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[CCBC-Net] Reluctant Readers, Reading lists and so on
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From: SIwanter at aol.com <SIwanter>
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 16:51:37 EDT
When I was in fifth and sixth grade our classes were graced with a couple of teaching assistants from the Educational Department of the UW. They were young, pretty and vibrant and they turned our reading interest around literary overnight because they added a new ingredient to the mix. We were a surly group of reluctant readers, dyslexic readers, bored readers and most of all male readers. While others (always the girls) in the class did wade through with glee Oliver Twist or Jane Eyre or My Antonia, we tackled articles from Field and Stream or nothing at all.
That all changed the day that these two women (we thought them ancient because they were in their early 20's) began reading to us from a dog eared paperback of 50 Great Short Stories. Before the novels, and plays and poems of authors like Wharton or Poe or O'Henry or Chekhov, we were first introduced to their short stories. These two young teachers whose names unfortunately are lost in time did not read these stories as much as perform them with the same passion and professionalism as Jim Dale reading Harry Potter. I believe they were also drama students as well. We were mesmerized by their theatrics. Afterwards they would ask us if we would like to read more from this particular author? We couldn't wait to run to the library. Even those of us who had cases of dyslexia were not stopped by the ornate sentences of Poe or the foreign quality of Kipling. We just asked questions and worked and worked our way through each story. To this day, close to fifty years later, I can still remember the Vincent Price like reading of Lord Dunsany's 'The Ghosts'.
To this day I still have not been able to get through Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre or My Antonia. However, every New Yorker short story is a must.
Sidney Iwanter
Received on Tue 08 Aug 2006 03:51:37 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 16:51:37 EDT
When I was in fifth and sixth grade our classes were graced with a couple of teaching assistants from the Educational Department of the UW. They were young, pretty and vibrant and they turned our reading interest around literary overnight because they added a new ingredient to the mix. We were a surly group of reluctant readers, dyslexic readers, bored readers and most of all male readers. While others (always the girls) in the class did wade through with glee Oliver Twist or Jane Eyre or My Antonia, we tackled articles from Field and Stream or nothing at all.
That all changed the day that these two women (we thought them ancient because they were in their early 20's) began reading to us from a dog eared paperback of 50 Great Short Stories. Before the novels, and plays and poems of authors like Wharton or Poe or O'Henry or Chekhov, we were first introduced to their short stories. These two young teachers whose names unfortunately are lost in time did not read these stories as much as perform them with the same passion and professionalism as Jim Dale reading Harry Potter. I believe they were also drama students as well. We were mesmerized by their theatrics. Afterwards they would ask us if we would like to read more from this particular author? We couldn't wait to run to the library. Even those of us who had cases of dyslexia were not stopped by the ornate sentences of Poe or the foreign quality of Kipling. We just asked questions and worked and worked our way through each story. To this day, close to fifty years later, I can still remember the Vincent Price like reading of Lord Dunsany's 'The Ghosts'.
To this day I still have not been able to get through Oliver Twist, Jane Eyre or My Antonia. However, every New Yorker short story is a must.
Sidney Iwanter
Received on Tue 08 Aug 2006 03:51:37 PM CDT
