Why is Collaboration Almost Non-Existent?

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Monday I had another wonderful opportunity to conduct professional development at Central Michigan University on Informative writing as suggested by the Common Core Curriculum. I was very impressed how the conference was set-up and the number of people from all over the state of Michigan that attended. There were even administrators present.

As my writing project partner and I were giving our presentation we had several questions surrounding informative writing and the Common Core. We discussed with our audience about the unique opportunity we have as educators when it comes to the Common Core. What we were echoing from our director Troy Hicks is how we, as teachers and school districts, can decide how to assess students based on the Common Core. If teachers don’t look closely at the Common Core and make these type of decisions, they could be made for us from the powers up on high. The biggest idea we preached was collaboration with colleagues about creating units and assessments and implementing 21st century tools such as Google docs, cell phones, Glogster, etc. and making sure those assessments and tools that teachers choose to use tie back into the standards.

One question we had was from a teacher who virtually was on an island by herself in high school. She taught language arts for grades 9-12. She wanted to know how she was going to be able to collaborate with other colleagues when she was the the only high school L.A. teacher. Other teachers talked about how they didn’t gave any collaboration time at her school and she wanted to know how to get that time. We even had a principal say he was going to go back to his school and figure out how to develop time for his teachers to collaborate on the Common Core.

To answer the 9-12 teacher’s question along with the other teachers, we simply encouraged her to collaborate with the middle school staff and the elementary staff within her district. We even told her to email or call other teachers in surrounding districts.

What I have been absolutely amazed by all week is how many districts were not collaborating. And not just on the Common Core either, in general it was appearing teachers weren’t collaborating on much at all? Why is this? After talking with teachers this past Monday, I feel spoiled about how much time is available to me and my staff to meet. Not only do we have common planning time in my middle school, but we also have something called “early release” district wide. This is where once a month we meet as departments and discuss what is going on in our classrooms, textbook selection, teaching strategies, etc. Most of the time it is just building wide, but on occasion we meet district wide K-12. Recently our principal implemented meeting times in different areas such as literacy and transition. These meetings are also conducted once a month. Again, I feel more fortunate then most districts because it appears they aren’t getting the same opportunities.

Even if you aren’t in a district where you should be collaborating, the bottom line is you need to be, especially when it comes to the Common Core. Schools will be required to start assessing students in 2014 and if these conversations are not taking place, it is going to be more difficult to implement the Common Core Standards.

What can you do? If you are a teacher, start by talking to your administrator and your colleagues. Discuss a time you can all discuss the CC. Yes, this may mean you have to sacrifice time after school, particularly if you don’t have a common planning time. Second, attend professional development on the national standards. Educate yourself and become the “expert” your school district may need. Finally, email, call, or Skype with teachers and professionals in other districts to help you get off on the right foot. After all, teachers teaching teachers is powerful and everyone involved can benefit. For the most part, we are all in this together and we need to be willing to work together. It is exciting to think of all of the creative and amazing assessments that can come out of the the new standards laid before us!

Cheers!

Middle of the Road and Self Reflection

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With the weather outside finally looking frightful, I figured I could do more good writing my blog than spending time outside like I have the last couple of days.

Today was very interesting in a number of different ways. I can’t tell you how much I have been really enjoying our staff meetings this year that are led by our principal. He truly is trying to think outside of the box and make changes in a positive direction. His leadership is excellent and I always feel really good when I leave our meetings.

