A core aspect of a students’ education is English Language Arts, or ELA, where they focus on developing skills like reading, grammar and writing. These vital skills are often paired with a book to enhance their learning and help them develop analysis and critical thinking skills.
However, opinions of what books are acceptable to teach to students and how exactly to teach them is a common debate around the country today. English teacher and the 2025 Kansas Master Teacher award recipient Casey Engel sheds light on the process of textbooks and curriculum at BV.
Teachers in each department are organized into teams based on what type of class they teach, and together, they look over district curriculum documents to decide what to start teaching to students.
“We’ll look at the focus of each unit and the standards and skills expected to be addressed in that unit,” Engel said. “Then we’ll look at our Blue Valley novel approved list and see what best suits each quarter. It’s a team decision when we are teaching a whole class book.”
One of the biggest factors in whether or not a student likes a book is how they are introduced to it, what connections they make early on, and if the deeper context of the text actually connects to them.
“It’s always crucial to underscore the why of the book,” Engel said. “Why is this book important? Why are we reading it right now? What is the author wanting us to realize about what it means to be human?”
Developing this why is exactly what ELA is about: observing and making critical thinking skills to broaden students’ view of life. However, student reactions and opinions on books vary. Some may love a certain book, but others loathe being forced to read it for a class.
“It comes down to skill level, interest level, how the teacher opens up the conversations that the books offer,” Engel said. “I think student attitude, [even home life] plays a role. Students are more likely to be willing to access our whole class novels and engage in those conversations. It depends on the student, the teacher, the book.”
Not all schools have ELA programs as interactive or personal as BV, which contributes to some of the annoyance of assigned reading at large.
“I’ve had experience in other schools of teaching alongside teachers who don’t feel the need to evolve what, why and how they teach,” Engel said. “Extensive worksheets and mindless assignments are a good way to kill the study of a text.”
Most students similarly despite mindless “busywork” commonly assigned by teachers (see page 7).
“Any teacher who teaches without having students understand the deeper significance of the work is doing a disservice to the book and the students,” Engel said. “I would hope that across the country, ELA teachers are, now more than ever, understanding that to have any chance of keeping students’ interest, the text really needs to matter to them, to society, to how we process our morals and ethics and [to] how we process life’s issues. It’s a shame if a teacher doesn’t think about that.”
However, Engel believes it is not always the teachers’ fault that students don’t understand certain books, as factors like AI, social media and the online world can hinder students ability to think critically about a text.
“AI is one of our biggest problems,” Engel said. “We have this massive think tank that can produce outstanding responses to any question that we ask. It is seriously robbing us of the beauty of experiencing a text. Everybody just wants to do the shortcuts, and now it’s easier than ever. I hope students understand the best way to grow critical thinking skills is to absorb a text, enjoy it and to think about their place in the world according to what they’re reading.”
