Saturday, October 27 10:15 AM - 11:30 AM
Session Number/Code: 1247
Room: Reno Sparks Convention Center – A7/A8
* Sally Collins BA;MA;MLS
Library Media Specialist, Highland Park Middle School
* Leesa Cole BSEd, MEd,
Library Media Specialist, McCulloch Intermediate School
* Kay Honeyman
LA Teacher, Highland Park Middle School
* Darcy Young
LA Teacher, McCulloch Intermediate School
Audience: Library Media Specialist; Classroom Teacher; Library Supervisor; Curriculum Specialist
Experience Level: 0 - >20 years in the profession
Grade Level: Middle/Junior
Description:
Have "required," "suggested" and "free" reading lists taken the pleasure out of reading for your middle schoolers? Are many of them beginning to associate reading with pain rather than pleasure? With the collaborative efforts of teachers and media specialists, we've developed a process to promote pleasure reading among these students. We'll share ideas and strategies to develop avid lifelong readers. After all, these students are our future and the future begins @ your library.
Benefits and Learning Objectives
# In partnership with teachers, our goal is to connect students to books and reading materials. Avid readers are more likely to become lifelong independent learners so we want to help them learn to self-select and as a result, read more. Students who read for pleasure choose all types of reading materials including novels, nonfiction, magazines and newspapers--whatever brings them pleasure. Learning can take place by reading from any of these choices. Readers can gain not only information, but can also increase their vocabularies and spelling skills. They engage in critical thinking, learn about other countries and cultures, meet ficitonal characters with whom they can relate and also use their imaginations.
The Future Begins @ Your Library
American Association of School Librarians 13th National Conference and Exhibition
October 25-28, 2007
Reno, Nevada
Promoting Pleasure Reading: The Power of Choice
Saturday, October 27, 2007
10:15 – 11:30 a.m.
Reno-Sparks Convention Center
Leesa Cole
Sally Collins
Kay Honeyman
Darcy Young
Shannon Taliaferro
Highland Park ISD
Dallas, TX
The Research Says . . .
Research based Facts from Stephen Krashen’s The Power of Reading
1. FVR results in: better reading comprehension, writing style, vocabulary, spelling, and grammatical development.
2. Readers are better at writing.
3. Reading as a leisure activity is the best predictor of comprehension, vocabulary, and reading speed.
4. The relationship between Free Voluntary Reading and literacy is remarkably consistent.
5. Each time an unfamiliar word is seen in print, a small increase in word knowledge typically occurs.
6. If children read 1 million words in a year (easily attainable for middle class children) at least 1000 words will be added to their vocabulary.
7. Students who read a novel with many unique words actually learned the meaning of many of those words from context clues only.
8. Teaching vocabulary lists is inefficient—the time is better spent reading alone.
9. The less literate are the first to fail and drop out of school.
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Mary Leonhardt’s observations about reading from Parents who love reading, kids who don’t
How important is it that your child be an avid reader?
Only avid readers are excellent readers.
Only avid readers are excellent writers.
Avid readers concentrate on outside information and ideas more easily.
Avid readers are better at weathering personal problems.
Avid readers have a better chance for a successful, fulfilling adult life.
Why so many kids hate reading:
We put children in ability groups so we can teach them skills.
Kids are encouraged to read only “good” literature.
Middle School and High School reading is almost all teacher assigned.
Students don’t read well enough to enjoy reading.
There is not a critical mass of readers among young people.
Jim Trelease statements from The Read-Aloud Handbook
· Two factors that produced higher achievements: frequency of teachers reading aloud to students and the frequency of SSR/pleasure reading in school.
· Listening comprehension comes before reading comprehension. Listening vocabulary promotes speaking vocabulary, reading vocabulary and writing vocabulary.
· Reading aloud to the class helps take the “sting” out of requiring them to read.
· The research overwhelmingly shows that lifetime readers cut their reading eye-teeth on series books and comic books, not the classics. The more “junk” they read, the better they do at reading and thus were able to graduate to more sophisticated books later.
· Children who read at least 6 books during the summer do not lose anything they have learned in the previous year. (Summer reading is VERY important.)
· Reading must have a pleasure connection.
· 100% (all) Kindergarten students are enthusiastic about learning to read.
· By 12th grade, only 26% of students read for pleasure.
· One factor producing a higher percentage of readers was frequency of SSR.
· Book Talks (not book reports) are the greatest advertisement for reading.
TERI LESESNE’S EXPLODING SOME MYTHS ABOUT READING . . .
MYTH 1: Kids must read only “good” books and not be allowed to wallow in popular fiction. WRONG! We all have an appetite for some food that is not good for us. We all share some guilty pleasure when in comes to reading and books, some book that is not literary. We must extend the same courtesy to our students. See the discussion of subliterature in Chapter 2. There is another myth that generally follows from this one: It is not quantity but quality that matter in reading. WRONG! How much we read does matter.
