Travel To New Places, Read a Book!

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” ― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

 

Dr. Seuss was born on March 2, 1904. Living just three blocks from his old home on Mulberry Street in Springfield, Massachusetts, and having grown up reading every book he ever wrote, I am compelled to write this blog in honor of this famous literacy visionary. In addition, I am currently employed just a few blocks from Mulberry Street, at a school in the South End of Springfield; a literacy based school. In other words, every teacher at the South End Middle School is comitted to teaching reading in every class.

 

Teaching at this particular school is the perfect fit for me, as I wholeheartedly believe that without the ability to readit  is impossible to ever reach your maximum potential. My dear grandmother, born in 1903, just a year before Dr. Seuss,  was deprived of the chance to learn to read. I remember, as a small child, learning to read myself, and at the same time trying to teach my grandmother to read, as well. I will never forget how she pretended to learn, but a few weeks later she said, "I am just too old to learn to read!" I was devastated. How could anyone be too old to learn to read? It was at that moment that I realized that I would become the best reader I could possibly be. Since then, not only do I devour books, but I encourage and teach middle school children to do the same. In fact, when I see a student reading a novel or some other book unrelated to science, it kills me to tell that student to "Stop reading, and do your science work!"  I even apologize to them for asking them to stop reading.

 

Years ago, while working at a Catholic school in Chicopee, and in fact the same school my girls were attending, I had the pleasure of hearing Jim Trelease, author of The Read Aloud Handbook, (born March 23, 1941),and an educator who stresses reading aloud to children as a way to instill in them the love of literature, speak. We hired him to speak to our students' parents about the importance of reading. Mr. Trelease encouraged parents of children of all ages to continue to read to their children. Mr. Trelease believed that all children enjoy being read to, and this enjoyment would eventually lead to their desire to read, too. I have carried that advice with me throughout my teaching years, and yes, it is true, my middle school students LOVE when I read to them.

 

Last year, our entire school read the book FOUND, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, and the students would sit there listening to me read much in the same way they would sit and watch their favorite television program. During group discussion it was evident that they had been paying attention, as their responses were right on target. This year, at the new school I am teaching at South End Middle School )I am teaching many of the same students from the school I workd at last year, and these same students are beginning to read books, lots of them, on their own!

 

One student in particular, that attended the school that I worked in last year, hated reading, hated school, hated everything about learning. This year, in our literacy based school, we discovered that even though he is in the eighth grade, unfortunately his reading ability hovers somewhere around the second or third grade level. No wonder he hated reading so much! This semester, the eighth grade class is reading a book called Maus A Survivor's Tale, by Art Spiegelman. This is a biography of the author's father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew and  Holocaust survivor. The students can't put this book down. In fact, during the aforementioned boy's last basketball game, (he had been benched for the first half due to low grades), the reading teacher from our school happened to look over at our team's bench. She nudged me and told me to look across the basketball court. There this boy was, slouched down in his chair, holding up his Maus  book and reading it. When he saw us looking over at him, he broke out in a big grin, nodded his head at us as if to say, "Yeah, I'm reading!", and continued reading his book. Of course, as soon as the coach told him to suit up he threw the book behind him and got ready to play hoop!

 

"Those who can read but don't are worse off than those who can't read."..Unknown

 

So, this week, develop a new habit, read to your children, read with your children, read in the same room as your children. Model reading for them, read to them, and read with them. This priceless skill will prove invaluable time and time again for the rest of their lives. It will open new doors of opportunity for them, doors that you may never have thought possible.

 

I have compliled a list of books that will appeal mainly to middle school children. I have done this just to get you started with some tried and true titles of popular books for this age group. I have not included books for younger children, as books for this age group are pleantiful, and I purposely did not include books for the highschool level either, as older students, by now, have probably identified the genre that appeals to them most.

 

If the books listed below do not appeal to you or your child as appropriate choices, take them to the library or a bookstore. Browse the appropriate age level sections in the bookstore or library, and  spend some quality time discussing the various book titles and genres. Discussing various book summaries can lead to some interesting discussions between you and your child, and may lead them down the path to life long learning and reading.

