"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."
— Ray Bradbury
It is the goal of reading teachers to foster a love of reading. They employ many strategies to try and win young hearts over to the beauty of undiscovered lands, unrequited loves, and adventures that are daring and sometimes deadly. For some students, this one teacher holds the entire world and she does it with zeal and enthusiasm. But is it enough.
"When you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and the ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a good book."
—Christopher Morley
Alliteracy is a concern in today's world. Parents who choose not to read risk raising children who also choose not to. But non-reading parents are not the only concern. The one place where students should be surrounded by reading role-models, school, they often are not. Surveys conducted of teachers show that they do not read any more often that adults in the general population. What can be done?
"Reading early in life gives a youngster a multitude of 'friends' to guide intellectual and emotional growth."
— Carroll D. Gray
Can the reading teacher alone turn every student into a person who finds the joy of reading? They try! They band together. They share their reading lists. They make recommendations to help each other when they have a student who doesn't seem interested in anything. They book talk, they display books, and they read, read, read. But would more kids be bitten by the reading bug if all teachers shared a love of reading with students? If the science teacher shared science fiction titles. If the social studies teacher book-talked historical fiction. If all classes made time in the day to show that reading is a priority, how much of a difference would it make?
You can't catch a cold or the love of reading from someone who has neither. -Jim Trelease
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Friday, December 3, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Truth is Stranger Than Fiction
Developing a love of reading and writing is so crucial in our schools today. Strategies should be in place all year long to foster this love, but in March, many schools place an extra special emphasis on the importance and love of reading. Our staff has always celebrated a Reading Week during the month of March. Every year we would also talk about having an author come to visit our school, and we finally decided to stop talking and make it happen. The process of selecting an author was tedious, as we believe in all staff having input in our decision making. Lists were drafted, books were bought and read, research on the cost of various authors was conducted.
The author we chose was Sue Stauffacher. No-one on staff had heard of her before our research began, but based on the fact that we could afford her, and the fact that her variety of published work would appeal to all of our students, fifth through eighth grade, we decided she was the best choice. Her books Harry Sue, Donuthead, and Donutheart have become very popular in our school!
I don't think anyone was as excited as I for this author visit. Authors are like rock stars to me. Even though I know it makes me sound incredibly geeky, the fact that I have interactions on Twitter with authors such as Laurie Halse Anderson, Neil Gaiman, and Meg Cabot is something I find incredibly cool and exciting! I wait in line at the Michigan Reading Conference every year to meet authors and have books signed. Now I was going to have the opportunity to spend the whole day with one!
A schedule was created so that Sue would present to our students in two different large groups. Her first presentation was to our 5th and 6th graders and then she repeated the presentation to 7th and 8th graders. Using a power point slide show that was mainly pictures, Sue had the students choose from different "chapters" of her presentation to allow students to determine the order of the information they heard. This kept her presentations very spontaneous and interesting.
In the afternoon, Sue led a small group of 20 students in some story brainstorming and prewriting. Sue also spoke with this group about where ideas come from. Many of the happenings in Sue's stories are snipped right from the headlines and she explained to students that "truth really is stranger than fiction." Sue also talked about the importance of revision in writing. She shared a scrapbook that has some of her prewriting for an upcoming picture book:
And she shared her first hand-written draft of her novel, Harry Sue,
as well as her a typed manuscript with the revisions suggested by her editor.
All of our students were gracious and kind. It was a fabulous day for us all. But it was an extremely special day for me. As lucky as I am to have the job I do, it is perks like this day that make me pinch myself sometimes. As hostess for the day, I had the pleasure of taking Sue to lunch and introducing her to a tiny glimpse of our local Amish culture. Sue is such a joy to spend time with, and we became so lost in our conversation that we were nearly late returning to school for her afternoon session! What had begun for me with a feeling of awe ended with the feeling of having met a true friend.
As an author, Sue writes books about characters that seem so real. Her stories are touching and sometimes a bit sad, but with just the right amount of humor that you know the characters are going to be ok, despite their troubles. Her writing style doesn't condescend to kids, but rather, it communicates to kids that they are capable and mature. This style also comes across in her presentations and in her face to face interactions with students. I could not have imagined a better experience.