Take these statistics from NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress:
Achievement Percentile / Amount of Outside Reading in Minutes/Day / Word Gain/Yr90th %ile / 40+ min/day / 2.3 million
50th %ile / <13 min/day / 6000,000
10th %ile / <2 min/day / 51,000
MYTH 2: Readers are easy to spot; they always have their noses in books. WRONG! Readers go dormant from time to time. Weeks pass without my picking up a book due to my schedule or my level of fatigue. Kids are no different. And not all readers select books to read, either. They may prefer magazines, comics, or even e-books. Sometimes it is tough to spot the readers. Occasionally, someone who presents as a nonreader is actually a reader between books.
MYTH 3: Readability (reading level, lexiles, etc.) is a good way to match books to kids. WRONG! Many of the adult bestsellers I have enjoyed recently are well below my reading level. Life of Pi hovers around the fifth-grade, level, by the way. Lemony Snicket has a higher readability. Scientific formulas applied to the artistic process just do not yield consistent results. If we limit kids to zones of reading or certain levels of books, we might just miss the chance to make the match.
MYTH 4: Canned reading programs can create readers. WRONG!, so wrong! There is nothing you can buy that will create a reader except the right book for that child. Canned reading programs are management tools at best. They do little or nothing to motivate readers or to create an extrinsic value for reading in kids.
MYTH 5: Once kids are independent readers, reading aloud and shared and paired reading should become activities and strategies of the past. WRONG again! See the research conducted by Giles (2005) and Gibson (2005) for a nice counter to this myth.
MYTH 6: Kids can automatically distinguish between good and bad literature. WRONG in so many ways. Oh, were this true for adults as well! We would not be plagued with “celebrity” books by Madonna, Katie Couric, Maria Shiver, Dom Deluise, Michael Bolton, Jerry Seinfeld, and others. I prefer to use such books to teach kids and adults how to tell the good from the bad.
MYTH 7: Reading is a science that can be broken down into component parts easily for quick consumption. Hello . . . WRONG-O! If reading were a simple act with simple component parts, all of us would learn to read in the same way at the same time with the same level of skill. Hence, any legislation that begins with the phrase, “All children will,” is considered suspect. If teachers wrote the opening phrase it would read more along the lines of, “Some children might.”
MYTH 8: Reading is the same no matter what we are reading or why. So WRONG it is almost laughable. Content-area reading requires specialized content skills. Reading a poem demands a different set of skills from reading directions on programming your cell phone. See Janet Allen’s Tools for Teaching Content Literacy (2004) and Kylene Beers’ When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do (2003) for ideas in content-area strategies.
MYTH 9: Having grade–level lists is a good idea. Where do I begin with the WRONGness here? There is no such creature as a fourth-grade book. There are books that might appeal to some fourth graders, but might be just as likely to appeal to some third or even sixth graders. As a middle school teacher I recall near-open warfare when we dared introduce kids in eighth grade to Shakespeare. High school teachers quickly informed us that Shakespeare belonged to them. “Bah, humbug!” as Dickens might retort.
MYTH 10: One size fits all, and the corollary: one book is good for all kids. Yes, this, too, is WRONG. The phenomenon of Harry Potter might lead some of us to conclude that there can be one book that will appeal equally to all kids. However, there are some aesthetes, though few, who do not care for Rowling’s magical tales. Ditto folks who never watch reality shows. Tastes differ, and we need to offer a variety of reading fare for all tastes. Books need to be sweet, frothy desserts as well as hearty, meaty main courses. My hope is that this book, with the extensive list in the appendix, offers a wide range of choice delectables to sate all reading palates.
Source: Lesesne, Teri S. Naked Reading: Uncovering What Tweens Need to Become Lifelong Readers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse, 2006.
Teenagers and Classics; YA Lit;
Boys and Reading . . .
10 Reasons Teenagers DO NOT read “the classics”
1. The main characters are not teenagers.
2. The events, problems, and plots are not related to today’s teens.
3. The classics have complicated plot lines.
4. The point of view is not from an adolescent’s perspective.
5. The dialogue does not reflect teenage speech.
6. The language exceeds the level of understanding of most teenagers.
7. The pace is too slow and they are too long.
8. Teenagers have experienced outmoded and uninspiring methods of teaching this literature.
9. The format, i.e. cover, type style and size, white space, etc. is unappealing to teens.
10. Teenagers have no choice in deciding what to read.
Developed by Judy Druse; Mabee Library, Washburn University. Used by permission
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Characteristics of Young Adult Literature
1. YA Lit has characters and issues young readers can identify with; those issues and characters are treated in a way that does not invalidate, minimize, or devalue them.