Today, we first discussed the idea of “tracking” students. What this would mean for our school district is students would be put into classes based on abilities. For instance, higher achieving students would be placed in one class and the lower achieving students would be placed in another class. Though we didn’t place a concrete definition of “low achieving”, the conversation revolved around students who were C, D, and F students. Furthermore, the low achieving students tend to be more chatty, and have difficulty turning in their homework. During the conversation, the term “middle of the road” students reoccured. With the idea of tracking being discussed, curriculum itself would stay the same. However, the higher achieving students would be able to move at a faster pace and essentially do extra “work”. Now, if you think about the lower achieving students, they still need to meet the same standards set by the curriculum. If these lower achieving students are supposed to meet the same standards how are they going to achieve this feat if they are not moving fast and we are tracking them in a lower level class. My counselor put it best when she said we pay so much attention to the lower achieving students and and on occasion we will help higher achieving students reach new heights, but what about the students who are in the “middle of the road” who are not doing well with the curriculum or meeting our expectations? Too me, this is a great question. In reality we need to think about how we approach these two group of students. As my brain was soaking all of this in, I wanted to say we need to stop being selfish and realize we all need to make changes with the way we teach and approach the students. If we open our minds to new ideas, we may have an impact on more of the student population.

The second part of our meeting was about teacher evaluations. The state of Michigan is supposed to have an evaluation piece in place in April. This evaluation piece will let school districts know how teachers are supposed to be evaluated by an administrator. Our principal today shared how he will do non-formal evaluations and it was very intriguing. He found an application for his Ipad and it looks like a very informative assessment tool. I really like what my principal said about having evaluations done. He told us that evaluations are tools for us to help us be better teachers. They are not tools in which to ridicule our teaching style. We need to be able to handle constructive criticism and be able to change things about our teaching to help the students. These past few weeks I have been considering ways I can improve my own teaching. I know I am not reaching every student and I know I need to work on being better organized in certain areas. Furthermore, I need to look at different ways to assess certain standards in the curriculum. I think we need to self evaluate ourselves to be successful in addition to our more formal evaluations. We need to be willing to change what doesn’t work in our classroom. I sense big changes coming for me second semester as I evaluate myself and I sense some heated discussions that will lead to making more of our students reach success.

Cheers!

What About the Bored Students?

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Happy Tuesday everyone!  I hope everyone’s week is off to a killer start. I taught a lesson today with adjective clauses with my 7th graders today and it went well.  I hope their homework reflects how well they did on their classwork.

Besides teaching my students to be sentence gurus, I have been struggling with the idea of reaching the students who are essentially “bored” in my classroom.  It’s the students that need to be challenged more, but you just can’t seem to find time to reach them because you are too busy trying to help the students who are barely treading water in your classes.  Recently I met with a student who truly feels they aren’t being challenged enough in my class.  I am not one to get defensive, nor should any other teacher.  In my eleven years of teaching, I have learned a little something about the profession and myself as an educator.  Regardless, I proceeded to sit down and discuss with the student what they could do to make themselves better.  First, we looked at doing an independent study of sorts where the student could look at the Common Core Standards and we could decide together what would be a challenging way for them to meet the criteria in the standard that we discussed.  Next, we looked at doing additional problems when it came to completing an assignment.  For example, if an assignment is about identifying adjective clauses, the student could do an enrichment worksheet instead of a normal practice worksheet.  Furthermore, I discussed with the student doing  projects that involved using technology like creating a digital story about a book they read or creating another glog, or perhaps using a website such as scoopit.com.

Now, as a staff we have discussed a few different strategies to address the other students who are not being challenged.  We discussed an inquiry based research project where they could choose any topic in their advisory class in the morning and conduct research and then report back the findings by producing a poster, paper, or some other piece.  The piece could even be technology based.  In addition, the inquiry based project, we were looking at doing a Science Olympiad type approach where we give the students topics and they can choose to construct or express themselves in a way that reflected the topic.  The students could even do it in small group settings.  So, as we have tossed around these ideas, we are quickly approaching the end of our second marking period and the only extension we have offered is to the one student.  I give credit to this middle schooler for stepping up to the plate and asking to be challenged.  However, there are more students out there who are just afraid to ask.

I am going to take the bull by the horns and I am going to not only provide my middle school boy’s a writing club, but I am going to set aside another day to do it for the young ladies too.  I am also going to take a student survey and find out what the students want to help guide me in a direction on where to go. 

