The Book Whisperer

[osprey_archer]

They have absolutely nothing for me to do at work, which sounds like fun but is actually miserable. I sit at my desk and stare into space, like I'm back in third grade, except this time there isn't even a teacher to ignore, and also I feel bad about doing nothing because they're paying me.

And it's going to be like this all next week, too, because we don't test the kids till the twentieth. My mind may crack under the strain.

***

Today at work I read The Book Whisperer, which (I justify it to myself) is at least reading related. The author argues that the best way to up reading scores is to have kids read, read, read, no book reports, no pages of pointless comprehension questions, just pick out a book - any book they like! - and read.

Two thoughts.

1. I always thought, back when I was eleven, that I would learn twice as much in half the time if my teachers would just be quiet and let me read all day. Finally: corroborative evidence! I feel so vindicated.

2. This book was recommended to me by one of the program instructors, and I'm not sure why. It's a fun book, but the freewheeling program it outlines is basically the opposite of what we do.

In this case, I think the difference is because the program outlined in the book is for older kids who already have basic reading skills, whereas I'm working with younger kids and you couldn't turn an illiterate kindergartner loose on a bookshelf and expect her to teach herself to read.

But my instructor also recommended another book, about how reading aloud to kids will teach them not only how to read but, more importantly, how to LOVE BOOKS, unlike soulless school reading instruction of the kind I will be aiding and abetting the school in providing, which crushes children's souls.

It's like she wants me to have a crisis of conscience about whether my scripted interventions are going to give my students an irreparable hatred of the written word.

Backing up just a bit. I do think the second book is a little bit too rosy-colored glasses. My parents read to me every night, and I couldn't read worth a darn until I'd slogged through six months of first grade. Some kids are simply going to need to do some scut work before they catch on.

But the idea of all this spontaneity nevertheless plays into the Romantic view of childhood, and appeals to the anarchic side of my temperament, and sings siren songs to my soul. It's very dispiriting.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Glad to meet another person who didn't learn to read until first grade. I feel as if I'm always meeting people who've read Virgil by the time they were five.

Maybe your new colleague is giving you this reading because secretly she wants to do stuff this way but can't. So she's silently passing you the torch.

Or something.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. Half my high school friends have a story about how at the advanced age of five they suddenly found themselves reading the New York Times, or at least the Boxcar Children, having acquired the ability to read as easily as the ability to breathe.

Unfortunately I also will be unable to do anything with the torch except pass it on. Perhaps I should start looking for opportunities to read aloud to kids?

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Think of this as the calm before the storm. Store up all this inactivity so that when you're SWAMPED...yeah, you'll still be swamped, but you'll be able to look back on this boredom and sigh.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I don't think that it works like that. If it did, then whenever I got swamped during school time I would simply summon up a bit of summer and be refreshed, but thinking back always seemed to make me more stressed.

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

I sometimes get frustrated with some of the aids I work with... like the one who writes down whole sentences for the 4th-and-5th graders who can barely read. You can tell by the way they copy sentences that they are just copying letter-by-letter, not even word-by word. It doesn't help them learn at all; it's just doing their work for them.

BUT my one co-worker is awesome, and instead of writing whatever answer/sentence, she'll write stuff about Hannah Montana or whatever, and eventually the kids will be like, '...HEY!'

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Heeheehee. And that way you can tell whether they're reading or just copying!

[amanen.livejournal.com]

Actually, being read aloud to discouraged me from learning to read by myself. Don't get me wrong — it completely fostered a love of reading. I absolutely adored books and I *loved* being read to. It's just, I saw no point in reading by myself when my parents could read it so much more interestingly. Besides, when they read it aloud, my siblings and I could play games based on the books together, because they'd heard the story too!

My mom actually sat down with me very deliberately and had me go through a teach-your-child-to-read book, which is probably the only reason I learned how to read when I did. However, if she had only done that approach, and I had never been read aloud to, I would almost definitely have hated reading, because that book was dead boring.

In conclusion... um... reading aloud is a lot of fun when your parents do special voices for characters.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I had the same experience with being read aloud to. Why should I bother doing all the work of learning to read when my parents would read me books much bigger and more complicated than I could read myself, AND with special voices?????

I think perhaps parents are supposed to draw more attention to the actual reading parts of the book - you know, ask their children 'Do you see any words on this page that begin with P? Do you see any words you know? This word is purple. Do you see the word purple anywhere else in this book?..."

Except that would take all the momentum out of the story! So my parents never did it.

[amanen.livejournal.com]

Maybe a parent could do that before reading a chapter. Like, they could show the kid the pages and ask questions like that, and if the kid understood stuff, it could be a preview for the chapter. Then, the parent could read the whole chapter aloud. That way, the kid would be getting their work rewarded.

I don't actually know anything about child development though, so I'm not sure what approach would work best at all.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I probably would have started whining about why we weren't reading if my parents had tried that. But perhaps other children are more patient?