(October 4, 2004) — Poetry and short stories and plays, oh my! The freshmen English classes are slowly switching from reading primarily novels, to using the new district-approved anthology, Literature and Language Arts. The anthology was selected by the district because it may help students improve scores on standardized tests as it is closely aligned with the California state standards and because it has a “wide variety of literature,” said English chair Chris Davis. English teachers are now left with the challenge of balancing the anthology with the novels they used to teach. Most teachers, however, said they really liked the anthology. English teacher Yvonne Dickie described the book as a “wonderful resource” because it connects well with the novels she has her classes read. For example, while Dickie’s class is currently reading Romeo and Juliet they are also connecting it to other plays in the anthology. English teacher Carol Pettegrew is the only teacher who has a set of books for her students to take home. “It’s very heavy,” she laughed. “It builds both strong bodies and brains.” Pettegrew will focus on the anthology for most of the year, but have her students read few novels throughout the year. For English teacher Mary Mardirossian, she will not devote chunks of time to only the anthology or only to novels, but combine the two together. She has students read novels that they would regularly read during freshman year for the first 20 minutes of class. They are asked to answer questions that “promote higher learning” in journals after the reading in order to get a more in-depth understanding of the novels. For the remainder of Mardirossian’s class, she teaches out of the anthology. Mardirossian said she likes the anthology because “[she] likes pushing [her] students more,” and believes that the anthology can do exactly that. Other teachers, such as English teacher Maral Guarino, have started to use the anthology, but plan on implementing it more as the year progresses.