Book Love
A central goal of Writing is to establish a reading habit in the busy lives of seniors in high school. I am hoping we can work together to recapture the pleasure and passion of readers.
The best books challenge our beliefs by helping us see through different eyes —to live a different life. For example, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult was wildly popular, but it is about a school shooting and I think we’d all rather believe that couldn’t happen here and don’t want to live the details. Yet reading allows us to confront our worst fears and live through them. Students love this book and I recommend it to them.
I won’t know the details of every book students read and refer to this semester, and I won’t remember the details of all the books I recommend to students. What I seek for all of my students is a compulsion to read—for pleasure— for knowledge—for a passion for story or information that will keep them into the pages of a book past our assigned time for reading—past our goal of eight books read this semester to 25 or 40 books in 18 weeks, as many of my former students have. This has tremendous benefits. Here are a few:
• Reading relieves stress. Senior year is stressful. Reading takes you out of the present and into another place and time; it is a perfect escape.
• Reading builds stamina to prepare students for college. Reading for an hour or two in one sitting is a basic expectation in college. In this class we will exercise muscles soon to be strained in the coming years. Reading for fluency and stamina has been proven to improve the reading rate for students. Fast reading develops confidence and an appetite for books as well as teaching vocabulary in context, which improves writing, but it only happens when students find books they want to read. But the truth is, some of those books might make you uncomfortable.
• There is a lot of talk in the media that ‘students today won’t read,’ but I believe students substitute all of those other distractions (the internet, TV, etc.) if they feel no passion for the book assigned to them.
In my experience, students who haven’t been readers since elementary school will suddenly become quite passionate about reading with the right book in their hands. But those books might challenge your values. Is that okay with you? Can you choose to read Crank by Ellen Hopkins, which delves into a teenager’s drug addiction? I believe we have to trust these young adults more. We have to trust that books won’t corrupt them anymore than the movies The Dark Knight or Jackass might. It is more important that they’re reading! The bottom line: I will not place a tight filter on what is read in this class.
The best books challenge our beliefs by helping us see through different eyes —to live a different life. For example, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult was wildly popular, but it is about a school shooting and I think we’d all rather believe that couldn’t happen here and don’t want to live the details. Yet reading allows us to confront our worst fears and live through them. Students love this book and I recommend it to them.
I won’t know the details of every book students read and refer to this semester, and I won’t remember the details of all the books I recommend to students. What I seek for all of my students is a compulsion to read—for pleasure— for knowledge—for a passion for story or information that will keep them into the pages of a book past our assigned time for reading—past our goal of eight books read this semester to 25 or 40 books in 18 weeks, as many of my former students have. This has tremendous benefits. Here are a few:
• Reading relieves stress. Senior year is stressful. Reading takes you out of the present and into another place and time; it is a perfect escape.
• Reading builds stamina to prepare students for college. Reading for an hour or two in one sitting is a basic expectation in college. In this class we will exercise muscles soon to be strained in the coming years. Reading for fluency and stamina has been proven to improve the reading rate for students. Fast reading develops confidence and an appetite for books as well as teaching vocabulary in context, which improves writing, but it only happens when students find books they want to read. But the truth is, some of those books might make you uncomfortable.
• There is a lot of talk in the media that ‘students today won’t read,’ but I believe students substitute all of those other distractions (the internet, TV, etc.) if they feel no passion for the book assigned to them.
In my experience, students who haven’t been readers since elementary school will suddenly become quite passionate about reading with the right book in their hands. But those books might challenge your values. Is that okay with you? Can you choose to read Crank by Ellen Hopkins, which delves into a teenager’s drug addiction? I believe we have to trust these young adults more. We have to trust that books won’t corrupt them anymore than the movies The Dark Knight or Jackass might. It is more important that they’re reading! The bottom line: I will not place a tight filter on what is read in this class.
Reading Lists
- UNH book list: Nonfiction Social Justice, Fiction, Non-fiction for Middle School, Recommendations for Students in grades 11 & 12, Science Fiction, Upper Elementary Speculative Fiction with a focus on Fantasy
- UNH book list of Comics and Graphic Novels
- UNH more books: Science Fiction, YALSA 2014 Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, Books for Middle School Boys, Dystopian YA Novels, Inspiring Readers with the Newest YA Literature Award Winners (NCTE Annual Convention 2012)
- Best Books of 2011 (so far…)—Donalyn Miller
- Book Talks for High School 2009–2010, Gettings Guys to Read (and in the Flo
Everything you need to organize your reading is below.
reading_analysis_for_the_quarter.docx | |
File Size: | 15 kb |
File Type: | docx |