February 11th, 2016

Ms. Hong yan Chen

Director of English Department of Beijing Royal School
11 Wangfu Street
Changping District
Beijing, China 102209
Dear Director Chen,
I hope you have had a relaxing winter break and a good start of a
new semester. Its my honor to be recommended by you and
sponsored by the school for further study at NC State University. I
understand my obligation to learn hard and explore more in
pedagogy, and bring what I acquire here back to the school to
improve not only my teaching but also contribute to the
development of our school. While learning, I always connect the
pedagogy and concept to the reality in our school. I know that there
is always a controversy on what materials we should use for English
reading class among teachers in our English department. Based on
what I have learned from the courses and what I have observed in
American classrooms, I advocate that we should use young adult
literature as main materials for English reading class for our junior
high students, instead of our current textbooks.
Profound researches have proven that students can only enjoy
reading by reading what they are interested and what they can
relate to their own life. Since late 1980s, various theorists and
educators, including Rosenblatt, Purves, and Probst have been
emphasizing the significance of using young adult literature to help
students become life-long readers. Young adult literature also
reflects the developmental struggles of adolescents, which have
been identified in the theories of Piaget, Erikson, and Havighurst.
Students are interested in young adult literature because it tells
stories that they can relate to their real life; students need young
adult literature because they can resonate with the thoughts and
feelings conveyed by these works.
The textbooks used currently in our classrooms are collections of
informational articles, which are useful themselves but are of very
limited benefit to the cultivation of young adolescents as real
readers. Students read to find the facts and answer the questions,
instead of reading for their own interests and needs. The topics,
take looking for a job as an example, are far away from their life
which make them bored; the contents and vocabularies are difficult
for many students whose English proficiency is limited. Whats
more, the only way they can respond to the reading is to answer the
multiple questions after each reading. I was always very sorry to see
that many of my students were frustrated and bored in my

classroom. I once used the book Holes in one of my classes, I was

surprised to see that even those most reluctant students in my class
followed the plot and were eager to know what would happen next.
My learning experience as a graduate student and my identity as a
teacher give me the chance to see the importance of the change. I
think we should start from doing surveys among students to get to
know what they love to read outside classrooms as reference of the
book selection. A committee can be organized to discuss what books
we use in each grade level or each classroom, and how we organize
a reading class that really engages students. Collaborative work
among teachers should be achieved to develop a new model of
teaching English reading.
I understand this change is very challenging. Once we give the
students the choices for what they read, the uniformity in a
classroom will be shaken. However, its high time that we should
shift emphasis from uniformity to diversity. I know you will agree
that its the students who we teach, not the textbooks. Some
teachers may worry that there will be more workload and more
difficulties to plan for the lessons, but we can always see it a great
chance for the teachers to work collaboratively which is the key
impetus to the improvement of a school. Some teachers may ask
how we can assess students learning. I would say finishing multiple
choices is definitely not the answer. We need new ways to help
students respond to reading, and present their understanding in
various ways. Diversified strategies should be used, including
applying technologies. Based on this, we have diversified ways to
assess students reading, instead of evaluating all the students in a
single way.
I understand and always appreciate that you, as the director of our
English department, and other teachers made great efforts to find
the textbooks we are using now. I do think they are very convenient
materials for students to practice for English proficiency tests, which
they have to take in the future. But we can use them as
supplementary materials. After all, if the students lose interests in
reading these textbooks, they can never function well. On the
contrary, if students become real readers, they will find the tests
much easier to handle with.
I am always inspired and encouraged by your support for teachers
innovative teaching, and I am eager to contribute my efforts to the
changes that we want to see happen in our school.
Thank you for your time reading this letter and your service for
making our department a loving family.
Sincerely yours,

Jing He