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking my colleagues, because they are great, but I think we spend way to much time thinking about how we can help the students who are failing, then the students who need to excel. Just look at some or legislation that has been passed.  Does “No Child Left Behind” sound familiar?  How about “Higher Achievement for all Children”? This doesn’t mean every child will go to College.  Higher achievement is going to be different for every child. Just some things for my readers and anyone else to chew one.

Cheers!

Motivation: For Teachers

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The last few days of break have been very cumbersome for me. I have felt weighted down, not very energetic, and somewhat irritable.  Nevertheless, I knew the alarm would go off at 5:50a.m. this morning and I would have to be ready for my students. A very perplexing issue that has risen to the top of my thoughts over the past few days is the term motivation.  Yes, I truly believe as educators, we come back from Christmas break re-energized and ready to teach our students to the best of our abilities. 

 On the other hand, I know as a teacher in the great state of Michigan, we pray for snow days too.  Or at least I know I will be wanting a snow day. Why?  In my school district we don’t have another break until the start of our Spring break which is April 2.  Now, I know some school districts have a mid-winter break in February to try to break things up, but I do not.  So, I had to ask myself the last few days, what is going to keep me motivated to get me through this long stretch.  Because to be honest, mother nature doesn’t look to be on my side.

The first idea that came to mind was professional development.  This is a great time of year to be a part of some sort of professional development that your district or local university may be hosting.  I might suggest finding some professional development on the Common Core Standards.  I recently enrolled into a professional development book club about the Common Core and Project Based Learning.  I am looking forward to attending.  In addition, I am helping our Writing Project Sit with professional development about informational writing and the Common Core.  Needless to say, there should be plenty of opportunities for any educator out there to imerse themselves in PD.  I find PD does two things for me.  First, it obviously gives you a break from your students and your classroom where the stress can mount quickly.  We all need adult interaction once in a while.  Second, I always get that refreshing feeling that we all need. I become armed with strategies to use in my classroom and it almost feels like a coach has given me a pep talk.  Once again, I am ready to go!

Besides professional development, I encourage anyone to write.  Writing has helped me so much since being part of the National Writing Project. Troy Hicks, our site director, was intense and challenged us all.  I am the writer today and the teacher I am today because of him and the National Writing Project.  Writing is a great outlet to express your feeling and your ideas.  In addition, it makes you feel better when you are done getting your thoughts down on paper.  Writing can take the form of a poem, journal, song, etc.  I even encourage you to enter a writing contest.  There are plenty of them out there.  Figment.com is a great website that hosts plenty of writing contests. 

If professional development and writing don’t sound the most appealing, I encourage you to start a book club with friends or colleagues with a New York Time’s bestseller, or any other book that may be of interest.  If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea or might be too time consuming.  Befriend a colleague and go out for a nice dinner and perhaps vent to each other about the challenges you face in your classroom. 

Whatever avenue you choose to take to keep yourself motivated and doing your best as a teacher in your classroom, I know this time of year can be challenging.  Lean on each other professionally to help!

Cheers!

Public Education Versus Parochial Education

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I hope all went well with everyone during Christmas. I know it was an incredible year for my family and myself. As with any family functions, there are always lots of topics being discussed around the plethora of food and drink that engulfs our homes.

A topic that arose from my family this past Christmas was parochial education. I have two nieces that attend catholic school, my wife still has a niece in catholic school, my mother-in-law was a principal at a parochial school for numerous years until her retirement, my sister-in-law teaches at a parochial school now, and to be very honest my wife and I are still discussing whether to have our children attend catholic school. Now, I am a teacher at a public school and am an advocate for public schools. Throughout the discussion, there were some very valid points brought up. My sister and brother-in-law don’t regret sending my nieces to parochial school. Standardized test scores are well above the public schools where my nieces live. Technology is used, though they only have computers once a week, which still proves to me the teacher is still the most important tool in the classroom. Where my sister-in-law teaches they have smart boards and a Mac lab for students.

