Jan 10 2008
What are your top things?
I had a look at Joyce Valenza’s Top School Library Things to Think About in 2008 and I thought about what mine might be. Probably a lot more simple and ordinary. But this is an area that we all need to think about in the new year.
So my first thing is:
How do I enourage my school to have a balance between technology and reading?
It is the National Year of Reading 2008 in the UK and reading issues have been at the top of the political agenda for a few months. However, how often is the link made between our often poorly resourced and staffed school libraries, the crowded curriculum, the low status (in some schools) of the “librarian”, the excitement generated by ICT developments and reading problems amongst our youngsters? Giving a free book to every Year 7 student was great - but what follow-up is there? Creating a boys bookshelf with the Boys into Books scheme was great too - but what happens next?
Is it always up to us to push for reading for pleasure as opposed to “extractitis”?
What I would like is for teachers to be as enthusiastic and excited about reading as some are about ICT. Where is the research into and evaluation of the impact of ICT upon attainment to back up the huge spending and emphasis on ICT? Because there is research evidence to prove the importance of reading!
I am not knocking ICT - after all I am using it to write this! However, I am concerned that one day a generation of us will be looking at younger adults who cannot think beyond the computer screen. I watched a programme on TV over Christmas about the Cold War and was fascinated and more than a little scared to find out that Armageddon was only avoided because one Russian guy decided to think for himself rather than believe what the computer was telling him - the “nukes” heading towards the USSR were clouds!
I suppose what I am talking about is teaching critical thinking - others know more about this than I do. But, I was not taught like this - I read a lot and thought a lot.
Do our students think enough for themselves these days?
What do you think?
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I think that for the first time in many years the Government would agree with what you are saying…hence the National Year of Reading, the Booked Up, Boys into Books schemes. Also I am really excited by the possibilities inherent in the new Key Stage 3 Personal Thinking and Learning Skills. I went through the new curriculum guidelines by subject and highlighted every instance where an IL skill was inferred and my pages are FULL of encouraging highlighted colour!
I still think that the way in which the next generation accesses their text may be shifting away from the traditional book, but I think the climate for ‘reading’ is stronger than it has been in a long time. I do morning sessions to promote reading with a different form group each morning and there is more of a buzz about books, and films from books than I can remember for quite some time (thank you J.K. Rowling and Philip Pullman!) More and more kids are doing what I do and are downloading books onto their ipods.
The technology is certainly making differences in the ways in which students ‘read’ (Face Book rather than books) but look at what we are doing here in this blog…didn’t this start with me reading text? It is more interactive than strictly reading a book as I have the opportunity to respond to you the author, and then others in turn can respond as well. BUT the initial activity is one where I am still reading someone else’s ideas, thinking about them, and making a personal response. Isn’t that what reading in the traditional sense is all about?
But if you download a book onto an iPod, then you are not reading but listening. This is OK for those of us who learned to read properly and who do read a lot anyway, but I don’t think that it is what I want for my own sons. Yes, listening to a great story can be very rewarding and can help develop the imagination. But so many of our students cannot read at a high enough level to really get immersed in a book - I think that they will miss out if they go straight on to listening.
I know what my husband would say if I told him that it was OK to watch or listen to a football match rather than actually play!
I take your point about reading a ‘real’ book and interacting with text so that you develop as a reader. My point is that technology is changing the ways in which the next generation deals with text…it is more about collaboration and interactivity, hence the popularity of Face Book. I’m not sure it is GOOD thing but it is the way things are going. Did you read the article in several of yesterday’s papers about Google being the ‘white bread’ of scholarship? Very interesting….if you Google the terms ‘google’ and ‘white bread’ you should find it. There are real concerns about how the Internet is drastically changing the ways in which people look for information, and the depth to which they read and interact with text to derive new meaning. SO it is all back to your concerns I guess. But having run one of my mini-bookfairs at a Year 7 parents evenings tonight, I can still see an interest in books and reading despite all. I am exhausted, but excited after an evening spent talking books with kids and parents. SO now I’m off to bed to listen (on my ipod) to Catch22 which is the book my 6th form reading group has chosen for this month. Good night all !