Education Library and More

Though this article is not terribly deep, it does strike a bit of gold that I've been giving much thought to recently.

There is a huge elephant in the literary reading classroom. No, it's not in the desks where the kids who are struggling with basic literacy are sitting. No, it's not in the front rows where the future English majors are sitting. It's right there in the middle of the classroom where those kids who can read, but either have never taken a strong enjoyment from reading or who once enjoyed hearing stories and even reading them by choice have somehow, frequently somewhere during middle school, begun to lose that essential element of literary reading called enjoyment. 

The gap between the various levels of enjoyment derived from reading and their enjoyment of reading the kinds of assigned stories for which they have not previously developed much appreciation, combined with the requirement to analyze literary devices, to pass quizzes, and write essays may be a fairly obvious set of circumstances connecting the reading of "good" literature to a gradual, and if truth be told, often steep decline in literary reading.

Do we need to "dumb down" expectations for these kids? I don't think so. But, we really ought to keep in mind that if, in our good intentions, we inadvertently kill the enjoyment of just reading a good story about things they like to read about, we may actually be contributing to losing them as life long readers. 

As I look back  on my own experiences with learning to appreciate the value of quality I clearly recall that in every instance it was a transitionary process.

I loved comic books, Mad Magazine, and junky reads before those interests widened into an appreciation for great satire and great story telling. 

I hated Romeo and Juliet as a pimply-faced teen age boy before I came to appreciate Shakespeare. Of course I read R&J as a freshman at a time when romantic love just wasn't anything I was interested in reading about. I never had a girlfriend; never had so much as a sister, a female cousin or even anything like a friendship with a girl that was as rich as my deep friendships with my guy friends.  And, like it or not, I truly believe that Shakespeare's language was a barrier that I just wasn't all that interested in overcoming. The language combined with my lack of having discovered any other reason to read the play pretty much made for a miserable experience.

 Ironically, because of my wobbly-at-best connection to my Jewish heritage, and a couple of years of maturity, I found myself much more receptive to the storyline in The Merchant of Venice.

It's a pattern that takes some transition time...

I also enjoyed junk food before I enjoyed fine food, and long before I appreciated healthy food.

I enjoyed the Three Stooges before I enjoyed dramatic films. In fact, I still remember the paradigm expanding impact of seeing The Graduate. Funny and thought-provoking! A perfect bridge.

I enjoyed having trendy clothes and cars before I found the shallowness in devoting huge chunks of money and concern to giving a darn about such superficial things.

So what's my point? Instilling, nurturing, and encouraging an ongoing LOVE of reading comes before, and perhaps in the long run is even more important than the development of an appreciation for literature. This may be particularly so if the appreciation for literary reading rests upon experiences that are deadly to pre-existing levels of reading enjoyment derived by many of our struggling and reluctant readers. 

And, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that like myself, if my pre-existing enjoyment of reading, junky as it might have been is built upon, we just might find that, as was also true in my case, that we might wind up with far more life long readers than we currently do; and perhaps even far more English majors as well.

 ~ http://www.GoogleLitTrips.com ~

A fantastic article on why you should curate content, share it and give your personal touch on the matter. 

This short article provides five solid reasons why one needs to curate. Needless to say, I've bought into the idea anyway

Read the other comments, they are better that what I could write. See below.

I don't know about you but I like these kinds of articles. As an English major and an English teacher for nearly four decades, I'm always pleasantly amused at the discovery of "new" back stories particularly about books I've taught repeatedly.

I don't know how many times I did dramatic readings of the entire Of Mice and Men complete with theatre style lighting in my classroom, dressed as a teacher sort of (denim jeans and shirt with tie and jacket... you know the look) and then as I began to read the story aloud I'd casually remove my jacket. A few minutes later I'd remove my tie, followed a few minutes later by rolling up my sleeves and then in subsequent several minutes gaps, I'd pull out a red bandana, wipe my brow and tie it around my neck. Another gap and I'd pull out my old cap just like the one I'd seen George wearing if one of the films. And then I'd hit the projector switch that was set to show a slide of the Salinas valley on the white board behind me.

Okay, I was really into it, and within a single class period the kids were locked into a genuine suspension of disbelief and they wanted to know what was going to happen next.

So when I saw the trivia point about Of Mice and Men in this article, I had to smile since Of Mice and Men was one of the several books that I had dug deeper into than any of the books I taught over the years.

I had no idea about the trivia regarding Don Quixote or Roald Dahl, a writer who I truly like but had no idea regarding the trivia  mentioned here.

This is also the kind of "back story" stuff that I found many students intrigued by as well. It's not quite the same as the historical background stuff we also share. There's something about the "did you know?" impact of author and book back story that has a different engagement factor for kids than the traditional academic back story stuff.

 ~ http://www.GoogleLitTrips.com ~

Very interesting information. Complete with different backstories. 

As we all need to now consider mobile devices when writing our courses, these tools will help make this task a whole lot easier.

I use my iPad whenever I'm on the move - I can't remember when I last opened a laptop.  For those of you finding yourself in a similar situation I re-scooped this from Ana Cristina Pratas.  Some of the apps are familiar some I must try out.  Have a go and let me know how you get on with them.

#Antonio: Per gli amanti dell'iPad (vedi Leonetti).

Very creative tool. Good catch Ana. Thanks.