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Older Age Group STEM Reading
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From: Charles Bayless <charles.bayless_at_ttmd.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:27:15 -0400
As a consequence of this conversation, I started to prepare a list of literary STEM books.
Having completed it, I was struck by the following observations. It may be solely a function of my list, but I suspect that it is probably broadly true of literary STEM.
1) There are a disproportionate number of backlist books; the literary aspect will to a degree dominate the issue of freshness of information.
2) While each book has its keen fans, none of the books (with some exceptions) likely has mass appeal within the general YA age group.
3) There is far greater variability among the books than exists in the books of earlier age groups; variability in subject matter, in presumed pre-existing knowledge, in reading capability, etc.
4) There is much greater ambiguity about age-based reading boundaries, what one might term age-crossover reading. This is a manifestation of a common issue in children's literature, books written for an adult audience which then become associated with children's reading: To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, Lord of the Rings, etc. So, for example, Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki is a book written for an adult audience outlining the experience of testing a theory of ancient migratory patterns in the South Pacific by building and sailing a balsa raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. At the same time it is a gripping adventure story popular in the 15-18 year age range. The great majority of books on my list of literary STEM are actually adult level books that are easily accessible to YA. Examples: Isaac's Storm, Empires of Light, Against the Gods, Fooled by Randomness, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Made In America, The Discoverers, Wonderful Life The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, Noah's Flood,
Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, The Naked Ape, Noah's Flood, Before the Dawn, Krakatoa The Day the World Exploded, and many more.
In thinking about these observations, there seem to be four forces acting on the reading experience of children of older ages interested in STEM topics. These four independent variables acquire greater variance with the age of a child and seem, if not distinct to STEM reading, at least more influential than in other fields of reading.
Reading ability (ex. vocabulary, complexity of sentence structure, etc.)
Reservoir of general knowledge (ex. contextual knowledge and allusions)
Degree of specialization of interest (ex. not just weather but hurricanes)
Degree of reading motivation (ex. Displacing other activities in order to read a desired book)
Imagine this as a Venn diagram with four balloons. Even though there are already distinctly different levels of capability among children on these four variables when they enter the schooling process at age five, the standard deviation of those differences increases with age. At the beginning, you can picture those four Venn sets as closely intersecting with one another so that there is a fairly large common intersection point in the center. The language level of younger children, their interest in particular topics (dinosaurs, animal stories, etc.), the narrowness of their range of knowledge, their willingness to read or be read to, is much tighter, i.e. there is greater commonality among all children.
As they age, the standard deviations become larger on the four variables, essentially drawing the balloons apart so that there is a smaller and smaller intersection point in the center (to the point of non-existence). It is easiest to convert this into a common experience. Imagine if you were to go into a class of twenty first graders and you had to choose a single book you would expect them to be interested in or have been exposed to. You would likely be able to pick a dozen or more books that met those two criteria (interest and exposure). Now imagine trying to do the same thing with literary STEM books for a senior class. Can you think of even a single title of a literary STEM book where you could expect even a plurality to already be aware of, have read, or to share a common interest in?
The implications of the Venn diagram are three-fold. 1) As children age and their standard deviations on each of the four variables increases, it becomes harder and harder (for a librarian, teacher, or parent) to have the range of awareness of books that are likely to meet their interests. 2) From a business perspective, it becomes harder and harder for publishers to anticipate a sizeable market because of the increased variation and smaller intersection point. 3) As children age they become more capable of pursuing multiple choices and activities which compete for reading time (sports, social activities, clubs, etc.). As the habits of reading established from 0-5 or 0-10 come under threat, simultaneously, it becomes more challenging to find teachers/librarians/parents with the breadth of reading to effectively meet the increasingly particular reading needs of young adult STEM readers at the older age range (15-18). These observations match the observed pattern of declining elective reading as children age t hrough the school system and the increased disparity between enthusiastic readers and occasional readers by the time they graduate.
These observations and conclusions suggest that the degree of specialized knowledge and breadth of reading awareness necessary to sustain reading interests and the habit of reading among older readers is much greater than that necessary for engendering an interest in reading at younger ages. That has implications on where and how to direct resources as library budgets become increasingly strained and perhaps the necessity for identifying alternative ways to better feed the specialized interests of YA STEM readers.