Going back to the standardized test scores mentioned earlier, the teachers must be doing something right. In parochial schools religion is taught along side the normal state mandated curriculum. So, to me it seems the teachers do have a bit more on their plate curriculum wise compared to public school teachers. Okay, I can hear the grumbles now from public school teachers. I understand we have a lot to do too. I am not saying the teachers at parochial schools are better. I strongly believe there are exceptional teachers in schools everywhere. I think a big factor is the class size a parochial school teacher has compared to a regular public school. When you are working with 10-15 students compared to 20-30, that has a huge impact on more one on one time available for each student.

Besides curriculum, other issues were discussed. For example, the cost of attending parochial school and the hours a parent is asked to volunteer. To me, I feel parents are asked to volunteer no matter what school your child attends. In addition to cost, where is my child going to be safer? Are children bullied less at a parochial school? Do I need to worry about the problems the catholic church has had in the past with children? Some would say I am comparing apples to apples. I will leave that up for my readers to decide.

Realistically, in the few catholic schools I am comparing to public school, I am not sure what is better. I feel I am in a unique situation because I am not only a parent, but a public school teacher who needs to make a decision on where to send my child. At this point, I just want my children to have the best education possible. Next fall, my child is scheduled to attend a school where the teacher to student ratio is higher that 1:25. I am not sure that is the best place for my child.

These are just a few things to ponder, not a blog post to cause an uproar. Making the choice on where to send your child for a great education can be difficult and should never be decided quickly. The choice shouldn’t be made based on wanting your child to be a status symbol. An individual is not “better” than his classmate because he attended a parochial school. I know I will continue to research the topic and see what is best for my children.

Cheers!

Reading and the Common Core

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For the past two weeks I have been really diving into the Common Core Standards.  As I have mentioned before my school adopted the Common Core starting this year.  I have to say I am greatful for this because it really gives my colleagues and I a chance to really get organized and put them into place for the future.  Those of you that are teaching the Common Core know that they are challenging.  I don’t know about you, but I love a challenge.

I have really been focused lately on the reading standards.  More specifically the texts suggested that “illustrate the complexity, quality, and Range of Student Reading” for grades 6-8.  Below are just a few examples of suggested literature (stories, dramas, poetry) reading the Common Core gives in case you haven’t seen them.

  • Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
  • The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper
  • Dragonwings by Laurence Yep
  • Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor

Now, all of these deserve some recoginition, but I have some general concerns and questions about the suggested literature list posted by the Common Core. Even though there seems to be a focus on classics here and the the suggested literature for high school, my biggest concern is that not of these texts reflect any work done by current or more recent authors.  The most recent work was done by Mildred Taylor and that was published in 1976.  Currently my 7th graders are reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and I am getting positive feedback from them for the most part.  The othe titles on here I feel are not that attractive to middle level readers.  As most poeple know, I am a huge advocate for boy’s literacy and I assure you Little Women will not go over to well with middle school boys.  I remember grabbing this book off the shelf in my middle school library as a 7th grader.  I read the first 60 pages and took it back.  It was not for me.  Now, I know as teachers we are NOT required to teach these literature pieces, but I feel like I am put into a tough spot as a teacher not to choose them.  Being part of a small district, I know it will be tough as a language arts committee to approach our district improvement team and ask for sets of these novels.  That is an expendature that is not on the docket yet.  So I have 4 questions:

  1.  What literature can I choose if these titles that are suggested are unattractive? 
  2.  How do I look at what literature I am teaching now in class and decide is it perplexing and challenging enough to meet the standards?
  3. Do I have to completely redo my curriculum and units I am doing in class now to implement those types of texts that are more challenging?
  4. How does a district divide up the literature and suggested informational texts between grades 6-8?

I am not saying these are difficult questions to answer, but what I am saying is perhaps there could have been a list of books that could more closely connect with students today. Less classics, more modern selections.  Who picked these suggested texts anyway? I know there has to be complex, modern texts available that can do the same things that the suggested texts can do.  On another note, I feel as if we are on a spinning wheel of curriculum where we have to implement, yet again, a new curriculum and try to figure out how it fits into our classrooms.

