Read through your classmate's blogs. Identify a post that has an impact on you. Why does it strike you? What will you change because of the post?
Response to Dan's Blog of March 19th regarding "reading by young men in and out of the classroom".
I found this particular post by Dan relevant to my experiences both in the classroom and in my personal life. I am an avid reading and prided myself into introducing reading to both my sons from an early age. We have a library full of books and each boy's room has its own library. Books are scattered throughout our home. My eldest took immediately to reading from his youth, but my youngest, now age 9 - resisted reading once he entered 2nd grade. It has been an ongoing struggle until the past few months. I agree with Dan, that the importance of the reading word must start at home. I have a similar experience with my male students that are now seniors. Many of my students do not have books at home. Also, for my young men, sitting home and reading is looked upon negatively by their peers and their fathers. So how do we convince these young men that their future success depends on the reading word?
Reading is very much key to education and future success. I do "reading across the disciplines" and have a difficult time convincing my young men (that are about to go off to college) the significance of all types of reading, both scientific and non-scientific. It has been a frustrating ride, particularly since they are required to do one paper every month - "Scientist of the Month" which requires reading a biography of a famous scientist. The resistance has been high. Statistically, my young men average a "C" at best on their monthly papers. It appears for some they never finish the book assiged. I too am trying to find a connection for them that would draw them into this committment.
Then my personal life offered a key to this constantly locked door. I have two sons and my youngest, although exposed to reading since infancy, is highly athletic and never found purpose in "reading a book". It has been a struggle until this year. I decided to monitor his interests and find books that he might be able to relate to. Since he loved baseball, I started there, but failed. He prefered to play the game. His brother introduced him to a video game based on history - WWII. He was fascinated by the events of this time period - I found my link. An age appropriate series - Dear America - drew him into reading. Today he is an avid reader and we read together every night. An nterdisciplinary approach to reading (bringing in the history lesson) allowed my son to see the relevancy.
This experience allowed me to try to find a connection to reading for my students. I have the luxury in science of not having a curriculum that dictates specific reading assignments. For the month of April, thanks to Dan, I have offered my students the choice to read and write about a scientist whose work and life they found interesting (personal choice instead of required). In addition, I told them to find a book that they would consider reading and that is not about a scientist per se, but discuss the physical principles in the story. One young man is reading Harry Potter and identifying and researching the possibility of "the invisibility cloak" for his paper. Another is reading Steven Hawking's "The universe in a nutshell" trying to understand the connection to Newtonian physics and relativity (his interest and a topic we still need to cover) . The books they were reading this month is not about the life and times of Kepler, but is applicable to physics.
Dan's post made me realize that relevancy - the connection to their lives - is key for these rather active non-readers. Reading a playbook might be more relevant, but limited, but if we can take it to the next step of reading the experiences of a famous football player as part of their education in sports, we might provide the link we need.
March 29, 2009 3:12 AM
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