Examining Reading Habits - Great Conversations

August 5, 2011

This is sometimes what I feel my TBR list looks like!

 My Reading Habits – Wondering What Students Do, Too?

Sometime early in the year, I’ve always liked to have students write about their reading habits, what they’re currently reading, what kinds of things they read besides books, what they love and what they don’t.  I usually write too, to let students know how diverse reading habits can be.  Those who are avid readers will see that I’m usually reading several books at a time, as they do, and those who are less enthusiastic will see that reading behavior doesn’t just mean books. 

Here’s a sample of my reading during a regular day:

o   The local newspaper.  I read the front-page articles, and if especially interested, finish them when they move to the inner pages.  I check the baseball stats for the Rockies, I read certain columns in the local news section and the funnies and my horoscope.  This is wake up reading, starting the day with words, coffee, yogurt and cereal.

o   Several times a day, I read blogs from my online reader, and then turn to the e-mail.  On e-mail, I receive newsletters from Choice Literacy and NCTE, which I skim, and save for the future if some of what is shared looks like I’ll want to look again.

o   For writing inspiration, I am currently reading from Roger Rosenblatt’s Unless It Moves The Human Heart.

o   For non-fiction, which I read a bit at a time, I’m reading The Food of a Younger Land:  The WPA’s Portrait of Food in Pre-World War II American, by Mark Kurlansky.

o   For teaching, I am re-reading Becoming A Literacy Leader by Jennifer Allen, and articles I’ve downloaded like the recent tips that Two Writing Teachers shared on Facebook, the Stenhouse Blogstitute articles, and some from Education Week.  I also read the NCTE journal, In The Middle.

o   For pleasure, and lately for teaching, I’m reading Cynthia Voigt’s latest novel, Young Fredle.  Our school librarian and I are planning to hold weekly book groups through the holidays called ‘looking for Newbery’, so she and I are reading the books that are creating Newbery talk for the coming award.  And, I read magazines like Orion, High Country News, The Smithsonian, Sunset, and a local one titled 5280. 

That’s it, mostly.  You who are readers know that readers will pick up anything to read just a bit, to see what it’s like, or to skim something interesting.  When I share some or all of this with students, they begin to examine their days, and realize that they’re really reading more than they think.  I didn’t add texts, but they will, along with Facebook.  After discussions about what we read, the next step is how do we read each kind of print?  And then, sometimes questions come about how fast, which mean ‘how much to skim and when’?  And, where is the most productive place for focused reading? 

Making a list of what is currently being read supports great conversation, which leads to other conversations, some lessons in different approaches to different kinds of reading, and recommendations by peers.  Reading, critical to all learning, is one of the topics that can’t be ignored just because students appear to read well.  There’s a depth and a breadth of individual learning to consider. 

Fight For All Women

Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011

I listen to the stories on National Public Radio on my way to work.  I come from a family of strong courageous women, blessed by a grandmother who fought for equal rights for both women and people of color in her little town, long before laws were passed in the US.  She served as a city leader, led the charge to integrate the schools, and fought for good education for all children, poor and rich alike.  In a time when many children in her school came from poor rural homes, often without running water, she felt they needed to be taught, not just ignored because their clothes were dirty and torn, or their bodies smelled.  At times other teachers did not even wish to give them textbooks, thinking it was just a waste of time and money.  But my grandmother spent time both in class and after school, tutoring, advising, and giving recommendations for jobs and help with class assignments.  She used her own money for textbooks.   She deplored discrimination for any reason.

I come from that background, of respect for others, greeting politely, giving my time and energy to make the world in which I live a happy place for all.  So-when I heard a recent story from NPR, concerning a high number of suicides among Afghan women, I felt both thankful for my life in the United States, yet saddened that women today in many parts of the world still are second-class citizens.  Here’s what I heard at the beginning of the story: Seeking to escape cultural oppression and economic hardship, an alarming number of Afghan women are taking their own lives. The trend has prompted a bill aimed at ending such practices as forced marriages. The story continued to explain that because the lives of women, especially in rural areas, and especially for young women forced into arranged marriages at twelve and younger, the belief is that often the only choice in their lives is to end them.  The law referred to is promised by Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, but some say that it will be a law defied by many because of cultural traditions that ignore the laws of Islam protecting women. 

So, what can I do to help-thousands of miles from Afghanistan, here in the safety of my own life?  I can start with home; move out into the circle of my life, which includes young adult women and men.  I can research the issues of dating violence here in the United States, and support those I come into contact with by teaching self-respect, the first defense against violence. 