Charles
Received on Mon 25 Mar 2013 04:27:15 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:27:15 -0400
As a consequence of this conversation, I started to prepare a list of literary STEM books.
Having completed it, I was struck by the following observations. It may be solely a function of my list, but I suspect that it is probably broadly true of literary STEM.
1) There are a disproportionate number of backlist books; the literary aspect will to a degree dominate the issue of freshness of information.
2) While each book has its keen fans, none of the books (with some exceptions) likely has mass appeal within the general YA age group.
3) There is far greater variability among the books than exists in the books of earlier age groups; variability in subject matter, in presumed pre-existing knowledge, in reading capability, etc.
4) There is much greater ambiguity about age-based reading boundaries, what one might term age-crossover reading. This is a manifestation of a common issue in children's literature, books written for an adult audience which then become associated with children's reading: To Kill a Mockingbird, Little Women, Lord of the Rings, etc. So, for example, Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki is a book written for an adult audience outlining the experience of testing a theory of ancient migratory patterns in the South Pacific by building and sailing a balsa raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. At the same time it is a gripping adventure story popular in the 15-18 year age range. The great majority of books on my list of literary STEM are actually adult level books that are easily accessible to YA. Examples: Isaac's Storm, Empires of Light, Against the Gods, Fooled by Randomness, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Made In America, The Discoverers, Wonderful Life The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, Noah's Flood,
Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid, The Naked Ape, Noah's Flood, Before the Dawn, Krakatoa The Day the World Exploded, and many more.
In thinking about these observations, there seem to be four forces acting on the reading experience of children of older ages interested in STEM topics. These four independent variables acquire greater variance with the age of a child and seem, if not distinct to STEM reading, at least more influential than in other fields of reading.
Reading ability (ex. vocabulary, complexity of sentence structure, etc.)
Reservoir of general knowledge (ex. contextual knowledge and allusions)
Degree of specialization of interest (ex. not just weather but hurricanes)
Degree of reading motivation (ex. Displacing other activities in order to read a desired book)
Imagine this as a Venn diagram with four balloons. Even though there are already distinctly different levels of capability among children on these four variables when they enter the schooling process at age five, the standard deviation of those differences increases with age. At the beginning, you can picture those four Venn sets as closely intersecting with one another so that there is a fairly large common intersection point in the center. The language level of younger children, their interest in particular topics (dinosaurs, animal stories, etc.), the narrowness of their range of knowledge, their willingness to read or be read to, is much tighter, i.e. there is greater commonality among all children.
As they age, the standard deviations become larger on the four variables, essentially drawing the balloons apart so that there is a smaller and smaller intersection point in the center (to the point of non-existence). It is easiest to convert this into a common experience. Imagine if you were to go into a class of twenty first graders and you had to choose a single book you would expect them to be interested in or have been exposed to. You would likely be able to pick a dozen or more books that met those two criteria (interest and exposure). Now imagine trying to do the same thing with literary STEM books for a senior class. Can you think of even a single title of a literary STEM book where you could expect even a plurality to already be aware of, have read, or to share a common interest in?
The implications of the Venn diagram are three-fold. 1) As children age and their standard deviations on each of the four variables increases, it becomes harder and harder (for a librarian, teacher, or parent) to have the range of awareness of books that are likely to meet their interests. 2) From a business perspective, it becomes harder and harder for publishers to anticipate a sizeable market because of the increased variation and smaller intersection point. 3) As children age they become more capable of pursuing multiple choices and activities which compete for reading time (sports, social activities, clubs, etc.). As the habits of reading established from 0-5 or 0-10 come under threat, simultaneously, it becomes more challenging to find teachers/librarians/parents with the breadth of reading to effectively meet the increasingly particular reading needs of young adult STEM readers at the older age range (15-18). These observations match the observed pattern of declining elective reading as children age t hrough the school system and the increased disparity between enthusiastic readers and occasional readers by the time they graduate.
These observations and conclusions suggest that the degree of specialized knowledge and breadth of reading awareness necessary to sustain reading interests and the habit of reading among older readers is much greater than that necessary for engendering an interest in reading at younger ages. That has implications on where and how to direct resources as library budgets become increasingly strained and perhaps the necessity for identifying alternative ways to better feed the specialized interests of YA STEM readers.
Charles
Received on Mon 25 Mar 2013 04:27:15 PM CDT
