In a red beanie chair beside Mrs. Barnes desk in the back of the room I sat with my knees pulled up to my chest and Charlotte’s Web balanced on top. As I read I became a girl determined to save a baby pig, a spider with an incredible web, and a lonely pig. I traveled through the story as if it was my life I was reading about. Books take me on a journey to unimaginable worlds where I can be a damsel in distress, or a circus freak, I can ride a flying pig or stand beside Martin Luther King Jr. as he makes his speeches. Early, on I had teachers who encouraged me to find books that I enjoyed and that could transport me but there are very few teachers who encourage their kids to read and enjoy it. Most teacher assign books that will match the curriculum the school board makes up disregarding the possibility that we might enjoy reading if the right material is found. Teachers have the ability to influence the perspective of how we views reading and, the capability to help transport us into books.
Deborah Brandt says, “People don’t become literate on their own; rather, literacy is sponsored by people.”(Deborah B., 331) As a children we are read to and enjoy the stories we hear, we don’t cry, yell, or scream we sit and listen to the story as if we are the main character. But many times as we learn to read on our own we lose the interest in stories we once had, this has to do with the teachers who influence us. Teachers who force books onto us can cause us to lose the wonder we once had when reading. Teachers need to be aware of us and how they force books on to us. By asking us to read and find a book that we would enjoy within a specific genre they can encourage to participate in the assignment. In high school as a project we were as...
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...o read, to see the possibilities of reading and to help us to be transported into the stories. As teachers they should aim for the enjoyment of reading either by allowing the student the freedom to choose a book or just by giving them time to read at all. My ability to be transported into books and to be transformed into the characters stems from my teachers encouragement to find books that caught my interest. My teachers not only gave me the freedom to choose my own books, but impressed upon me a love for reading and a thirst for the adventures books can bring. All students can enjoy reading, all it takes is the encouragement of a teacher.
Works Cited
Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. Writing About Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 331. Print.
Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. Writing About Writing. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 354. Print.
In the essay titled “How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading” written by John Holt and published in Reading for writers in 2013, Mr. Holt discusses why most children aren’t interested in reading. Mr. Holt spent fourteen years as an elementary school teacher. He believed classroom activities destroy a student’s learning ability. Mr. Holt never let his students say what they thought about a book. He wanted his students to look up every word they didn’t know. People can learn difficult words without looking them up in the dictionary.
Francine Prose is a mother, a writer, a book reviewer, and most importantly, a massive critic of the type of literature that is demanded of children to read in American high schools. In a very defensive essay, Prose discusses a variety of books that she believes are a wast of actual literature. She uses a variety of rhetoric to attract the reader’s attention, and uses it to also persuade her readers to see things the way she does. Throughout the essay it becomes more apparent that the author makes multiple inferences of what she believes will happen to the generations that will entire a corrupt educational system. In the essay that Prose writes, she explains that the lack of eloquent literature is causing a demise to the education of teenagers
...Literature. Vol.1. Ed. Rossi, Patricia. Addison Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. New York: Copyright 1999. 2655-57.
In a world dominated by technology, reading novels has become dull. Instead of immersing into books, we choose to listen to Justin Bieber’s new songs and to scroll through Instagram posts. We have come to completely neglect the simple pleasures of flipping through pages and getting to finally finish a story. Sherman Alexie and Stephan King’s essays attempt to revive this interest in books that has long been lost. They remind us of the important role that reading plays in our daily lives. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” for instance, demonstrates how being literate saved the narrator from the oppressive nature of society. The author explains that even though he was capable of reading complex books at an astonishingly young
Solomon, Andrew. “Reading at Risk: Lack of Interest in Literature is a Crisis.” Commentary – Columbia Daily Tribune. 8 Aug. 2004. 19 Sept. 2004. <http://www.showmenews.com/2004/Aug/20040808Comm007.asp>.
In “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read” (1999), Francine Prose argues that literature is not being exposed to and taught to high school students in the way that it should be and that students learn to “loathe” it due to this. Prose provides her audience with her personal experience as both a mother and a college professor along with her own research on the books and suggested purposed of them. She continues to expand on this topic in order to help illuminate the importance of literature itself, not being associated with personal experiences or morals. Prose’s position is valid and she makes her essay directed towards school boards, teachers, and students and continues to maintain a critical tone throughout her essay.
