Are Reading report. Among the many topics covered in the free report, it compared high school reading across the last century.
Below are links to free eBook copies of the most popular books in 1907, 1923 and 1964. The complete report noted “a decline over time in the complexity of required texts for high school students.” Follow this link for an infographic summary of the research. Here’s more from the report:
Top High School Reading, 1907-2012 with Links to Free Books
1907
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Silas Marner by George Eliot
1923
The Rivals: A Comedy by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Sohrab and Rustum by Matthew Arnold
1964
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
2012
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Night by Elie Wiesel
Renaissance Learning has released its fifth edition of the What Kids Are Reading report. Among the many topics covered in the free report, it compared high school reading across the last century.
Below are links to free eBook copies of the most popular books in 1907, 1923 and 1964. The complete report noted “a decline over time in the complexity of required texts for high school students.” Follow this link for an infographic summary of the research. Here’s more from the report:
Albion High School
Class of 1900
Although our analysis is restricted to the period of 1907 to 2012, there is evidence that writing has become less complex over the last several hundred year. Complexity is impacted in part by average sentence length; books with longer sentences tend to be more difficult to comprehend than books with shorter sentences … it is worth noting that just because the books students are being assigned to read are less complex than in prior years, this does not necessarily mean that they cannot read or comprehend books at higher levels, nor can we assume that assigning more complex texts would necessarily lead to improvements in achievement.
1907
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Silas Marner by George Eliot
1923
The Rivals: A Comedy by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Sohrab and Rustum by Matthew Arnold
1964
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
2012
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Night by Elie Wiesel
4 Comments on How High School Reading Has Changed Since 1907, last added: 9/5/2013
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I strongly suspect that these lists are because these books are assigned reading. Silas Marner, MacBeth and Julius Caesar were all assigned reading in the 4 high schools I attended in different states. I ended up having to read Julius Caesar three times because of transferring school systems. Fortunately I only had to suffer through Silas Marner only once. 1923 is an odd list. I might have
Yes, Sue, I think this is true, as I mentioned to you on fb. Too bad about Julius Caesar, though! It's interesting, because we're always taught that the old books are the right path (no pun intended), but I think the 2012 list is spectacular, particularly for the occurrences of the past 70 years. Thanks, Sue!
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Interesting post.
How true is that, Rosi!<br /><br />Thanks.