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[CCBC-Net] The Classics and required reading
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From: Emmaattic at aol.com <Emmaattic>
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 09:23:09 EDT
When my son was in high school, he was all too fast turning from a reluctant reader to a non-reader. S.E.Hinton's The Outsiders came to the rescue, as did Chocolate Wars by Cormier.
I was a big reader in high school, but reading Dickens was torture. For me.
But what I loved were books like ALIVE! ; real accounts of real people. Maybe reluctant readers might get more hooked on these types of books? It's worth a try. But I do think it's true, like eating (sometimes) a balanced meal, or a curfew, there can always be standards, expectations, rules for our children, even in high school -- especially in high school. True, we can't make them read the words in a book, but I bet if we demand the television, the cell and the computer be turned off and a chapter read, it would happen. Or as a family, if we found even 30 minutes an evening to read a chapter together, even as they grow into these towering, unruly, but still moldable (for lack of better word) creatures, something might catch on. Some fire that flames love of lit.
Peter Pan is mesmerizing, and hopefully is read way before high school or the concept of reluctant reader enters the picture. Personally, I can't wait to read the sequel (if that is the correct term for it) that Simon and Schuster has forthcoming.
My older brother read far above and beyond his reading level, yet his love of reading started with, and continued to include, MAD magazines. Comic books were in piles around our house; we were never told what we could or could not read. And I agree that Chick Lit, if it gets them to read, doesn't bother me a bit.
Plath's The Bell Jar might be another someone's favorite. Or even 101 Famous Poems. Never know, sometimes even one page, one poem, could hook them as poetry readers.
All we can do is the best we can do. And there sure is a crowd of great librarians and teachers trying to do just that. Oh, and parents, of course!
Emma
Received on Tue 08 Aug 2006 08:23:09 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 09:23:09 EDT
When my son was in high school, he was all too fast turning from a reluctant reader to a non-reader. S.E.Hinton's The Outsiders came to the rescue, as did Chocolate Wars by Cormier.
I was a big reader in high school, but reading Dickens was torture. For me.
But what I loved were books like ALIVE! ; real accounts of real people. Maybe reluctant readers might get more hooked on these types of books? It's worth a try. But I do think it's true, like eating (sometimes) a balanced meal, or a curfew, there can always be standards, expectations, rules for our children, even in high school -- especially in high school. True, we can't make them read the words in a book, but I bet if we demand the television, the cell and the computer be turned off and a chapter read, it would happen. Or as a family, if we found even 30 minutes an evening to read a chapter together, even as they grow into these towering, unruly, but still moldable (for lack of better word) creatures, something might catch on. Some fire that flames love of lit.
Peter Pan is mesmerizing, and hopefully is read way before high school or the concept of reluctant reader enters the picture. Personally, I can't wait to read the sequel (if that is the correct term for it) that Simon and Schuster has forthcoming.
My older brother read far above and beyond his reading level, yet his love of reading started with, and continued to include, MAD magazines. Comic books were in piles around our house; we were never told what we could or could not read. And I agree that Chick Lit, if it gets them to read, doesn't bother me a bit.
Plath's The Bell Jar might be another someone's favorite. Or even 101 Famous Poems. Never know, sometimes even one page, one poem, could hook them as poetry readers.
All we can do is the best we can do. And there sure is a crowd of great librarians and teachers trying to do just that. Oh, and parents, of course!
Emma
Received on Tue 08 Aug 2006 08:23:09 AM CDT
