Literacy and Pleseure: Why we read and write in the first place

[Brenda Krupp]

I must admit that I was so engrossed in "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" that I put aside this book discussion. I am a reader. I love getting lost in a book, sitting by myself talking to the characters, getting angry with them when they do something I think is wrong; I become fully engaged. And yet so many of our students are choosing not to read because they don't get the same pleasure.

Newkirk accurately points his finger at textbooks as a culprit in the decline of reading at the upper elementary and middle school years. But he also talks about the damage done when classic texts are taught and the damage this can do to reading engagement (pg. 121). And yet, if it wasn't for a certain english teacher, I never would have read Wuthering Heights. But it wasn't the "class" discussion or the written assignments that made me love the book as a teenager, it was the pleasure I received from encountering the characters who "became more real than actual people I know." (And, it is the only book I remember reading in high school beside Julius Ceasar and "The Metamorphosis" - and I went to a prep school, so I know I read a lot!)

How do we make literacy attractive or unattractive to our students? How do we help students become "engaged" readers and writers? And how do we provide pleasure and challenge simultaneously? (pg. 129) As you go into summer break, what were your successes? What will you do again? What will you leave behind?

[Amber White]

Brenda,

No need to apologize for getting this post up late...looks like we're all slacking (t-hee)!

I decided to share a literacy initiative that I headed up last year that fits with this chapter quite well, but actually came about because of popular culture (our previous chapter).

[Penny Kittle]

This was a powerful chapter for me, but then again, they're all powerful. This is one mighty little book.

I have been interviewing my students and listening to them for years because I'm a bit obsessed with this question: are we killing a love for reading in our English classes? The answer is a loud yes. Spark Notes have replaced deep reading for the majority of teenagers in my school, and since they hate the assigned reading, they aren't reading at all. I am on a mission to give kids more choice in reading because it turns my students into readers again. For every teacher who discovered a love for reading in one of the classics (that I came to love in college), there are 10 other kids that turn away from reading altogether. We are losing a generation of readers. BUT... with daily book talks, time to read (just 10 minutes in class) and a continual push to get students reading more, my students average about 15 books a semester. Many read much more. And many eventually choose classics... once they've built up the stamina to devour books quickly they are ready for them.

Newkirk is leading us to deep thinking again. His willingness to take on tough questions is the professional courage we all need. Especially in an age when utter insanity has taken over some of our schools.

[Barry Lane]

So True Penny. You are reviving a lifelong love that will be more important than anything else you teach. Before there was public school there was reading. Before there was Sparknotes there was reading. Before there was Penny, there was reading.
I think one of Newkirk's strongest points in the book is that Ed. Science has never been able or willing to prove what we all know is true: Independent reading turns students into lifelong readers. I heard a very well paid Education Consultant bloviate to a room of 1000 teachers that independent reading had no effect on a students lexicon of important reading words. Reading for pleasure was to be limited in school and all focus should be placed on decoding complex texts that improved a students Lexicon faster. He also made the case that tests were severely flawed, then three sentences later bragged that a major formula reading program had dramatically improved reading scores in Phoenix schools. This person had millions of Gate's bucks behind him and is a major player in the Standards Movement.

How can teachers get together and make enough noise so that Washington hears us? I am sick of "kvetching."





Penny Kittle said:

This was a powerful chapter for me, but then again, they're all powerful. This is one mighty little book.

I have been interviewing my students and listening to them for years because I'm a bit obsessed with this question: are we killing a love for reading in our English classes? The answer is a loud yes. Spark Notes have replaced deep reading for the majority of teenagers in my school, and since they hate the assigned reading, they aren't reading at all. I am on a mission to give kids more choice in reading because it turns my students into readers again. For every teacher who discovered a love for reading in one of the classics (that I came to love in college), there are 10 other kids that turn away from reading altogether. We are losing a generation of readers. BUT... with daily book talks, time to read (just 10 minutes in class) and a continual push to get students reading more, my students average about 15 books a semester. Many read much more. And many eventually choose classics... once they've built up the stamina to devour books quickly they are ready for them.

Newkirk is leading us to deep thinking again. His willingness to take on tough questions is the professional courage we all need. Especially in an age when utter insanity has taken over some of our schools.

[Brenda Krupp]

Wouldn't it be interesting if we had a "read in" on the steps of the Capitol building and invited senators and congressmen and women to join us, to read! - (No I wasn't old enough to participate in sit ins against the Viet Nam war but I have loved reading about that era. I was in elementary school.) There will be a national day of writing this October, what if we proclaimed a National Day of Reading. WHAT IF....

[Ken C]

I am a soldier of Nancie, too (maybe I'm wrong, but I give Nancie Atwell all the credit for "reading workshop" and the fact that I have my kids read 30 mins/night for HW every day). In our 8th grade, we gathered data and learned that our kids averaged 26 books read from September to June last year. Not bad at all!

And yet we STILL have naysayers who tell us that SSR is a "waste of class time." We STILL have naysayers who say that the books they are reading (mostly YA) have "low Lexile scores and are not challenging enough." We STILL have naysayers who say our job is to teach the classics -- end of story.

Amen to Penny on the Spark Notes. My daughter's ex- (say Amen!) boyfriend was the valedictorian of his high school and made the mistake of proudly proclaiming at our dinner table one night that he not read a SINGLE book in four years of high school! When I asked how that was possible, he smugly said, "Spark Notes and Pink Monkey." Uh... know your audience, kid!

[Barry Lane]

I think you could make the argument that some books are not worth reading but what is most powerful to me is that your daughter's ex was the valedictorian. They should rename that to "Number One at playing the system.."

It would be fun to write a c- version of Sparknotes full of false assumptions and shallow thought.

Ken C said:

I am a soldier of Nancie, too (maybe I'm wrong, but I give Nancie Atwell all the credit for "reading workshop" and the fact that I have my kids read 30 mins/night for HW every day). In our 8th grade, we gathered data and learned that our kids averaged 26 books read from September to June last year. Not bad at all!

And yet we STILL have naysayers who tell us that SSR is a "waste of class time." We STILL have naysayers who say that the books they are reading (mostly YA) have "low Lexile scores and are not challenging enough." We STILL have naysayers who say our job is to teach the classics -- end of story.

Amen to Penny on the Spark Notes. My daughter's ex- (say Amen!) boyfriend was the valedictorian of his high school and made the mistake of proudly proclaiming at our dinner table one night that he not read a SINGLE book in four years of high school! When I asked how that was possible, he smugly said, "Spark Notes and Pink Monkey." Uh... know your audience, kid!

[Sue]

I took away the idea of isolation. A deep reader, a deep writer needs to be isolated. It's anti-social, sometimes psychotic, but it's necessary. The time to read and write creates readers and writers. How can we create times to read and write and still honor the need for collaboration???