Every six years, there is a new adoption of English textbooks in the English department, and this year happened to be one of those years. 

Since every textbook is used for a six year period, students get charged for textbook rental fees. So that over the course of the rental fees, students end up paying for the textbooks. 

“They get to look through samples and kind of navigate the online platforms and then give feedback to us,” English teacher Brent Bockelman said. “And selectively we get to decide what we want to go with.” Bockelman explains the process of how textbooks are chosen.

With the pandemic going around, the English departments chose HMH Into Literature since this textbook offers various online components.

 “It’s pretty easy for them to access,” English teacher Samuel Hanley said. “Not just the stories but the quizzes and things that go with the stories.” 

The book was also chosen because it has a diverse array of authors. 

“The makeup of the people who are telling the stories will more resemble the makeup of our student body,” Hanley said.

Since every student has to take English all four years, it is one of the biggest departments in SHS. It has also been one of the more expensive subjects. According to Hanley, this year, the total for new textbooks added up to $260,000. 

There may be some teachers who are using the textbooks more than others. A  challenge for this year is that teachers did not have that much time to train this summer, so they’re still trying to transition. 

“We’re going to offer training for these components for the next several months at teacher meetings,” Hanley said.