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Forward Re: Reading at Risk/Pop Culture as Security
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From: Kathy Isaacs <kisaacs>
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 14:43:16 -0400
When I was growing up, the pop culture books were the Bobbsey Twins and for a slightly older audience Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames. I read them voraciously. When my daughter was in second and third grade, she read the Little House books over and over again, picking them up and opening them at random, dropping into a familiar and comfortable world. Clearly she was more literary than I!
In any case, at a certain point in their reading development, most children go through a phase when they devour series books, often reading them over and over. These books are generally predictable, the characters stay the same, and the author's style doesn't vary. While we adults sometimes bemoan their choices, what we need to remember is that the children themselves are solidifying their newly acquired reading skills and developing fluency. When books are predictable and easy to read, children gain the practice they need to become truly independent readers. The pop culture series books provide the perfect vehicle for this stage of their development. Certainly we don't want this to be all they read, but at the same time it's really important that they have this kind of reading experience to build fluency. At some point, most children move on. The very characteristic that made these books important to their reading development - that is, their predictabiliy, eventually makes the reader lose interest in them.
Barbara
Barbara Scotto Michael Driscoll School Brookline, MA
Received on Tue 20 Jul 2004 01:43:16 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 14:43:16 -0400
When I was growing up, the pop culture books were the Bobbsey Twins and for a slightly older audience Nancy Drew and Cherry Ames. I read them voraciously. When my daughter was in second and third grade, she read the Little House books over and over again, picking them up and opening them at random, dropping into a familiar and comfortable world. Clearly she was more literary than I!
In any case, at a certain point in their reading development, most children go through a phase when they devour series books, often reading them over and over. These books are generally predictable, the characters stay the same, and the author's style doesn't vary. While we adults sometimes bemoan their choices, what we need to remember is that the children themselves are solidifying their newly acquired reading skills and developing fluency. When books are predictable and easy to read, children gain the practice they need to become truly independent readers. The pop culture series books provide the perfect vehicle for this stage of their development. Certainly we don't want this to be all they read, but at the same time it's really important that they have this kind of reading experience to build fluency. At some point, most children move on. The very characteristic that made these books important to their reading development - that is, their predictabiliy, eventually makes the reader lose interest in them.
Barbara
Barbara Scotto Michael Driscoll School Brookline, MA
Received on Tue 20 Jul 2004 01:43:16 PM CDT
