Hi Mike - Your thoughts were really interesting! I was a bit sad to hear that today's middle school students aren't reading for pleasure or passion. In my literacy biography I wrote that I first considered myself a real "reader" in the eighth grade. My language arts teacher instilled in me a passion for reading--we explored Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harper Lee, and so many other authors. I grew to love that class and reading. I'm wondering if language arts classes today are becoming more and more focused on the writing process in order to pass those tests you are talking about. I recently had a conversation with a colleague of mine in another class who is a language arts teacher. I asked what novels her class was reading and she said that she only has time to read one novel per semester! I was blown away by this! What else could you be doing in a language arts class—I thought they were supposed to exploring literature?
Hi Mike. Your Yodio was really interesting. I too find that students are doing less pleasure reading then they had in the past and that Language Arts teachers have a very tight curriculum and don't have the time to introduce students to literature that could potentially change the way they think and feel about reading. Along with Ashley, I did not enjoy reading until I was introduced to literature such as The Scarlet Letter, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Call of the Wild. My eighth grade language arts teacher taught me how to identify with the characters in these books and I began to read for pleasure during my free time. It worries me that potentially a middle school or high school student may not me having these experiences and may graduate from high school still considering reading to be a chore.... something that they need to do in order to get by.
that was definitely my experience in middle/high school as well. Until I got to AP english in my senior year. The teacher provided a list of acceptable books and let us pick our own reading subjects. There were a variety of genres, time periods and gender appeal. Maybe that could be integrated into your classroom?
Hi Mike - Your thoughts were really interesting! I was a bit sad to hear that today's middle school students aren't reading for pleasure or passion. In my literacy biography I wrote that I first considered myself a real "reader" in the eighth grade. My language arts teacher instilled in me a passion for reading--we explored Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harper Lee, and so many other authors. I grew to love that class and reading. I'm wondering if language arts classes today are becoming more and more focused on the writing process in order to pass those tests you are talking about. I recently had a conversation with a colleague of mine in another class who is a language arts teacher. I asked what novels her class was reading and she said that she only has time to read one novel per semester! I was blown away by this! What else could you be doing in a language arts class—I thought they were supposed to exploring literature?
ReplyDeleteAshley
ReplyDeleteThis a qualatative reply from 14 students. I just asked my high school gang. Freshman/Soph.
2 books max we have to read / year. They are assigned by the teacher.
This year is To Kill a Mocking Bird and one other.
At middle school some where allowed free time to read anything they chose. Time dedicated was decided by teacher.
We have to summarize chpt.
We get to write about 4 phrases that catch our attention.
Hi Mike. Your Yodio was really interesting. I too find that students are doing less pleasure reading then they had in the past and that Language Arts teachers have a very tight curriculum and don't have the time to introduce students to literature that could potentially change the way they think and feel about reading. Along with Ashley, I did not enjoy reading until I was introduced to literature such as The Scarlet Letter, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Call of the Wild. My eighth grade language arts teacher taught me how to identify with the characters in these books and I began to read for pleasure during my free time. It worries me that potentially a middle school or high school student may not me having these experiences and may graduate from high school still considering reading to be a chore.... something that they need to do in order to get by.
ReplyDeletethat was definitely my experience in middle/high school as well. Until I got to AP english in my senior year. The teacher provided a list of acceptable books and let us pick our own reading subjects. There were a variety of genres, time periods and gender appeal. Maybe that could be integrated into your classroom?
ReplyDeleteSarah D