(Page 84) “Let’s face it, our students will not be spending the rest of their lives reading Beowulf. But, hopefully, they will spend their adult lives reading books and magazines. By getting them to analyze real-world text, not only are we preparing them for their adult reading lives, but we are also providing them with interesting, relevant models.”
While I think it is important to tackle some tough stuff in class, I love that Gallagher explains the importance using of real-world texts. His point about Beowulf is on par. How many adults do you know who read that kind of stuff for pleasure? I bet most English teachers wouldn’t even read it if they weren’t teaching it. If we want our students to be readers once they get out of high school, we have to show them the types of things that are available. What better way to make them want to read—and improve their writing in the process—than to utilize real-world texts? After all, what are the chances that a student is ever going to write like Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)? And would we want them to write like that anyway? Heck, I’d have to reread their work a couple of times if they did!
I know many of us are readers, but many adults find themselves “too busy” to read long books but often read other short texts—newspapers, magazines, blogs (I’m partial to Reality Steve’s blog), etc.? By using these pieces in class we are able to expose students to texts that they may find appealing and continue to access outside of school. I hate that we are not able to get newspaper subscriptions at a discounted rate anymore. I used to have students read the newspaper religiously…granted, they were often hooked by the Sports section, but they were reading nonetheless. One of my students, Don (whose last name shall remain unwritten, but I suspect some of your know who he is) clearly developed the love of the newspaper while at school that carried on after he finished. He continued to read the paper well after he graduated—he called Pam one day about something he read two years after he finished at Airport. I’m certain that enjoyment of reading the newspaper would not have happened if he had not developed the habit at school. Using a variety of texts for pleasure reading, analysis, and writing models allows students to discover that there really is something out there for everyone to read.
I recently read Nicholas Sparks’s Dear John (2006). (I wanted to read it before seeing the movie…which I have still yet to do.) The main character, John, wasn’t the most stellar student in high school nor upstanding person once he graduated; he ended up joining the military to straighten himself out. Even though the book is fiction, something John said (wrote, technically) after being in the army resonated with me: “I read a lot too…I wasn’t into Chaucer or Proust or Dostoevsky or any of those other dead guys; I read mainly mysteries and thrillers…I took a particular liking to Carl Hiaasen because his words flowed easily and he always made me laugh. I couldn’t help but think that if schools had assigned these books in English class, we’d have a lot more readers in the world” (p. 20). I was that student who hated to read in high school—I didn’t like those dead guys either. Luckily, I eventually discovered on my own the type of stuff I like to read. I wonder how many students out there hate school reading, but may actually love to read if they had the experience working with a variety of texts. And by having instruction along with those texts, they may learn not to believe everything that is written—it is okay for one to develop his own opinion. Heck, he might even learn how to write a letter to the editor and share his opinion with the world.
While I think it is important to tackle some tough stuff in class, I love that Gallagher explains the importance using of real-world texts. His point about Beowulf is on par. How many adults do you know who read that kind of stuff for pleasure? I bet most English teachers wouldn’t even read it if they weren’t teaching it. If we want our students to be readers once they get out of high school, we have to show them the types of things that are available. What better way to make them want to read—and improve their writing in the process—than to utilize real-world texts? After all, what are the chances that a student is ever going to write like Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)? And would we want them to write like that anyway? Heck, I’d have to reread their work a couple of times if they did!
I know many of us are readers, but many adults find themselves “too busy” to read long books but often read other short texts—newspapers, magazines, blogs (I’m partial to Reality Steve’s blog), etc.? By using these pieces in class we are able to expose students to texts that they may find appealing and continue to access outside of school. I hate that we are not able to get newspaper subscriptions at a discounted rate anymore. I used to have students read the newspaper religiously…granted, they were often hooked by the Sports section, but they were reading nonetheless. One of my students, Don (whose last name shall remain unwritten, but I suspect some of your know who he is) clearly developed the love of the newspaper while at school that carried on after he finished. He continued to read the paper well after he graduated—he called Pam one day about something he read two years after he finished at Airport. I’m certain that enjoyment of reading the newspaper would not have happened if he had not developed the habit at school. Using a variety of texts for pleasure reading, analysis, and writing models allows students to discover that there really is something out there for everyone to read.
I recently read Nicholas Sparks’s Dear John (2006). (I wanted to read it before seeing the movie…which I have still yet to do.) The main character, John, wasn’t the most stellar student in high school nor upstanding person once he graduated; he ended up joining the military to straighten himself out. Even though the book is fiction, something John said (wrote, technically) after being in the army resonated with me: “I read a lot too…I wasn’t into Chaucer or Proust or Dostoevsky or any of those other dead guys; I read mainly mysteries and thrillers…I took a particular liking to Carl Hiaasen because his words flowed easily and he always made me laugh. I couldn’t help but think that if schools had assigned these books in English class, we’d have a lot more readers in the world” (p. 20). I was that student who hated to read in high school—I didn’t like those dead guys either. Luckily, I eventually discovered on my own the type of stuff I like to read. I wonder how many students out there hate school reading, but may actually love to read if they had the experience working with a variety of texts. And by having instruction along with those texts, they may learn not to believe everything that is written—it is okay for one to develop his own opinion. Heck, he might even learn how to write a letter to the editor and share his opinion with the world.
It’s funny how two people can read the same thing and get two totally different meanings out of it. I guess the main difference is that I am reading it from a content-area teacher’s perspective rather than from an English teacher’s perspective. I liked where he talked about how the more reading you do the better writer you are, but Diane, you’ve been preaching that to us for years. I zeroed in on the part about using example writing to help improve your own. I really like his advice on how to improve the writing process through demonstration. Here’s my concern: I want to help them improve how they write the conclusion to a lab report, but I don’t know how to do it without doing it for them – you know working along with the lab we’re doing. I guess I can give out sample data sets and they can write a conclusion for different “mock labs” and demonstrate with a separate one. Or I could have them attempt the conclusion – much like the restaurant review – then demonstrate a separate one for them and have them go back at it. OK – this is motivating me to get thinking. You know, as I was reading it I was wishing I was an English teacher – so many great ideas! OK, and as for the good writing thing, let’s not call this writing, more a stream of thought. ;-)
ReplyDeleteDo you have some examples of good lab report conclusions? What if you showed your class two examples of a conclusion--one good and one bad without telling them which is which--then ask them to tell you which one was better. Then ask them what qualities made it better and have a discussion about that. Y'all could then make a list of the things found (or not found) in a good conclusion. Do you think that would help? I'm not expert lab writer, so I don't know if there are different types of reports that would require different types of conclusions.
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