Okay it's not exactly a fortune but every time I sit down and read Readicide I start thinking about the books I read when I was young and how I want to share them with my students and the next thing I know I'm on Amazon ordering books. I ordered 14 last week and just ordered 8 more. I can't help it; I started my love of reading as a child and want to pass that love on to everyone. I grew up in the country, so far away from town that we never went to the library. My first experience with books was with the Bookmobile (I know you young people have no idea what that is). The Bookmobile was a small portable library that went around the county with maybe 100-200 books to check out. I still remember the first time I saw that many books, I can even remember the smell of the books and how excited I was. I remember the first book I ever checked out and read, Little Black Sambo. I know that is so politically incorrect now but remember this was rural Georgia in 1962 that we are talking about. Oh and I didn't order Little Black Sambo to put in my classroom library; I'm not even sure if it's in print anymore.
I had an interesting experience at school this week. I teach 6th grade math and when I give a test I let the students read when they are finished. I don't care what they read, as long as they read. My assistant principal came into my classroom and wanted to know what the students were doing. I told him and he admonished me for not having them doing math work. He said that I should have something math related for them to do while they waited for everybody to finish the test. I tried to explain to him how I felt it was important to give them time to read but......they will be doing math worksheet now when they finish a test.
I liked the part in the chapter about how less fortunate children have limited prior knowledge and reading is a good way to narrow the gap. I think I'll use that on the assistant principal next time I talk to him. I was also amazed at a quote in the podcast I listened to that said that the best SAT preparation was reading literature aloud to students. After thinking about it, I can see how that is true. There are words that we know when we hear them but would not recognize them in print. If the students listen to the teacher read and follow along in the book, it should help them recognize unfamiliar words. Also, who doesn't enjoy being read to?
We do have reading time every Friday for 30 minutes at our school and I got caught reading with the students and was told that I needed to be up moving around making sure the students were on-task. It was interesting reading in Readicide that a teacher should practice SSR when the students are doing it to set a good example. I love my school and don't mean to talk badly about it, but it's funny sometimes the mistakes that are made.
Last thing, I like the article of the week idea. I have some kids that never watch the news and never, never read a newspaper or magazine other than People or Sports Illustrated so I think the article of the week would be great for them. I will ask permission though before I try to implement it.
Okay I'm tired of writing and have lots more homework so that's it for now. Hope I didn't bore you too much. Kenny