My dad taught me that books could be my teachers, my mom taught me that our backyard could be my classroom, and my sister showed me that you could bring books into the swimming pool. I did not know it when I would spend hours in the pool reading a book that my parents weren’t encouraging it in vain, but my family life, for good reason, was centered on books. We were the planets orbiting around one sun that was the bookshelf. Little did I know that books would be the catalyst to academic success in my early life, and I owe it all to my family. Although a life with a book in your nose might seem boring, I was never bored. Living through the characters vicariously, I explored Narnia with Lucy, attended Hogwarts with Harry, and rode dragons with Eragon. Of course
Education was always thought to be a vital tool to all people, but in today’s world many consider it a way for the evils of the world to tant the young. This of course is known as the “Banned Books” debate. One side that believes books should be limited to prevent the children to be exposed to information that they believe to be inappropriate. And the other that believes in the total opposite and continues to point out the importance of the primary focus of literature, in which is education. Overall what makes this debate so difficult is the fact of what makes literature so valuable to the future generations, in being: at the end of the day education is a natural right given to every American citizen, they provide valuable lessons, and of course
My reading experience in junior-high and first three years of high school were not so much different. I had never been enthusiastic to read about predetermined topics assigned by my teacher and they continued to assign predetermined reading topics that made me feel frustrated and at times uncomfortable. But there was positivity that came out of these repulsive and devastating books, such as Lord of The Flies by William Golding or The Night by Elie Wiesel. Lord of the Flies caused me to confirm that humans must have rules and a government to help
As we ponder over our reading experiences as children, almost every American will remember reading Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. How we read as children and how we read as adults is not at all the same. One might state children read for the pleasure of the story and adults simply read too much into the given text. However, one must realize the images being portrayed to our children. How could a story about a pig and a spider relay unwanted messages to our children? It is important to remark how social guidelines are presented in this text. The most obvious is the assignment of gender roles to the characters Not only does this affect the human characters in the story, but it also affects the farm life. The other social guideline found in this text is the barnyard society. This society can in turn represent our human society. These two guidelines of society are taught unknowingly to our children through this story. What is perhaps the most surprising is how little attitudes have changed. This book was originally published in 1952 and these stereotypes still exist in our society forty five years later.
The teaching of reading has gone through numerous transformations and controversy continues over what is the best reading instruction. However, there is overwhelming evidence that the use of authentic literature and time for children to read, discuss what they have read and hear fluent readers, are critical to success.
When I was younger, I didn’t like reading much at all. I always questioned my teachers what was the purpose of reading; I never got an answer from either teacher until I was in the seventh grade. Starting junior high school was different from elementary. In seventh grade, we were in our reading class for two hours a day. I asked the teachers why didn’t we have the privilege to stay in our other classes for two hours; I never received an answer from my teachers.
Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.
White’s perspective on the cycle of life allows young readers to stretch their imaginations, learn to adapt in unfamiliar situations, and broaden their understanding of death and the world around them. Readers can gain insight into the life cycle through Wilbur finding happiness in the simple things and moving past Charlotte’s untimely death, though he never forgets her or their friendship. Charlotte’s Web remains relevant to children’s literature both inside and outside of the classroom. Introducing more difficult topics, such as death, can prove to be quite a challenge for parents and teachers alike. Charlotte’s Web subtlety introduces heavier topics in a brief, yet compelling, manner that allows parents and teachers to expand on as they see fit. Charlotte’s Web acts as a catalyst for more meaningful conversations pertaining to life itself. Charlotte’s Web holds a great deal of relevancy to today’s society, particularly concerning children’s literature. Charlotte’s Web is a powerful educational tool to assist teachers and parents as they navigate the more difficult parts of
Literature has been part of society since pen met paper. It has recorded history, retold fables, and entertained adults for centuries. Literature intended for children, however, is a recent development. Though children’s literature is young, the texts can be separated into two categories by age. The exact splitting point is debatable, but as technology revolutionized in the mid-twentieth century is the dividing point between classic and contemporary. Today’s children’s literature is extraordinarily different from the classics that it evolved from, but yet as classic was transformed into modern, the literature kept many common features.