I will continue to do research and figure out what are some options that are available and I am ready for any feedback anybody hasn for me and others.

Cheers!

Book Project for Christmas Break

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Friday was the kick off for my students to begin their Christmas vacation book project. This is the first year I have had any of my students do the project while on a break. To begin, my students have to choose a book that is at least 100 pages long and the book can not be related to a movie in anyway. In addition, I ask the students to not read something they have not already read. At the conclusion of their reading they must choose to do 1 of 2 projects. They need to either make a 6 sided three-demential cube or create a glog on glogster.com. The three-demential cube is related to a math unit they covered in their math class dealing with surface area and three-demential shapes. The choice of the glog comes from the technology standard that comes out of the CCSS. Overall, my main goal of the project is for my students to be engaged with reading on their own and for them to explore some new genres. Furthermore, my requirements the students are meeting for the project are covering some of the reading standards for the Common Core. For example, tying theme or the central idea to the characters, setting and plot. Also, I don’t want my students being bored with a traditional book report. If you are attending the Michigan Reading Association(MRA) conference in March, I will presenting some student examples in my session.

So, to get them ready for this project, I have taken the 7th and 8th graders down to the library and the book fair for the past two weeks and I have had some interesting conversations with my students and I have witnessed some miraculous transformation with my students. As always I received a few grumbles and groans about the project. Little did my students know, most of them would be engaged in a book outside of class. I am orally reading The Hunger Games by Susanne Collins with my students and we are just about finished. My students are begging me more and more each day to keep reading. With the book project, I have several students reading the second book in the series and I am seeing students read in the hallway. These are 7th and 8th graders I am talking about. It has been amazing. The math teacher approached me last week and said she was having great conversations with students about books and what they are reading. She has enjoyed it. I think she has even had to get after kids for reading in her class.

Just the other day I had several boys ask me if they could read Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. I said sure why not. I am in full support of graphic novels. Nevertheless, they were really surprised by my response to their answer. I clarified to them I am pleased they are taking an interest in reading something. Hell, I remember growing up spending hours in my local library reading Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side.

After the boys and I talked, I approached a young man who was struggling with finding a book. I asked him his interests and after discovering he liked the outdoors and hunting, I pointed him to the author Gary Paulson and a book by a different author called Touching Spirit Bear. Great author and great book. After he made his decision, he was asking me about what the big deal was about reading. He was struggling with why people talk about books and form book clubs. I asked him if he felt left out. He responded by saying he could never understand what they were talking about. I worked this conversation to the fullest and told him it isn’t so much fun feeling like you don’t belong or know what people are talking about. He is definitely one of the popular kids and he never did respond, but I think he got the point of what I was saying.

The final thing I noticed was how much my students opened up and responded to me when I actually did take a vested interest in them and asked them about books they have read and what they they like to read. I have been forming more solid relationships with my students all because of reading. Who says reading isn’t powerful? I beg to differ and I can’t wait to see what kind of work my students produce over Christmas break.

Cheers!

Trying to Make Sense of the Common Core

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Before I begin today’s blog, I just wanted to say thank you to my followers and all of those who have voted for me. I don’t anticipate on winning, but it is nice to know people are finding value in what I write.

I am not afraid to say that I am struggling somewhat with the Common Core Standards, especially when it comes to the argumentative writing. I am getting help and improving. My school adopted the language arts and mathematics standards starting this school year. Recently I enrolled into some professional development about project based learning and how to integrate it with Common Core. I have heard many professionals comment on the positives of project based learning and I am excited to start the PD after Christmas break. So, for this professional development I need to read a book titled Understanding the Common Core by John Kendall. I started to read the book last night and I can at least say I am starting to get a small clue where this came from, which helps. I wanted to write about some of my thoughts. First, the book I am reading has a small paragraph at the beginning discussing how textbooks used to be the “The Curriculum”. I know this is not the case today, but what is really disturbing is I have witnessed teachers doing this in the past. It hasn’t been teachers I have directly worked with, but I have seen it done. Textbooks are supposed to be an extension of the curriculum and teachers aren’t supposed to go from cover to cover and assume they have done their job with curriculum.