According to About.com: One in 10 teen girls and one in 11 teen boys admits to having experienced physical violence in a dating relationship in the past year. One in three teens stay they know someone who has been physically assaulted or hurt by a dating partner.  Because I teach in a school that prides itself in asking for respect between all persons at the school, this seems outrageous.  Yet, even here I have experienced opinions that appear to think that some violence is simply kids working things out, learning that they must be tougher in order to ‘win’.  Even with teachers who are asking that children respect differences, some students still name-call, are reluctant to be friends with those that are deemed, ‘not so popular’.  

It’s time for me to learn more, do more, and fight for the behavior I know to be right.  I look to those who have acted before me, my grandmother, too, as models.  For example, there are 83 million mothers - single, married and otherwise - who make big and small sacrifices to give their children every opportunity to succeed.  I look at them, and others, to follow.

Gifts Come In Unlikely Places

August 3,  2011


      We took our two year old granddaughter back home yesterday after keeping her while her baby sister was born, spent a little time with the new baby and parents, and traveled back home.  It was quiet in the car, no toddler singing little songs, or saying "Gramma, look there!"  As we left their house it had started raining, and a wonderful cooling of the day arrived.  Of course I had my camera because of the visit, lucky me.  On our way home, we marveled at the rain, turned a corner and there was a double rainbow!  It was like a reminder of our gift of a new grandchild, a reminder to give thanks for our blessings.   I did, then took the picture!

Inside-Outside--Discovering New Ideas

Tuesday Slice of Life, August 2, 2011

Collecting words and phrases that help writers imagine stories and pictures from their lives can be another way to help writers discover ideas and start writing.  When I give this lesson, I actually just begin with a few phrases, and then let the chart fill with ideas from the group.  At the same time, I’ve suggested to students that they find a place toward the end of their notebooks for lists and seed ideas.  We add to it every now and then just as a way for me to show students the breadth of what can go into their notebooks.   Here are some starters used in the past:  first-lasts, inside out, upside down, left out, after dinner, found, lost, it’s the name of the game, night-day, expectations, out the window. . .   Please add your own. 

            After our brainstorming session, it’s time to write, and as I’ve said before, the ideas are still personal choice.  I just ask that they record these ideas as described above in case they need a new idea sometime.

Here is my choice for today:  a poem from the words, Inside-Outside

Inside, at 60 beats a minute,

my heart is resting,

accumulating layers

of life on the outside.

These layers, like tree rings,

remain hidden inside,

and show only a peek to the outside

of the sometimes sweet

and occasionally bitter

when we add a pinch of salt

and then a lot of sugar.

Inside, my heart is racing

but you might not know

until I tell you, on the outside.

            I’d like to add that I’m not really satisfied with this poem.  I feel it needs something that I can’t yet figure out.  I’ve worked on it for quite a while, and messed with different lines, frustrated that it just won’t go right!  As I worked in the classroom with students, I would have shown them my process, all the cross-outs and changes, demonstrating that sometimes things don’t always go so well, and that’s what happens with writers.  As the French poet Paul Valery said, “A poem is never finished, only abandoned.”

A Gift of A Glass of Water

Monday, August 1, 2011

If you’ve read my blog recently, you would know that I recently became a grandmother again, to a quite small granddaughter named Imogene.  We are happy to have this new person in our lives, and look forward to knowing her as we know her older sister, and older cousin.  Because of this new arrival, I’ve had the pleasure, with a few challenges, of caring for Imogene’s older sister who is a few months over two.  We’ve had as good a time as ever one can when life is rather disrupted and we didn’t really plan for this because we thought there was about two more weeks left, and of course, two year olds don’t plan ahead at all!  Really, it has been a pleasure to have more time with this lovely young lady.  Her name is Ingrid and she has spent one night with us often, but not three or more!  And, certainly she’s never been asked to visit her parents and this new small and uninteresting thing, and then say goodbye to them each day.  We’ve asked her to comprehend a new idea, while continuing her usual good behavior, and then to go live for a while with people she loves and is comfortable with, yet we know she misses her home and her parents (although she’s too young to realize it).  We’re asking a lot!

As I have cared for Ingrid and watched her behavior these few days, I have wondered if there is something to connect to our students in this.  Throughout the year, we ask similar things of all the students.  We want them to act civilly, no matter what, to work with new people-adults and classmates, to meet challenges without falling apart, and even to eat differently than usual.   With a two year old, it’s not so easy to know what she’s really thinking, but I’ve found that a hug and maybe even a glass of juice helps divert attention from something that seems frustrating.  In the classroom, one of the things I often do is to suggest that a student who appears to need some kind of break should go get a drink, take a walk down the hall and back, and sometimes I even get a big glass of ice water for the student, a small token that shows I care.   Drinking the water gives the student time to relax and to contemplate what is really going on.  Often, he or she is then able to confide more, and I am able to offer some advice.  With a two year old, diversion is the key, and a hug along with that diversion gets us going again.  With any other age, words can be the ending help, but not before the break in the behavior.  A gift of a glass of water helped me often.