With this year’s unique scheduling, we have a great
opportunity to promote reading and literacy in our building in a powerful
way. Six times throughout the course of
our fall trimester, we will provide our 10-12th graders with twenty
minute windows to enjoy the chance to read.
While the popular narrative suggests that no one really reads anymore,
the truth is that we probably read more (in text print) than we have ever done
before. In 2005, Gallup found that there
had been a 22% increase in U.S. readers who claimed to be actively reading from
the data taken in 1957. And despite the
fear that movies and online entertainments have pulled time away from reading,
we discover that in many cases they promote it.
Blockbuster hits like Harry
Potter, The Hunger Games, Girl with a
Dragon Tattoo, and Twilight all suggest that the book themselves have a
symbiotic relationship with books.
Social networking sites have also drawn more people to books, as many
take to digital space to express their enthusiasm for texts they read.
Considering this, I don’t believe it will be as
difficult to get people into books as we may think.
Setting
the right tone for theseevents will be important, nevertheless. While I encourage you to join me after school
on Wednesday, September 4th from 2:30-3:00 in Room 132, I will also
provide some helpful suggestions here.
Our first day will be Tuesday, September 10th, so you might
want to plan ahead.
In terms of prep work, there are three things I
suggest.
1. Give students ample notice. Be sure to let them know that the Literacy Moment will be coming up on September 10th, that it is a twenty minute opportunity to read freely and independently, and that they are expected to have some type of reading material for the occasion—preferably something that has not been assigned as a class reading (magazines would be okay).
2. Establish
some basic expectations. (I’ll include a
printable “Literacy Moment Book Mark” with expectations in this
newsletter.) First, students will be
expected to bring some sort of text to read.
Second, students will be expected to respect the reading
time (which means that they will remain quiet and avoid distracting other
students). And third, they will be expected to remain engaged in reading
(which means this will not be sleepy time or a chance to go online to chat
with friends).
3. Put
together some type of reading library.
I can either help you come up with a “reading care package” filled
with a few books and magazines. Or
you can gather one on your own. Or
you can print off some interesting articles or texts related to your
specific discipline. Get
creative. While the expectation is
that students should bring their own material, the reality is that some
may not. You probably don’t need a
text for everyone, but you might mentally plan on having four or five
reluctant readers forget—or even pretend to forget.
As I mentioned in the presentation, you can choose the level of involvement that you feel is most appropriate. While we hope that you can help to foster a positive community of readers and thinkers, we also recognize that this is neither an area of expertise for you nor even an area where you feel comfortable. In that case, you may choose to use that time to your advantage (extending a lesson or allowing quiet study time). After all, you have a greater obligation to do no harm. It would be counter productive to set up an environment where a harsh system of rewards and punishments once again re-enforces the idea that reading must be painful if it has to be forced in such a fashion.
I
am always here to help. While we do not
have unlimited resources, we certainly have enough to help all those who might
need it. Come see me today, if you have
questions. See full September AVReading Newsletter here.
