Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
If I have to blame someone for the decline in the popularity of reading, my first choice for that honor would be uninspiring teachers.
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You're entitled to your opinion. I, on the other hand, blame parents who aren't readers (which really is pointing the finger at a societal shift in general). It's a quite simple pattern I've seen: if there are readers at home, the child is more likely to be a reader; if there are no readers at home, the child sees reading as little more than a "chore" that people never do for fun or by choice. Though I have gotten a few students to change their views*, I definitely fail more often than I succeed when trying to turn students on to the joys of reading.
That said, I also blame teachers who slice up a book so much that there's no longer any joy in reading, those who assign reading logs that take out the pleasure of reading for fun, and those who don't give students time and guidance for self-selected reading.
Readicide (by Gallagher) and
The Reading Zone (Atwell) are great reads for teachers who want to help change the anti-reading tide.
* One of my best moments as a teacher was when a young lady told me she cried at the end of a book out of my classroom library. I hadn't read the book myself, so I had an expected reaction about the ending being sad. She interjected that the book wasn't sad; she cried from pride because that was the first chapter book she'd ever finished. She was in eighth grade.