Education coverage: Less Goethe for simpler entry? Debate about simplified literature in Berlin excessive faculties | EUROtoday

More and extra Berlin excessive faculties are apparently resorting to simplified variations of literary classics of their classes. The spokesman for the Cornelsen publishing home, Sven Haedecke, instructed the “Tagesspiegel”: “Our impression is that teachers at high schools are increasingly happy to work with the series.”

Cornelsen Verlag specializes within the growth of college books and, with its “Simply Classic” collection, affords varied literary works in easy language, together with “Romeo and Juliet”, “William Tell” and “Faust”. The collection was initially designed primarily for secondary faculties, secondary faculties and complete faculties.

The simplified variations are shorter, written in additional comprehensible language and include supporting parts reminiscent of phrase explanations, data containers or pictures. The trendy format and the decrease stage of language entry are meant to keep away from studying frustration.

The writer’s web site states that “Simply Classic” makes it simpler for much less skilled readers from grade eight onwards to entry classical literature and “sustainably increases reading motivation”.

A German instructor on the Lessing-Gymnasium in Berlin-Wedding confirmed the development in the direction of simplified literary classics to the “Tagesspiegel”. The college would have a complete of six literary classics within the German archive, every in easy language as a category set. Although she has no overview of how typically lecturers use these books, she will see from the loans within the media heart “that they are chosen in the 8th or 9th grade.”

In the previous, she additionally selected the simplified model of “Nathan the Wise” in a ninth grade class, “mainly due to time constraints,” the instructor stated. “The focus here was on encountering a classic drama of the Enlightenment, that is, the course of action, constellation of characters and speech of characters and not so much the analysis of speech,” she defined. In her view, nevertheless, the unique textual content should “absolutely” be used for speech evaluation.

Experienced educators criticize the event in the direction of literary classics in easy language. The former head of the Berlin schooling administration division, Christiane Sauerbaum-Thieme, instructed the “Tagesspiegel”: “A ghost is haunting German classes in Berlin: literature in simple language.” There is a “tendency towards excerpts”, which implies that literature is barely learn “bit by bit”.

The “Teacher of the Year 2013”, Robert Radecke-Rauh, defined that he discovered it “understandable” if lecturers resorted to simplified variations to make the content material simpler to entry. “But if we start converting literary texts into simple language, we will rob the classics of their aesthetic substance and the high schools of their claim to acquire university entrance qualifications,” he stated. After all, in music, nobody comes up with the thought of ​​“transforming Mozart’s operas into simple sounds.”

According to analysis by the “Tagesspiegel”, it isn’t solely excessive faculties with a excessive proportion of migrants who depend on simplified literary classics. Students and oldsters on the Georg-Büchner-Gymnasium in Berlin-Lichtenrade additionally reported that they used the Cornelsen collection. There, the proportion of scholars who don’t talk in German at dwelling is barely ten p.c.

When requested, the college itself didn’t touch upon the usage of the simplified variations, however as a substitute referred the matter to the Senate Department for Education. Their spokesman emphasised that the Cornelsen collection was solely utilized in particular person courses and that it was additionally a “pilot test”.

High college college students had been shocked at this assertion, writes the “Tagesspiegel”. The collection has been used at Büchner-Gymnasium for a few years, it’s stated.

In addition to critics, there are additionally supporters of simplified literary classics. Christian Plein from the “Fachverband Deutsch” stated: “In times when many young people – especially those with a migration background – only have limited or barely mastered reading skills, it is actually indispensable to introduce them to more complex texts using simple language.”