 

Suggested Readings:

 

1. Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss - A great book for anyone moving to the next level in their lives, for example entering high school, going off to college, or leaving home.

 

2. Flipped by Wendelin Von Draanen - Two next door neighbors, Bryce and Juli form a relationship that blossoms in eighth grade.

 

3. Coraline by Neil Gaiman - A fantasy involving a girl who explores an alternate reality through a mysterious door in her own home.

 

4. The Lightning Thief - by Rick Riordan. A fantasy/adventure based on Greek Mythology about an adolescent demigod.

 

5. The Secret Life of Bees - by Sue Monk Kidd. Historical novel set in mid 1960's in the South. A fourteen year old bee keeper learns the secret of mother's death.

 

6. A Wrinkle In Time - by Madeline L'Engle. An adventure involving 3 children who travel through a cosmic loophole.

 

7. Black Beauty - by Anna Sewell. A story about a horse, and the very first book I read aloud to my girls. They loved it, and they even took turns reading some of the paragraphs. We discussed various parts of the plot together, and my girls even decided to take horseback riding lessons shortly thereafter.

 

8. Little Women - by Louisa May Alcott. (My favorite childhood book!) A story about the Alcott family during the Christmas their Papa was away at war.

 

9. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. A boy is raised by wolves in the jungle.

 

10. Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Three friends think they are adopted, and technically they are, but the circumstances surrounding their adoption are out of this world.

 

While this is and extremely short list, I do hope it is enticing enough to get the ball rolling. Make reading a top priority in your home and the rewards will be everlasting. Happy reading!

 

 

          

 

With Hope Anything is Possible!

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."  Albert Einstein

During the many years I have spent educating middle school children, I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet with numerous parents regarding the status of their child's education. Very often these parents are coming to a parent-teacher conference as somewhat of a last resort. Most of the conferences take on a common underlying theme having to do with their child's lack of interest and participation in their own education. The team of teachers will begin the meeting with some positive observations about the child, and before long we will be knee deep in examples of how this particular child falls short in the learning department. It is usually at this point that the parent offers up the types of encouragements they have provided to help their child excel in school. At the end of this little list of consequences, (lists of rewards are rarely mentioned), the parent usually, exasperated by this time, exclaims "And he/she must go to his/her room every day right after school without any television, computer, or cell phone."

I can't help but cringe at this statement everytime I hear it. At this point in the conference, as my team teachers will readily attest to, I usually begin to ask the parent what hobbies, or outings their child responds best to.  I want to know the kind of experiences that their child thrives on. I believe Einstein said it best.  

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."  Notice he said "hope for reward". Once that hope for reward is missing from the picture, apathy sets in. Apathetic children, who see no hope for any change in their inprisoned condition, will often give up on themselves, their future, their learning, and participating in school. It is usually this type of child that teachers struggle the most to teach. 

 

Once I am able to get the parent thinking about "free" rewards, like spending extra time with them at the park, or maybe playing that basketball game with them that they have promised in the past, I then talk about how without any hope of their living conditions improving, children have a difficult time seeing why they should try to improve themselves at all. I often ask the parents why they go to work each day. The number one response is to earn money. I then ask the parents if they would stop working if they stopped receiving a pay check. Of course the answer is always yes. To assist the parents in monitoring their child's success, I introduce a point sheet for their child's teachers to fill out everyday. Depending on the child, I may suggest that we look at this point sheet either on a daily or weekly basis. I then suggest that the parents set up small rewards in return for their child bringing home positive comments on their point sheet. These rewards may be as simple as allowing their child to watch 1/2 an hour of television for every category they scored a total of 4 points in. This could amount to 1-2 hours of television that weekend. My main message with these parents is that without hope of achieving some minor rewards, we are likely to see such a loss of hope that it will negatively affect every area of their child's life.

 

When parents are consistent with requesting to see point sheets each day/week, consistently provide positive rewards when their child meets their academic goals, and consistently provide balanced consequences when the agreed upon number of points are not achieved, I always see marked improvement in that child's academic performace.

After all, who wouldn't want to be appropriately recognized for doing well by the people they look to for guidance and love?