The author we chose was Sue Stauffacher. No-one on staff had heard of her before our research began, but based on the fact that we could afford her, and the fact that her variety of published work would appeal to all of our students, fifth through eighth grade, we decided she was the best choice. Her books Harry Sue, Donuthead, and Donutheart have become very popular in our school!
I don't think anyone was as excited as I for this author visit. Authors are like rock stars to me. Even though I know it makes me sound incredibly geeky, the fact that I have interactions on Twitter with authors such as Laurie Halse Anderson, Neil Gaiman, and Meg Cabot is something I find incredibly cool and exciting! I wait in line at the Michigan Reading Conference every year to meet authors and have books signed. Now I was going to have the opportunity to spend the whole day with one!
A schedule was created so that Sue would present to our students in two different large groups. Her first presentation was to our 5th and 6th graders and then she repeated the presentation to 7th and 8th graders. Using a power point slide show that was mainly pictures, Sue had the students choose from different "chapters" of her presentation to allow students to determine the order of the information they heard. This kept her presentations very spontaneous and interesting.
In the afternoon, Sue led a small group of 20 students in some story brainstorming and prewriting. Sue also spoke with this group about where ideas come from. Many of the happenings in Sue's stories are snipped right from the headlines and she explained to students that "truth really is stranger than fiction." Sue also talked about the importance of revision in writing. She shared a scrapbook that has some of her prewriting for an upcoming picture book:
And she shared her first hand-written draft of her novel, Harry Sue,
as well as her a typed manuscript with the revisions suggested by her editor.All of our students were gracious and kind. It was a fabulous day for us all. But it was an extremely special day for me. As lucky as I am to have the job I do, it is perks like this day that make me pinch myself sometimes. As hostess for the day, I had the pleasure of taking Sue to lunch and introducing her to a tiny glimpse of our local Amish culture. Sue is such a joy to spend time with, and we became so lost in our conversation that we were nearly late returning to school for her afternoon session! What had begun for me with a feeling of awe ended with the feeling of having met a true friend.
As an author, Sue writes books about characters that seem so real. Her stories are touching and sometimes a bit sad, but with just the right amount of humor that you know the characters are going to be ok, despite their troubles. Her writing style doesn't condescend to kids, but rather, it communicates to kids that they are capable and mature. This style also comes across in her presentations and in her face to face interactions with students. I could not have imagined a better experience.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Blogging with students
My co-teacher and I are excited to start our class of 6th grade boy readers on the path of blogging. I never realized how much work this would be! I don't know how classroom teachers have the time to get the technology set up amid all the other priorities that they have vying for their time!
I gave the boys a tech survey and so far 11 of 19 boys have returned them. Of the 11, only 7 of them have an email address. As I wait for the rest of the surveys to be returned, I am wondering what my next step will be. On the survey, I am asking for permission to post student work online, but now am wondering if I can extend that permission to setting up email addresses for those students who don't have them.
On the bright side, the boys got a chance to see some blogs today and what they might be able to accomplish with them. They created a name for our class blog: Mohawk Boys Read! and have started brainstorming what picture they want me to take of them to use for the header. I've sent out log-ins for the 7 boys who already have email, so I am interested to see if they do anything with it tonight.
In the meantime, I'll continue to read all the tutorials on edublogs. Sue Waters's The Edublogger has been extremely helpful, and I'd recommend it to any blogger with questions!
I gave the boys a tech survey and so far 11 of 19 boys have returned them. Of the 11, only 7 of them have an email address. As I wait for the rest of the surveys to be returned, I am wondering what my next step will be. On the survey, I am asking for permission to post student work online, but now am wondering if I can extend that permission to setting up email addresses for those students who don't have them.
On the bright side, the boys got a chance to see some blogs today and what they might be able to accomplish with them. They created a name for our class blog: Mohawk Boys Read! and have started brainstorming what picture they want me to take of them to use for the header. I've sent out log-ins for the 7 boys who already have email, so I am interested to see if they do anything with it tonight.
In the meantime, I'll continue to read all the tutorials on edublogs. Sue Waters's The Edublogger has been extremely helpful, and I'd recommend it to any blogger with questions!
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