I'm a little conflicted I guess about some things brought up in this chapter. Gallagher states
"Outside of school, many of our students are not partaking in those critical activities that stretch and deepen their brains. Instead, they often gravitate to those behaviors that offer instant gratification." (39)
A part of me says so what! I say this because I think that students gravitate to things like the computer, texting, video games, etc. I don't think this is such a terrible thing though. They are watching TV shows that may teach them more than they could get from a book. They could learn survival techniques, how to build a car / motorcycle, how to fix or build things at home, etc. Now let's face it... they are probably watching music videos and things like that. I guess I just don't think it is a bad thing for students to have some fun in their lives when at school they are sitting behind a desk for 7 hours a day so when they get home, maybe they do need a break.
Then.. on the flipside, Gallagher writes, "When we deny students the opportunity to read long, complex works, we are starving a part of thier brains, and we start producing kids like the students in my class who can read but who cannot get below the surface of what they read." (40)
Now here's the other part of me that says Oh No! It is also scary to think that students cannot comprehend what they are reading because if they can't comprehend what they are reading, what are they going to do when they have a job and cannot read the training manual or they buy a bookcase and cannot read the instructions to be able to put it together. How will they keep up with current events if they cannot read a newspaper and actually understand what they are reading? How will they hold a job? These are important questions.
I'm not sure though that reading a long, complex book is the answer though. I think if we give our students a variety of things to read, they would be more successful because they would learn skills on how to read a variety of things that would actually benefit them in life. Knowing the story of Romeo and Juliet or other classics is great but it is only that, they know a good book or a good story.
I agree. I am not sure how many kids are thrilled by reading complex material. I have to stop reading too many blogs in one day because this seems to be everyone's opinion. I also agree that they need to know how to read to understand technical job material. But, how many instructions do they have to understand a video game?? How many things do they have to read when they surf the net?? Maybe they are reading for pleasure and we do not know it because we don't grade it.
ReplyDeleteBill-
ReplyDeleteYou wrote – “It is also scary to think that students cannot comprehend what they are reading because if they can't comprehend what they are reading”. I totally agree and you make a very good point
Reading comprehension is the most significant part of building vocabulary. Not only in the job market but everyday life, one must be able to read and understand the words being previewed by their own eyes. Any lack of or misunderstanding in reading can result in major problems in school and in life.
I agree that students may be doing more reading than we think. I do think we need to do some work to help them learn how to understand more technical materials though. I'm not sure that they want to put the effort in to truly understanding material presented in text. This skill will serve them well in life, if we can convince them it is worthwhile. I think with both this and the longer works the level of confidence that students gain from these accomplishments are important. Knowing you can do something that you thought wasn't going to be easy builds character and confidence.
ReplyDeleteI totally get the "instant gratification" thing because I'm the same way. I read magazines as opposed to books...short, sweet, and to the point. Let's face it, textbooks are boring. Most reading done for school is boring. I'm an ENglish teacher, and even I have to say it! Teachers seem to be branching out more in class (or maybe I just know some really cool teachers in grad school :) but we can only do so much. The kids have got to be engaged and WANT to read (something other than a text). And speaking of texting, this secret language might be hurting our kids...i mean, OMG.
ReplyDeleteKristen, you mention that texting might be hurtin gour kids but is it? I bet people thought people who surfed the internet once upon a time were just wasting their time but now the internet just about runs things. Heck, here we are using the internet to do school assignments. I think that eventually society will start catering to texting b/c it is such a huge form of communication now. Just a matter of time I suppose.
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