2. YA Lit is framed in language that young readers can understand.
3. YA Lit emphasizes plot above everything else.
4. YL Lit is written for an audience of young adults.
Blasingame, James. Books that Don’t Bore ‘Em: Young Adult Books that Speak to this Generation. New York: Scholastic, 2007.
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What do boys see as obstacles to reading?
As part of YALSA’s 2001 Teen Read Week, a national survey was conducted which gave evidence of what boys see as obstacles to reading. The average age of the teen age boys who responded was 14.
39.3% Boring / not fun
29.8% No time / too busy
11.1% Enjoy other activities better
7.7% Can’t get into the stories
4.3% Not good at reading
2.5% Makes me tired / causes headaches
2.3% Video games / TV more interesting
1.4% Too much school work
0.09% Books are too long
0.01% Friends make fun of me
THE READER’S BILL OF RIGHTS
The right not to read something
The right to skip pages
The right not to finish
The right to reread
The right to read anything
The right to escapism
The right to read anywhere
The right to browse
The right to read out loud
The right to not defend your tastes
---Daniel Pennac (1992)
Atwell, Nancie. The Reading Zone. New York: Scholastic, 2007.
Adopt an (almost) ‘anything goes’ attitude for Teen Reading
Too often teens see reading as just another school assignment—a certain book, at a certain time, in a certain way. Reading for pleasure is like a buffet: Try a little of everything, keep what you like, and leave the rest until you’re ready to try again. Tell your teen it’s okay to:
· Read a wide variety. Unless material directly conflicts with your family values, or you feel it could harm your teen in some way, do not put limits on what your teen reads.
· Skip around when reading. Yes, it makes the most sense to start on page one and read in order. But maybe your teen doesn’t feel like doing that. Better to read out of order than not to read at all.
· Put it down. No reader finishes every single book or article he picks up. Tell your teen he can stop if he really dislikes the material. Feeling like he has to finish everything may cause him to shy away from trying new materials for fear he won’t like them.
· Get lost in a book or magazine. Promise not to disturb him for at least 30 minutes when he’s reading. He may soon find reading is a great way to get some alone time.
Reprinted from the March 2006 issue of Parents Still make the difference! ® (High School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2006 The parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: Teen Reading, “Tips to encourage reading,” Young Adult Services Association, a division of the American Library Association.
A Selection of Titles from our Teen Shelf
The Bridesmaid / Abbott, HaileyFor One More Day / Albom, Mitch
The Perfect Shot / Alphin, Elaine
Catalyst / Speak / Prom / Twisted / Anderson, Laurie Halse
The Astonishing life of Octavian Nothing / Anderson, M.T.
Kissing Tennessee and other Stories from the Stardust Dance / Appelt, Kathi
Parallel Journeys / Ayer, Eleanor
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier / Beah, Ishmael
Hanging on to Max / Bechard, Margaret
She Said Yes / Bernal, Misty
Friday Night Lights: a Town, a Team, and a Dream / Bissinger, H. G.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas / Boyne, John
24 Girls in 7 Days / Bradley, Alex
Flags of our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima / Bradley, James
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants & 3 Sequels / Brashares, Ann
A Great and Terrible Beauty / Rebel Angels / Bray, Libba
Lucky T / Brian, Kate
Gideon the Cutpurse / Buckley-Archer, Linda
Ask Me No Questions / Budhos, Marina
Avalon High / Cabot, Meg
Honey, Baby, Sweetheart / Caletti, Deb
Love, Football, and other Contact Sports / Carter, Alden R.
I’d tell you I love you, but then I’d have to kill you / Carter, Ally
Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi / Chotjewitz, David
The Power of One / Courtenay, Bryce
Crackback / Coy, John
Andromeda Strain / Sphere / Crichton, Michael
Runner / Deuker, Carl
A Northern Light / Donnelly, Jennifer
The Battle of Jericho / Draper, Sharon
Black Tattoo / Enthoven, Sam
Breathing Underwater / Diva / Flinn, Alex
Tending to Grace / Fusco, Kimberly
The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs / Gantos, Jack
Dark Sons / Grimes, Nikki
Rash / Hautman, Pete
Long Gone Daddy / Hemphill, Helen
Rocket Boys / Hickam, Homer
The Serious Kiss / Hogan, Mary
Stormbreaker / Horowitz, Anthony
New boy / Houston, Julian
The First Part Last / Heaven / Johnson, Angela
13 Little Blue Envelopes / Johnson, Maureen
If I have a Wicked Stepmother, Where’s My Prince? / Kantor, Melissa
Dark Angel / Firestorm / Klass, David
Son of the Mob / Born to Rock / Korman, Gordon
A Selection of Titles from our Teen Shelf cont’d