A little further in the book, the author discusses key aspects of the language and literacy standards. When he talks about reading he describes a three part model used to evaluate a text’s level of complexity. Two of these parts are quantitative tools and qualitative criteria. The third is the relationship among the reader, the task and the text. I have always shuttered whenever I have heard the term quantitative when it comes to language arts. Just last year I got into a heated debate with another teacher about how I think quantitative data doesn’t apply to language arts, especially when it came to writing. Now, I know that writing doesn’t apply to what the author was saying, but like I said, I don’t like quantitative associated with language arts period. How can one properly put a number on a student’s piece of writing. I can’t measure a student’s growth as a writer by putting a number on it. I see growth in my students in a way that isn’t measurable by numbers. As a teacher of writing, I am looking more for qualitative measurements. I am sure my fellow language arts teachers know what I am talking about, or at least I hope they do. Even when it comes to reading, I could probably argue against quantitative tools or methods.

If anything, I can say the Common Core and the book I am reading has me thinking every day and I am on my toes. What I plan on doing over Christmas break is to take the Standards and break them down and make charts that show the standard and what I do for each of them in my classroom. It is a huge undertaking, but I feel it is going to be worth it. I am always looking for literature on implementing the Common Core. It could even benefit me as a presenter too.

Cheers!

Tech or No Tech

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Yesterday we had a staff meeting and to be very honest, I felt it was our most productive staff meeting we have had thus far. I am blessed with some pretty remarkable colleagues. For the past two months there has been some major issues with the technology in our building. A majority of the complaining was justified, especially when teachers couldn’t access their grade books to input grades or show students reports. My principal, who is an amazing administrator, advocates repeatedly for us, and has our backs. Today our school counselor sat us down and discussed with us how we need to stop being so dependent upon technology. She referred to a bit that was on Nightly News with Brian Williams broadcasted Wednesday, November 30th. It discussed a school that thrives on Not using technology in the classroom and throughout the whole school. Now, this was a hard pill for me to swallow because I love using technology. Another colleague and myself were just given the green light to look at smart boards and I am excited. On the other hand, as I watched this video clip and listened to what my counselor had to say, I decided I needed to make some immediate changes in my classroom and how I was instructing my students and what I was truly using technology for in my classroom. Our counselor gave us a message, and that was to remember we are the experts in our classroom, not the computers we are so desperately wanting to work. She talked about how technology should be an extension of our teaching, not let the technology do our job. Yes, this makes sense to me, I am not going to argue the point she is trying to make. I am guilty of whining and trying to spend 20 minutes getting my computer to work (now I have one that is pretty close to brand new). In addition to her discussing how technology needs to be extension of our learning, she also talked about how if we focus too much on trying to rely on technology, we lose touch with our students and the valuable relationships that need to be built with our students. Again, it makes sense, I hear the message loud and clear.

Now, the message may be loud and clear, but I love using the online tools that are available and I am not an educator that “relies” on technology to make my lesson plans, but I want my students to get with the 21st century. It is hard to believe, but I do have students who don’t have a computer or the internet at home. Is it not going to be essential for my students to be able to work with computers? Ummm, of course it is, a lot of jobs are revolving more and more around computers. I also know my students have a great deal of difficulty with problem solving skills. Could their lack of problem solving skills be due to the fact they have a lot of information right at their fingertips? Nevertheless, I won’t completely change my philosophy on using technology in the classroom, but I know I want to do a better job of reaching out to students who are hungry for an adult to have a relationship. I need to spend more time having in depth conversations and giving my students the necessary skills they need that a computer or any other piece of technology can’t give them. So, I encourage all of my fellow teacher friends to use technology to enhance your learning and not replace it. Furthermore, try and reach out to your students and build a valuable relationship with them and let them know they have someone they can trust.

