To Read is to Live a Thousand Lives in One.

 

WARNING: this could be a very long post.

Why? Because the topic for today is ...

Yes, reading. Possibly my favorite topic. Ah, bliss! I will preface the rest of this post with the fact that I suffer from severe bibliophilia. It's a rather lovely disease, actually. Symptoms may include:

• an insatiable desire to collect books, often multiple copies of the same book (I own somewhere in the ballpark of 30 copies of Huck Finn)
• an inability to stop talking about the current 3 books you are reading at the same time (The Iliad, The Scarlet Letter, The Bookseller of Kabul)
• the inability to resist going into a bookstore or library (um...daily occurrence in my life)
• the inability to resist buying something at a bookstore or checking something out of the library (bought a book about automotive repair last week so that I didn't leave the bookstore empty handed---what will I do with that?)
• knowing you should go to sleep but staying up all night to read "just one more chapter" (thus, the reason for my bloodshot eyes every day)
• carrying at least one book on your person at all times (this is why some women have HUGE purses---to hold their books!)
• hoping that your dentist/doctor is running late so you can read some more while sitting in the office (love when this happens!)
• suffering from separation anxiety when you aren't near your bookshelves (lately I've been contemplating moving my bookshelves from my living room to my bedroom, just so they'll be near me as I sleep)
• the craving for a whiff of that "old book smell" (I've never tried cocaine, but I bet it has a similar effect)

To read more about the life of a bibliophile, read Liraz Taler's article from The New English Review entitled, "You May Remove the Causes but Not the Symptoms."

THE JOY OF READING

Obviously, I have had a plethora of positive experiences with reading. I was lucky to have two parents who adored reading as well as many friends who perused the pages often. As such, I was always encouraged to read. There was also that small factor of my mom being my high school English teacher and my friends being in her classes with me; we had to encourage each other to read, or we'd fail the class!

My religion has also been influential in encouraging me to read. As a member of the LDS faith, I read often from holy writings such as the Bible and the Book of Mormon. The Church also publishes several magazines containing inspirational articles and updates in the Church that are mailed to my house each month. Beyond that, when I was a young teenager, I read a verse of scripture in another of the holy books, the Doctrine and Covenants. It reads: "Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom." Wow. I realized then that in addition to being fun, reading is important---important for gaining wisdom, and important to God. I have never forgotten that verse.

My best experiences with reading have come from reading fictional novels, mainly those that are considered classics. As Henry David Thoreau said, "For what are the classics but the noblest recorded thoughts of man?"

I enjoyed reading from the time I was very young, but I really enjoyed it once I got into high school. My mom/teacher often assigned each person in our class a different novel to read, one that she felt would be most applicable to our individual lives. That's probably why I almost always enjoyed reading in that class. (except for the time we read Call of the Wild. Bleh.)

My favorite book (for now) is Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Every page of that book was like a creamy, sweet, melt-in-your-mouth morsel of chocolate fudge. Mmmm...

 

Over time, however, I have developed a love for reading other types of texts. My latest interests are the magazines Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. My dad is a subscriber, so after he reads them, he mails the issues to me. The stuff in there blows my mind. This year there was an article about two new types of space satellites, one called CubeSat, which is a four-inch cube, and another called Squidbot, which propels itself through space like a squid propels itself through the ocean. Who wouldn't want to read when fascinating information like that is out there for us to learn? 

 

 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PAGE

Of course, I didn't love EVERYTHING I read in school. To this day, I still abhor reading textbooks. I feel like reading textbooks has always been a duty to fulfill rather than a learning experience to be enjoyed. I have a difficult time internalizing information if it lacks a human or emotional aspect, and textbooks are intentionally designed to make human influence seem invisible to the reader. Most of my textbook-y teachers simply said, "read chapter 8 for tomorrow" or something like that. There was no purpose for the reading. It was easier when an English teacher said "read chapter 8" because I already had my own purpose in reading the text: to discover meaningful ways for the words to inspire me---that was easy. On the other hand, though, I'm sure I can be inspired by protons, neutrons, and electrons, (I really do find them fascinating)but probably not by reading about them in a textbook. The only time I remember really loving an assigned textbook reading was in my tenth-grade biology class. My teacher assigned us to draw or trace all the organisms in the chapter, color, and label all their parts. It was a great during-reading activity that made me focus, that gave me a purpose. This activity helped to increase my comprehension. I still have all of my drawings: a bacterium, a virus, a mushroom, etc. Perhaps I should frame and display them in my house.

IN THE CLASSROOM
I suspect the way I feel about textbooks is the way many of my students will feel about literature. A friend of mine has told me time and again how he sees no point in reading about "stuff that never even happened," referring to many of the fiction books or short stories he was forced to read in school. He loves to read non-fiction, historical stuff that's "REAL," he says. I could argue forever that a book like The Scarlet Letter is REAL in its themes, its characters' predicaments, and its setting until I'm out of breath, but it is usually wasted on students like my friend. So, what do I do?

Well, the neat thing about English is that I am not held to teaching from a specific text. I am expected to teach certain skills, but, for the most part, I can use a wide variety of texts as an avenue for teaching those skills. Now, this doesn't mean that I don't feel it is important for students to read those canonical texts, but I will not leave them to simply dive into the pages with no interest whatsoever. This will require a great deal of frontloading, support during reading, and follow-up. For instance, here are several examples of before, during, and after activities I might do with students to pique their interest in a typical English class text:

1. have students read non-fiction texts that reveal cultural aspects of the time period of a novel
2. introduce characters to students prior to reading by having them read character quotes
3. show parts of film adaptations of a novel
4. have students connect the story/poem to a modern-day parallel
5. teach vocabulary before and during reading
6. have students create a tangible represenation of the reading
7. have students write in response to their reading
8. discuss with students the values of becoming better readers and the values of various types of texts

Those are just a few ideas.

There are also several practices I would avoid if I wish for my students to perceive themselves as good (and improving!) readers:

1. Do NOT encourage Cliffnotes/Sparknotes as a replacement for reading the actual text. This goes for "modern-day" versions of Shakespeare, too. How are students supposed to gain confidence in themselves as readers if they don't actually read the text? I kid you not, during my clinical observations of a high-school teacher last week, I witnessed a horrifying scene. After assigning the next reading assignment in Huckleberry Finn, he actually said, "I don't care if you just use Sparknotes from here until the end of the book. I just want you to get the gist of the story."

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Why? WHY? Why would you say that? EVER?!?!

I wanted to stand up and tell those students that, even if their teacher didn't believe they were capable of reading the book, I did believe it. These kids are not stupid, but if their teacher has no belief in their smartness, they probably won't either. Encourage Sparknotes for those students who need a little boost AFTER they do the reading, not instead of the reading. Grr...

2. Do NOT only assign books that students will immediately connect to. If a student lives and breathes football, by all means, assign him a book about football. It might spark his interest in reading. However, if he tries, he can probably also find application in a book about the Civil War. The parallels between the Civil war and football may be less obvious, but they will come. He can learn about brotherhood, friendship, teamwork, and rivalry from a Civil War book just as he can from a football book. I want my students to feel like they have the abilities and confidence to make connections to people and events both close as well as distant from their immediate lives. I want them to see that different people are interesting, and reading give us access to many different kinds of people.


NEARLY FINISHED...
To wrap up, I simply want to share some applicable quotes about reading that we could share with students to get them thinking about its importance:

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”  ~Charles Eliot

"Through literacy you can begin to see the universe." ~Grace Slick

 

Also, check out NJToday's article "Celebrities Promote Reading and Libraries" which tells what the NY Yankees are doing to promote literacy.