Recently, I read Kelly Gallager's new book, Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It. The book is chalked-full of statistics that make a teacher cring and a must read for educators. However, the book has raised a lot of questions in my head. How did I develop a love for reading? What did my teachers do? What makes me sad about my own teaching?
As I've thought back I can still remember the year it all clicked. I was in Mrs. Cobb's fourth grade and our room was right beside the library. (We also had a bookmobile from the public library that came every month.) Anyway, Mrs. Cobb valued reading. She gave us time to read. She allowed us to talk about what we were reading and then would ask us to explain why others should read the book. It was in her class that I first read about Czar Nicholas II and became fascinated by the Bolshevic Revolution. I remember reading of far away contentients and marveling at different cultures. I think this was the year I became addicted to history as well.
Perhaps I've been remembering because of a recent incident at school. Last week the media specialist (and I use that term loosely) told one of my students she couldn't read Number the Stars because it would lower her AR reading level. Dear Bessie!!!!! I couldn't take it. I walked over to my book cabinet and pulled it out. I told her to read the first chapter. Then I asked her if she liked the book so far, she said yes. I looked at her and said, "You need to read what interest you." She finished Number the Stars and came back this week wanting another book. I gave her Letters from Rifka.
Heaven help us when we as educators do not encourage our children to read great literature. I know Mrs. Cobb would agree.
"You don't have to burn books to destroy culture. Just get people to stop reading them." Ray Bradbury
5 comments:
I love the phrase near the end "and came back this week wanting another book" because of your choice to use the word "wanting." Seed planted? Check.
Thanks for writing today!
-Carrie F.
ARGH! The AR culture has stifled so many students by the time they reached my fourth grade classroom, and then I spent my year trying to help them falling in love with reading rather than racking up AR points! Thanks for sharing!
i love that you stood up for your student!! when i get them in high school and they tell me they haven't read a book since 5th or 6th grade, my heart aches for all they've missed. let's make a pact that it won't happen to another student! :)
One of the things I ask my students to write about on the first day, is "what they've read lately." Truly, the answers are pathetic. About 2 in 30 read anything considered to be a book. Most answers are along the lines of Gameboy manuals, back of the cereal box, my last class' lit book.
Sigh. Keep doing what you're doing. I want my students (in college) to have had someone like you in their life.
Elizabeth
http://peninkpaper.blogspot.com/
I'll keep my opinions on the "media specialist" situation to myself, because you already know what they are. I agree with jenbaum about AR - I used to lower my students' "level" on purpose so that they would have a wider range of options... Lindsey's students don't have to read nearly as many actual books as I did in high school. I really cringe to think what college will be like for them. Congratulations on getting "Number the Stars" & "Letters from Rifka" into the hands of a reader!!! Oh - and I'm still bitter you can't read those books with them any more...
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