Give students time to read and set up your classrooms to enable them to make good choices. In graduate school, I learned about Nancie Atwell's ideas for teaching reading. Whether you are reading her book In the Middle or The Reading Zone, Atwell's ideas are pretty simplis- tic--- JUST READ! Try not to worry so much about having your students pre- dict, connect, visualize, question, sum- marize, or re-tell during their reading time. Just simply give them time to read, the tools to select the best books for themselves, and the right to make choices. That being said, as educators, we al- ways think we know what is best for our students. Believe me, I am guilty of this too. After all, I read books for entertainment, for knowledge, and basically I read books for a living. That's right; I actually consider reading to be part of my job description. How am I supposed to convince young peo- ple to read the best new books if I am not reading the best new books? Yet, no matter how many great books I have read, my students always prefer to select their own books for inde- pendent reading. They like recom- mendations but ultimately the choice is theirs. I am usually asked to "sell" two or three books at a time. After they have listened to each book description and my excitement about each book, they then weigh their options. Does the book have enough action? Will it be “easy” to read? How many pages does it have? Will I relate to the characters? While it is probably not shocking to anyone, each semester I require my students to read at least one book with a Deaf Character. Similarly, the stu- dents are given three or four book presentations during the sixteen-week semester. They select their own books based on various requirements. This semester, one of their independent reading book presentations included a Deaf Character novel. The criteria was simple– select a fictional novel with at least one deaf character. For part of their presentations, the students had to (Continued on page 6) The Right to Have and Make ‘Choices’ Volume 1, Issue 4 Spring 2008 Letter from Sharon 2 New in the bookstore for 2008 2 What’s on my bookshelf 3 On TV & the Web 4 On the Internet 4 On Cable 5 On the Internet 5 Why I join organizations 8 Inside this issue: "Young Girl Reading, 1908" by Mary Cassatt
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Give students time to read and
set up your classrooms to
enable them to make good
choices.
In graduate school, I learned about
Nancie Atwell's ideas for teaching
reading. Whether you are reading her
book In the Middle or The Reading
Zone, Atwell's ideas are pretty simplis-
tic--- JUST READ! Try not to worry so
much about having your students pre-
dict, connect, visualize, question, sum-
marize, or re-tell during their reading
time. Just simply give them time to
read, the tools to select the best books
for themselves, and the right to make
choices.
That being said, as educators, we al-
ways think we know what is best for
our students. Believe me, I am guilty of
this too. After all, I read books for
entertainment, for knowledge, and
basically I read books for a living.
That's right; I actually consider reading
to be part of my job description. How
am I supposed to convince young peo-
ple to read the best new books if I am
not reading the best new books?
Yet, no matter how many great books I
have read, my students always prefer
to select their own books for inde-
pendent reading. They like recom-
mendations but ultimately the choice is
theirs. I am usually asked to "sell" two
or three books at a time. After they
have listened to each book description
and my excitement about each book,
they then weigh their options. Does the
book have enough action? Will it be
“easy” to read? How many pages does it
have? Will I relate to the characters?
While it is probably not shocking to
anyone, each semester I require my
students to read at least one book with
a Deaf Character. Similarly, the stu-
dents are given three or four book
presentations during the sixteen-week
semester. They select their own books
based on various requirements. This
semester, one of their independent
reading book presentations included a
Deaf Character novel. The criteria was
simple– select a fictional novel with at
least one deaf character. For part of
their presentations, the students had to
(Continued on page 6)
The Right to Have and Make ‘Choices’
Volume 1, Issue 4
Spring 2008
Letter from Sharon 2
New in the bookstore
for 2008
2
What’s on my bookshelf 3
On TV & the Web 4
On the Internet 4
On Cable 5
On the Internet 5
Why I join organizations 8
Inside this issue:
"Young Girl Reading,
1908" by Mary Cassatt
Dear Readers,
The winter is always difficult for me. I loathe the cold and the lack of sun. Even with the approaching Spring, the month of
April was extremely difficult both personally and professionally. I was overwhelmed and even worse, I felt like I did not have
any choices. Just the idea of choice leads to a sense of freedom. Yet, our students do not always have such luxury. They are
told what classes to take, when to do homework, when to eat, etc. The least we can do as educators is enable them to have
choice when reading. Nancie Atwell would argue that this „choice‟ makes our students stronger readers and more motivated
to read. I happen to agree with her.
Since we‟re talking about choices (read my featured article on The Right to Have and Make Choices), I think we should also
have the right to change our minds every now and then. Although I have received numerous requests in the past to broaden
my blog to children‟s literature, I have been insistent (and perhaps a little stubborn) that my blog is a place for adolescent
literature. At the International Reading Association convention, I met Myron Uhlberg who discussed his picture books, and
stories about his parents which have absolutely stolen my heart. He argues that picture books are not only for children but
for adults as well. Professional Organizations, like the IRA, are places where educators should go to renew their teaching
souls and to learn. (Read page 8 to find out my reasons for attending and why I believe you should too.) Point taken...this
summer I will be expanding my blog to include both picture books and children‟s literature.
At the time of this letter, I have 181 contemporary books listed including some upcoming publications on the "100+ Books
and Counting" list on my Deaf Characters in Adolescent Literature Blog (http://pajka.blogspot.com/). As always, I love hear-
ing from you about the books you are reading! Feel free to contact me at [email protected]