A New Year’s Challenge
Well, it’s hard to believe that 2007 is almost over! I for one will not mourn its loss, but wait with somewhat guarded anticipation for 2008. I am busy writing my list of what I refer to as my New Year’s Challenges. Of course the fact that it is the time of year I can mention the
transition from one year to another says that it must be vacation time. A bit more than a week ago my students were all talking about what they would be doing during their upcoming vacation: skiing, traveling to Hawaii, taking a cruise, visiting Europe, trekking to Machu Picchu. You name it and my 140 11 and 12 year olds are doing it. The one thing though that I didn’t hear was, “I’m going spend some time reading!”
Okay, I’m a basically sane individual, and no, I really didn’t expect to hear that, but it would have been nice and truly refreshing. Imagine a child of this day and age relishing participating in an activity that is low or no cost, requires no electricity or costly gear, and is an activity that has linked generations for over a thousand years. Wow! Talk about longevity. When you compare the staying power of reading to that to of some of the electronic fun we have had, such as 8 track tapes, Pac Man, and Betamax, reading really becomes impressive. Reading it seems, is like cockroaches, here for eternity, but in my mind much less likely to make me run from a room. While I’ve had bad reading experiences, I have always been able to counteract them with good experiences. I can’t say the same for cockroaches.
Now, I know in reality, many of my students are reading during the vacation. However, I’m afraid that most of that reading is done because parents have said it will be done, or it is being done because the end of the quarter is right around the corner. Yes, some students are doing it for pleasure, but not enough. As a reformed non-reader, it is very important to me, and has become a standard on my New Year’s Challenge list, to help my compatriots who do not read for pleasure come to understand how incredibly wonderful a book can be. Let me explain what I mean by being a reformed non-reader. As a 6th grader, I refused to read; flat out, heels dug into the sand, screaming and breaking into hives at the sight of a book, refused to read. Talk about a quick way to put a crimp in parent-child relations. No president has ever had to de-escalate tensions between more hostile nations. At some point in my life, about the time my last sibling left home for college and quit bossing me around, I started to see reading as something different. Left to discover my own identity as a reader, rather than being formed into the likeness of others, I found a niche with reading. It was small at first, but soon it grew to encompass many things, including the ability to read required texts that I wouldn’t have chosen to read; and still wouldn’t.
As fate would have it, in what some would consider being a sick or cruel twist of fate, I am now a 6th grade teacher whose job it is to help kids read. I myself, find it a delightful, albeit sometimes frustrating, adventure. I try not to envision my parents with smug smiles discussing how I got what I deserved. Instead, I like to settle in with a good young adult book, novel or non-fiction, to find out what makes my students tick. The time of tweens (not grade-schoolers, but not teenagers) is one of incredible confusion. This is the time when kids are trying to develop independence while maintaining dependence, trying to be and stay cool when the definition of cool is changing daily, and are searching for answers for age old questions (by the way, don’t tell them that the questions are not new ) such as “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?” , “What will I do when I grow up, and how will I know I’m grown up?” , “What is the key to life?” No wonder middle schools were created; give this floundering, unpredictable creature its own space. Anyway, back to my point. Young adult literature today is an incredible wealth of information for kids when it comes to figuring out the world. What they can discover is that they are not alone. Others have suffered in the same way. The best part is that while no absolute answers can be found, kids can learn how to cope with some of their issues by learning from the characters in the books. They can start to make sense of things. This holds true for non-fiction through fantasy books. There is something for everyone in a book.
Why am I sharing this? Well, besides being a reformed sinner, and wrapping my career around reading, I want to continue my effort to make reading (at least some aspect of it) more enjoyable for more kids. In that vein I would like to offer up a New Year’s challenge to parents. Read a book your child is reading or has read if you aren’t already doing so, with the plan to come together to discuss it. You may be amazed by what you learn about your child’s world. There are only a couple of rules for doing this. 1. Let your child pick the book (as long as it fits your family’s sense of values), and 2. Let your child lead the conversation (trust me this is easier said than done), and listen to what they say. Who knows, this could be the start of lots of young adult book clubs springing up like sports teams. I can already envision an extreme reading team. Okay, okay, a person can dream can’t they? As a way of helping to get this started I’m going to list some of the favorites of my students as well as some of mine that we have read during the first semester of school. Have fun, and remember that there is nothing we do in life that doesn’t involve some amount of reading.
Paul Fleischman: Seedfolk, Seek, Whirligig, Mind’s Eye and others
Cornelia Funke: Thief Lord, Dragon Rider, Inkheart and Inkspell
Neil Shusterman: The Schwa was Here
E.L. Konigsburg: View from Saturday, 19 Schuyler Place, Mixed-up Files of Basil E. Frankweiler and many others
Richard Peck: A Long Way From Chicago and others
Richard Lewis: The Killing Sea: a novel about the tsunami that stunned the world
Patrick Carman: Land of Elyon series
Michael Buckley: Sisters Grimm series
Marcus Zusak: The Book Thief
Lemony Snickett: Series of Unfortunate Events – Make your kids look up all the names of the people and places; it will add a whole new dimension to what may on the surface look like simple, formulaic books
Louis Sachar: Holes and Small Steps
Wendy Mass: Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life – I’ve just completed this and found it incredibly thought provoking while being a fun read.
Well, before I get going so strongly I can’t stop, I’ll stop. Please let me know about your experiences with your child or children as you both share life’s journey through reading. Even if you don’t have kids I suggest trying some young adult literature; it will definitely open up your eyes and extend your thinking.
