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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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As for counting pages, perhaps it would be more appropriate and less of a chore for teachers and/or librarians to assess a large body of reading material for children and assign titles to lists that are appropriate for certain age/grades. Thus the student reporting to her teacher that she read Number the Stars need not be concerned with the number of pages in the book. This way, even if educators feel that the crucial thing is the number of words read, rather than a more sophisticated grasp of the art of literature, students will not be penalized for variances between editions. There is probably some benefit to "enforced reading" even if the details of the accounting are irksome to already-literary families. I read voraciously in elementary school, but was rarely enthusiastic about the required reading in high school English class; I was much more enthusiastic about Tom Clancy, Arthur Conan Doyle or Frederick Forsyth than I was about Austen, Melville, Hawthorne or Steinbeck. (I remember being frequently amazed at the depth of thought that some students -- usually girls -- in my high school English classes displayed in discussions about reading assignments.) Had I never acquired a love for reading for pleasure, though, I would never have had the chance to develop an appreciation for more literary works later in life. On the subject of reading matieral, by the way, has anyone else read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon? I read this on vacation last week and loved it.
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Joined: Jun 2002
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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you know, I don't think they whip the child for reading shorter books. Quote:
tracking the number of pages is stupid.
no, it's not.
they want to encourage reading longer, more in-depth books, and one way to do that is to track the number of pages.
why don't some of you that are so down on teachers doing what they can in the classroom volunteer some time at your local elementary school.
formerly known as etaoin...
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veteran
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veteran
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I have required reading for my kids over the summer. Even at 13 and 16, they are still allowed to read "The Cat in the Hat" and have it. It just doesn't count for much. I help direct them and I try to ensure that they are reading slightly more complicated things. They don't have much time for pleasure reading during the school year it seems, so I'm encouraging them to read things that are fun and that stretch them a little. Sometimes I force them to read a particular item - Animal Farm, Siddhartha, the Euthyphro, but that's a very small part of it. Most of the material is stuff they pick for themselves, comes out to maybe 1 - 1.5 hours per day during the summer. (I also have them do some math problems in the summer - just so they don't come back to school having forgotten everything the teacher was hoping they had learnt in the previous years.)
I strongly favor standardized testing. The tests are trivial for students who are getting the stuff and the hullabaloo about teachers having to teach to the test is gross exaggeration in most cases. If they're teaching what they're supposed to be teaching, then the students will pass the tests. I do not approve of every test and I do not approve of all the types of questions - but in general, it has my strong support. I also wish there were federal instead of state standards of learning.
OTOH, I also think there needs to be some differentiation. These tests tend to be trivial and I think that's right. The tests should be easy - did you get anything at all out of your schooling? But there should be higher level testing as well, for some students - and it could be that the various AP tests could fill part of this function. I don't see this happening any time in the near future, as there's this mythology that has come up about the "bad old days of tracking." Practices and Standards for some teachers reads like a socio-political manifesto. As every individual is held to be an interchangeable cog, then every student needs to learn the same things and be held to the same standard. We want to get the slower students up to speed and we want to hold the quicker students back.
In our school district, they're trying to flood the AP classes. In my kids' particular school the goal is that every single student take at least one AP class, because "everyone's good at something" - a questionable "fact," but more importantly it is both more expansive and more restrictive than the more probable case, "Nearly anyone can do nearly anything (at the hs level) if he applies himself."
As to page numbers, I don't know that they're necessary, but I'd be open to teachers using this as a primitive metric (it seems most are). Quantity is important early on, as well as quality. Students should get a broad swatch of things to read throughout K-12. The quality of the books should be high throughout, but the demand for quality of the reading done on those books should increase as the student progress through the grades.
There is hardly a day goes by that I don't disagree with the teachers about something. I generally don't get involved unless there's something egregious. Nor do I feel compelled to express my dissent to them. If a teacher is knowledgeable of the subject, is able to communicate it, and willing to do so, then I will make sure my kid does her part - and I will do whatever I can to help. I will do this even though I have extremely visceral opinions about some of the stuff. example: I've signed up to be a science fair judge even though I consider their implementation of it to be stupid and counterproductive - the ideal experience to destroy any nascent interest a student might have in the subject.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I don't disagree with any of that. well said.
formerly known as etaoin...
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addict
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>>has anyone else read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon? I read this on vacation last week and loved it.
<<
I have Alex. It was one of the better choices of an informal book club organized by some friends. Raised some very interesting questions about autism, and about Christopher's relationship with his father. I'd join you in recommending it.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Quote:
On the subject of reading matieral, by the way, has anyone else read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon? I read this on vacation last week and loved it.
Indeed, I have. We tried to get my autistic son interested in reading it, but so far, he is singularly uninterested in exploring the lives of others -- fictional or not -- like him. Right now, he is on a Raold Dahl kick.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Man--aren't we grateful for the authors who engage our children (and us, for that matter)??
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Posts: 1,819
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Quote:
Right now, he is on a Raold Dahl kick.
Oh I love Dahl. I just read Boy: Tales of Childhood not too long ago. I think my favorite short story of his has to be the one about the hitch-hiker who is a "fingersmith."
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
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Chapter 65 of Daniel Boorstin's "The Discoverers" is titled "Transforming the book."
p. 524
'Our "volume" (from Latin volvere, to roll) was first a name for manuscripts in rolls. In early Egypt sheets to write on wre made from the papyrus reed that grew in the Nile Delta. The reed was called byblos, from the port of Byblos, where it was first found, and whence comes our "Bible" for The Book.'
Summarizing a part of p. 525
Parchment comes from Pergamum, a kingdom in which tradition says it was developed. Vellum comes from the old french 'veel', for the skin of a calf.
next paragraph on p 525
'Parchment made possible the next and greatest advance in the technology of the book before printing ... The pages ... were bound together into a "codex." The name, from Latin codesx, or caudex, for tree-trunk board, or writing tablet ...'
The whole chapter is only 9 pages long, but very much worth the read. Speaking as a fellow who always despised the study of history and never had much use for the subject or its books, this entire book is worth reading. My entire outlook on the subject of history has changed from reading this (and 1 or 2 other books). Anyways, those 9 pages are worth the attention of those who find this thread interesting.
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Posts: 43
newbie
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newbie
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Well, I remember in high school not being able to read 148-page books that I was really interested in (literally), because my anal teacher upheld the 150-page minimum.
As a consequence, I would create my own books to fill up the reading log with fodder, or I would extend a 30-page gas-station book to 153 pages and read random passages and put comments for that reading day about how "interesting" this and that was. At least they were easy A's.
Different people are at different levels, and these kinds of standardizations marginalize some people. I grew up in the ADD-generation of TV and Internet. Just reading a book that doesn't have any pictures and is over 50 pages is a milestone for me.
The concept of reading an entire book that is 200 pages is beyond my comprehension (especially when you have hundreds of other things to do). Although, when I finish with this semester I'm going to force myself to read the books I have lying around.
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