Cheers!

Being a Role Model for Readers

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When I was growing up and living at home, there wasn’t a day that went by when I didn’t see at least one of my parents reading a book, magazine, or newspaper.  Even my grandparents were big readers.  I do the same for my own kids by reading to them and I read around them.  I love watching my 2 and 4 year old trying to replicate how I read.  They turn the pages, try to read the words, and read with tone in their voice.  Don’t tell me my children won’t have a passion for reading.  There is something to be said about being  a role model for students when it comes to reading.  I know I have mentioned this before, but when we do SSR in my advisory class on Monday, I am reading right next to my students.  I am even trying to make the push for Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R.) in our middle school, like what they did at my wife’s old school.  Every Wednesday, the students have to read for the first 15-20 minutes of every class.  After a year, they saw some significant changes in their reading scores on our states mandated testing.  To me, it is no brainer, but there will be a few that will argue for more instructional time in the classroom and how it will eat into it.  Below is a post from Kevin Hodgson, a fellow NWP teacher consultant, and author at his blog http://dogtrax.edublogs.org/ .  I strongly encourage to check out his blog after you read what he had to say about boys and role models.

Cheers!

Reading Matters: Boys and Role Models and More

Check out this quote from David Remnick (editor of The New Yorker):

… the only way to get anywhere as a writer is to have read ceaselessly and then read some more. Pound (that rat) says somewhere that it is incredible to him that so many “poets” simply pick up a pen and start writing verse and call it poetry, while a would-be pianist knows full well how necessary it is to master scales and thousands of exercises before making music worthy of the name. Playing scales, for a writer, means reading. Is there any real writing that has no reading behind it? I don’t think so. — David Remnick (as quoted at Advice to Writers this morning)

I call your attention to that piece of advice because I opened up my New Yorker magazine yesterday and found myself staring at an advertisement from Little, Brown and Company, except it wasn’t an advertisement. It was a wonderful two-page spread of writing by author James Patterson, extolling the virtues of reading and encouraging parents in no uncertain terms to become role models of readers for their own kids. (I guess he targeted a few places – here is a version on the CNN website.)

“Let’s face it: most of us don’t realize it but we are failing our kids as reading role models. The best role models are in the home: brothers, fathers, grandfathers; mothers, sisters, grandmothers. Moms and dads, it’s important that your kids see you reading.”  — James Patterson, in New Yorker

While I am not really all that big a fan of Patterson as a writer — although I know plenty of adults and children who are fans of his books — the fact that he composed and published such a powerful call to action for adults is admirable. He also narrows his point to boy readers in particular, noting that “boys can be a little squirrelly when it comes to reading, and what’s squirrelly about them needs to be praised and encouraged.” He suggests putting all sorts of texts into boys’ hands — magazines, comics, novels, joke books, informational books, and more. Patterson notes that there is a tendency not to value works like the Guinness Book of World Records, or Sports Almanacs. “Too often, boy-appealing books are disproportionately overlooked on schools’ recommended reading lists,” Patterson writes.

Yes. I agree, and the boys in my classroom are always picking up my graphic novels and my Book of Records texts and the various texts I have around sports (particularly skateboarding and football).

Here are some websites that Patterson suggests turning to for book recommendations:

Let’s get our boys reading, and let’s not forget the girls while we are at it, either. If we want our young people to become better writers, then we need them to become better readers. This is what David Remnick was getting at it. One of the fears and worries that comes up in many meetings with parents (and in conversations with my wife and I as parents) is how the “screen time” on devices is taking away time from independent, quiet reading. This shift in activity time management concerns me, and it should concern you, too, whether you are a teacher or a parent or a member of society. The question we are facing as teachers is how to find a balance between the emerging tech-centered lives of this generation while still teaching the understanding of reading and writing as a centerpiece for literacy.

All of it is important, and losing one of those threads, particularly the love of reading, is worrisome.

Peace (in the books),
Kevin

 Blog Post by Kevin Hodgson