[CALIBK12] A significant omission: access to books forall students

Wed Dec 17 12:01:58 PST 2008

Here, here! My youngest child finally became a reader by listening to books.  She has learning disabilities, but it finally clicked for her at age fifteen, I convinced her to read along with the text as she listens to the words.  Her first book that she couldn't put down was Eragon, then she moved onto the series of the Chronicles of Narnia, and now the Twilight series.  She also has a preference for the visual media, but she now tries to read the books before the movies come out.
Susan Nakaji
Library Clerk
Saratoga Elementary School
Saratoga CA
snakaji at saratogausd.org
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: burchm at lompoc.k12.ca.us 
  To: Thomas Kaun 
  Cc: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 8:51 AM
  Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] A significant omission: access to books forall students

  Hello!

  I thought I would add my $.02's worth in this discussion.  I love to read, and I confess that I prefer reading fiction for pleasure than non-fiction.  However, I love reading (listening to) non-fiction as audio.  There are some who will say that "listening" is not reading, and I guess in the purest sense it is not, but I am able to listen to text that I won't sit down and read.  The same goes for difficult fiction: I listened to _Moby Dick_ and _A Tale of Two Cities_ after having given up reading both of them in the conventional manner;had just not been able to stick with either of them..  

  My point though is this--I wish I could get more kids who are non-readers "hooked" on listening.  I think there are lots of kids who would enjoy this, but for whatever reason are just not willing to give it a try.  I hate to see so many kids who are convinced that reading holds nothing for them, when they don't realize that they just haven't met a method that would open up this world to them.

  Busy thinking about things in Lompoc,
  Mary at the LHS Library

  -----calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu wrote: -----

    To: skrashen at yahoo.com
    From: "Thomas Kaun" <tomkaun at gmail.com>
    Sent by: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu
    Date: 12/16/2008 09:13PM
    cc: calibk12 at lists..sjsu.edu
    Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] A significant omission: access to books for all students

    The report really sounds more like a full-employment strategy for reading specialists and professors of reading specialists. 
    I know we all have our professions to promote but I do believe Stephen is right that the simplest solutions to our reading "problem" are the best and have still not been tried. 
    This also ties into the recent thread about developing the "love of reading" in our students. I am one of those who is more intrigued by non-fiction (verity--weird!) than fiction reading. So what! In some ways it's like I carp about English teachers at the high school level who teach as though all kids were going to be English majors--they aren't. Get over it. They are going to read, however, and so do need strategies to cope with all sorts of reading materials, print and digital. 
    BTW, I'm finally finishing War and Peace and I have realized that in order to read this book, like with Moby Dick (the big whaling book), you need to have the kind of mind which processes both "efferently" (I vaguely remember the term from a physiology course I once took) and aesthetically. 
    It's an amazing novel aesthetically but every world and European history teacher needs to have read it as well for its insight into history, military strategy, etc. 
    Now this is fun! 
    Tom Kaun 

    On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 11:57 AM, Stephen Krashen < skrashen at yahoo.com > wrote: 

      A Significant Omission in the IRA Policy Paper: Access to Books for All Students 
      Stephen Krashen 

      The International Reading Association policy paper, "Keeping Our Promise to All Students," talks about everything except books and reading. It includes recommendations for standards, assessment, instructional time, professional development, and of course the by now mandatory recommendation that we prepare students for the 21st century. The only mention of books is in passing: 

      "Further supports for teachers to successfully increase student achievement include providing resources such as paraprofessionals, books, computers, and other literacy instructional tools" (p. 4). 

      Books, in other words, are simply one of several "instructional tools." 

      In view of the consistent finding that children of poverty have little access to reading material at home, in their communities and in school, shouldn't the International Reading Association strongly recommend that all children have access to reading materials, that school and public libraries be strengthened in high poverty areas? After all, what's the point of standards, assessment, instructional time, and professional development if students have little or nothing to read? 

      Without a strong and clear recommendation for adequate access to books, the policy paper does not keep its promise to all students. 

      The IRA policy paper is available at: http://www.reading.org/publications/reading_today/samples/RTY-0812-policy..html 

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    -- 
    Thomas T. Kaun 
    Teacher Librarian 
    Bessie Chin Library @ Redwood High School 
    395 Doherty Drive, Larkspur, CA 94939 
    tomkaun at gmail.com | Library Web site: http://rhslibrary.org | Professional development blog: http://tomlmt2.blogspot.com/ | Library news blog: http://libraryleaves.blogspot.com 

    Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to be always part of unanimity. 
     - Christopher Morley 
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