Last spring, I began to gauge the age of when I began my love affair with books. I remember persistently marching through the multi-book fictional worlds of Betsy, Tacy, and Tibb (Maud Hart Lovelace); Carolyn Haywood's pre-adolescents; Walter Brooks' animals on the Bean Farm, most notably, Freddy the Detective; Beverly Cleary's Beezus and Ramona; John Fitzgerald's Great Brain; Harriet the Spy (Louise Fitzhugh) and her friend Janie, the scientist who decided at her pre-adolescent age that she never wanted to have kids, so made it her lifelong goal to discover how to rid women of the requisite need to menstruate; and every girls' essential, Judy Blume.
...and begin to worry that my children, age 7 and 8, do not read as I did. The education system, with its debacles of teaching and learning theories, seemed largely deficit in the implementation, even outside of Baltimore City. In my mind, education comes from a desire within, and reading is the vehicle through which one achieves the goal. "Succesful" education is arrived at when a child retains a thirst for question and reads to find the answer. Do my children pass the reading litmus test?
I began with mandatory trips to the library, where we would select books that were never read. With the onset of our runaround lives, video, tv, and computers: quiet time with books just got squeezed out of the schedule. I knew that modeling desired behavior was an important way to teach. Unfortunately, being addicted to reading like I am, this had already been done to a fault for their entire lives, still without the desired result. There was no engagement with them as I sat removed from them, absorbed in my own word world.
I also read somewhere (!) that while children should read at their level, being read to at higher levels also promotes literacy. OK. Valerie's persistent efforts at encouraging literacy by gifting books (remained untouched in bookshelves from year to year) yielded the entire set of Harry Potter books. Thanks to the movies for this one, my kids were engaged in the marketing of it, and the moving pictured version of it. I can't engage them in reading on their own, but I can engage them in me reading to them. I'll start with that!
They LOVED being read to. What a joy! I was even able to use this reading time as leverage for correcting behavior! ("If you don't stop right now, no Harry Potter tonight!") It's still not what I hoped, and I was a bit worried that they were not willing to read on their own - not how I remember myself devouring books.
We completed Book One and was rewarded with viewing the film. Book Two came and went followed by viewing of the film. Book Three was completed at the end of the summer and we just viewed the film a few weeks ago. At this point, we were able to engage in comparison and contrast between the book and the film. How valuable! One of my favorite pasttimes. We just began book Four two weeks ago, but still without any concerted effort towards independent reading after 8 months.
I had begun instituting further restriction on library book choices - while they could choose any two books they wanted (often still picture books, comic books, and how-to diagram books!), the third library book had to be approved by me per my prescribed reading level. Lenient the first few times, I kept tightening my standards, pushing them towards levels I was hoping for. But where is the value of this if the books are not being read!
It was time for drastic measures. No more of this "do what you want" business. We had been setting up the CCC on our refrigerator: Command Control Central. Using overhead markers (from my teacher supplies), we were writing our things to do on our refrigerator. I took my marker, created a block, and carefully placed it on the CCC: "Reading Night"
Time for "momma" to take charge!
Readers:Evains, UiSeng, MommyTonight is reading night! No Harry Potter until you read, silently to yourself, for 15 minutes.
"I don't want to!" "I want YOU to read." "Mommy, can we read Harry Potter?"
It took about ten minutes of determined insistence ("Yes, I will read Harry Potter ...after you read for 15 minutes silently to yourself") before the three of us settled into our respective books. Can you match the book with the reader?
Books:The Korean Cinderella, One Percent Doctrine, Ms. Small is Off the Wall
...But to my surprise, I emerged ten minutes later from the secret room under the White House where I was meeting with George Tenet, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and Georgie to find perfect silence, except for the sound of pages turning. Let it not be ME to be the one to break this silence. Both Evains and UiSeng finished their book in this sustained 40 plus minutes of reading! Not content with purely "technical" reading, I even quizzed UiSeng with comprehension questions before rewarding them with Harry Potter.
This past week, UiSeng brought her current book "Not So Weird Emma" with her to school every day - so she could read it in holes of time - just like I did/do! - and brought it with her for the weekend to poppy's house. I think they've caught the bug! Finally.
Part III
One Maryland One Book selected Ron Suskind's "A Hope in the Unseen" as the book that "everyone" in Maryland is supposed to read together and scheduled book discussions at public libraries around the state. The Orleans Street Branch gifted me a copy of the book "if I would come to the discussion." I looked the librarian in the eye and told her I would come at 10 am. After seeing the schedule, I saw that there was a second discussion at Southeast Anchor Branch at 1pm followed by a screening of the film "The Great Debaters" Looks like it would be a library day. Luckily, it was also a great day for riding my bike around the city.
No one showed up at any of the discussions, but I had a wonderful discussion with Virginia at the Orleans Street library. Indigenous to the neighborhood, she shared with me her story of her family upbringing and her odyssey to attend college in 60's america. In the course of our discussion, she added several books to my formerly vacant backpack: The Pact, The Bond, And Still we Rise. Thank you, Virginia!
Southeast anchor was pretty lame. No one showed up, but the organizers didn't seem to care much about the discussion. They just wanted to push play on the DVD player and watch the movie. I don't blame the young men. I think their attachment to looking successful prevented from engaging fully in the content. Our discussion (me and the two young men working it) centered mostly around why this was a poorly planned event, why no one came, how can we get more people interested, how the book was too high-level for kids, ....!
Me and three people in a huge fancy room in the library basement greatly enjoyed Oprah and Denzel's film, though! The Great Debaters accentuates the phrase "The pen is mightier than the sword." I want to caution, though, that words are a double edged sword, with the power to strike down, but also with the potential to be meaningless blather. I hold this caution near, as we engage in this political season.
I am beginning a period where words gain a life of their own. Here is my training ground and my paying respect to the power of words.
"Debate is combat. But your weapons are words."
The Great Debaters
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