“QUALITY”
The word quality stood out to me immediately while reading
this chapter. According to Lynch-Brown, Short & Tomlinson (2014), “quality in
writing and illustration has to do with originality and importance of ideas,
imaginative use of language and image, and beauty of literacy and artistic
style that enable a work to remain fresh, interesting, and meaningful for many
years” (p.5). This made me think back to when I was in high school and was
given my summer reading lists each year. Classics were on that list such as How To Kill a Mockingbird, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Adventures of Huckleberry Fin and so
forth. These classics were put on the required reading list for a reason. They
were good quality books that set us up to learn various components of a piece
of literature. While many may argue or complain about these lists not being fun
or interesting to read, these same people are bragging about the “Grey” series. They talk about these books because somewhere inside you were curious about what the book was about. While I did read all three for fun, I got nothing educational out of it. Well,
if you read the books, you may know what I got out of it, LOL. The point is,
people will read fun and informal books because they peek interest and are
enjoyable. We should read for both learning and pleasure. As a teacher, when I
find that student’s are struggling or are 
“LITERATURE ACROSS THE CURRICULUM…”
I like this phrase because teaching cross curricular is very
important. We shouldn’t limit ourselves when teaching to that specific subject.
Good teachers can utilize materials across multiple subject areas. “When using
literature across the curriculum, teachers and students are not confined to a
dry pedantic textbook as the sole resource" (Lynch-Brown et al., p.5). By using
literature in such as way you are also working closely with other teachers in
those respective subject areas. This promotes a cohesive environment for
student learning. In addition, it allows students to make deeper connections to
the text. I know personally, in my school, our administration wants to see this
often!
“SO WHY ARE LITERATURE AND READING AT RISK IN OUR SOCIETY” (Lynch-Brown et al., 2014, p.10)
Do you know why literature and reading are at risk in our
society? Personally, I do not know the exact reasons why it’s at risk in our society,
but I do know there are many factors, not just one. I had to read Readicide
in another class and it was truly an eye opener. If you haven’t read that book,
do yourself a favor and pick it up. While the text claims that one must be a
reader to further help engage children and so forth. One of the things Readicide
talks about is how schools are literally killing reading. The demands they are
placing on your students are making it inevitable for them to enjoy reading.
Let’s face it, Lynch-Brown et al. state “the NEA’s 2007 report found a correlation between the
decline in reading and increased participation in a variety of electronic
media, including the Internet, video games, and portable digital devices” (p.
10) We know this to be true. We live in an ever changing society and even in our
schools, they want more use of technology and electronic devices. By promoting
the technology in our schools, will this continue to put literature and reading
at risk in our society? 
Lynch-Brown, C., Short, K., & Tomlinson, C. (2014). Essentials of children's literature. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Hi, I liked you Blog on Chapter 1. Quality literature is important. The summer reading lists that you were given and the classics that you read helped shape you. The classics provide imagination into the past and future, provides meaning and good quality writing, along with important ideas and imagination. People were discussing and recommending "Grey".I guess it is not "trendy" to discuss novels. I read part of the book, I skipped around. I found it predictable.
ReplyDeleteTeaching across curricula is important and using a variety of sources adds to the vocabulary and the enrichment of the learning process. If students are disengaged readers than they should read books for fun. At least, reading is taking place and that equals practice. I left out in my Blog that that we are a nation at risk of reading. But it is an important point. People are either stressed out from work or to busy with their devices that reading is not important.
Hi, I liked you Blog on Chapter 1. Quality literature is important. The summer reading lists that you were given and the classics that you read helped shape you. The classics provide imagination into the past and future, provides meaning and good quality writing, along with important ideas and imagination. People were discussing and recommending "Grey".I guess it is not "trendy" to discuss novels. I read part of the book, I skipped around. I found it predictable.
ReplyDeleteTeaching across curricula is important and using a variety of sources adds to the vocabulary and the enrichment of the learning process. If students are disengaged readers than they should read books for fun. At least, reading is taking place and that equals practice. I left out in my Blog that that we are a nation at risk of reading. But it is an important point. People are either stressed out from work or to busy with their devices that reading is not important.
So interesting that you brig up the "quality" debate. It's so true that we )me included) get wrapped up in books with "Christian Greys." We have to find that balance with both the kids and in our personal lives.
ReplyDeleteAmanda,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with what you stated about students becoming less and less interested in reading. All we hear our students talk about is playing video games, watching T.V. shows, and texting on cell phones. However, even though they are so engaged with their technology, I find that I am trying to find as many interactive reading websites for them to utilize as possible. For example, I recently came across this one website ReadTheory.org. Once you set up your student accounts students can read, FOR FUN! =). They earn points and avatars which makes it exciting. Students have to answer questions at the end of teach text and the passages automatically adjust based on their performance. Eventually, I feel all books will become obsolete, but, there are ways we can still motivate students to read!
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your response about the word you chose to best reflect the chapter for you: quality. Quality is so important when reading a book because we often times do not want to pick up a book and read it if it does not have good quality. I, too, read the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy and the only reason I read them is because I heard everyone else talking about how interesting and GOOD they were! So I thought, why not read it also. Not all reading should be educational and not all reading should be boring, like you said. We should definitely put time aside to read something that is of some interest to us. I mentioned in my blog that I hardly ever have time to pick up a good book to read because I am always reading textbooks for homework and that really takes up most of my time and the text mentions that most high school and college students have the same issue as well. The only time I can really enjoy a good book is probably the summer time.
When you mention not to limit ourselves when teaching a specific subject, I could not agree more. We should definitely go beyond just the textbook and teach from the heart. If we just taught from the textbook, I think the subject would be very dull. We definitely have to add some fun into our teaching.
As for your sentence, I definitely have to read that book that you mentioned "Readicide." It definitely sounds interesting. It is definitely true when you mentioned are schools killing reading while using all this new technology in schools. Even parents are killing reading while using all this new technology. When I go out to dinner with my fiance, family, or friends, I see children sitting at the dinner table watching a movie or playing video games on an IPad or tablet and I think, WOW parents just use this as a distraction so their children won't cry at the dinner table. Why not give them a book to read instead of being glued to the tablet all night and becoming anti-social. I think this is partially parents' fault and a leading cause to "readicide."