"The joy and mystery of reading is that each of us reads a different book from everyone else…even when it's the same book," says Nancy Pearl, author of the Book Lust readers' advisory (RA) titles and LJ's 2011 Librarian of the Year. "We bring all of our life experiences to the reading of a book, any book, and each person's history is different from everyone else's."
I thought that this article was really great. As a recovering English literature student, I find it really easy to buy into the concept of a book club being a kind of transformative experience for people. Beth Dempsey cited a few library programs which bridge the generation gap, or exclusively target the young professionals crowd. I think that the graphic novel group would be really fascinating, and hosting such book clubs at outside venues, whether it is a local coffee shop or a local brewery, gives a program a more casual and relaxed feel. The online/in-person book club was great, too. People can participate on their own time however much or little they want when the session is online, as well as providing a traditional communal feel for those who prefer that, too. Great ideas!
I think I was the most interested in the prison outreach book club she cites in her article. I loved the idea of having a "book club" with a young offender, the parole officer, the judge, and a librarian, and that it works as a way to model young people who have battled tough situations but made it through alright. It could really help a young person in a positive way. I loved that she said many of these rehabilitated young people still keep in regular contact with "their" librarian!
I think I was the most interested in the prison outreach book club she cites in her article. I loved the idea of having a "book club" with a young offender, the parole officer, the judge, and a librarian, and that it works as a way to model young people who have battled tough situations but made it through alright. It could really help a young person in a positive way. I loved that she said many of these rehabilitated young people still keep in regular contact with "their" librarian!
"Socratic Seminars: Engaging Students in Intellectual Discourse." Lynda Tredway. 1995
Generally I agreed with this article. It said that teachers should be using the "Socratic method," a term I had heard before but never really knew what it meant. Essentially, it is a teaching method in which the teacher leads a discussion but doesn't tell students what to think or how to solve a problem. This method encourages critical thinking skills and as well as respect for one's peers. I liked how the article approached using the Socratic method in school classrooms, but I was reminded of my college experience more than anything else. In reading the article, I realized that this style of teaching was essentially the way that college level English courses are taught, which needless to say, I enjoyed.
I can very easily see how this method of instruction translates into a library-lead book club, which would be essentially the same as a guided discussion in a literature course. For me, leading a book club discussion would be second nature, I think, which is why I am really excited to do our brief book club exercise in class as well as develop my own book clubs later in a professional setting. How fun is this job?
The Book Club Exploded Barbara Hoffert. 2006
This article brought up some interesting variations on book clubs, for instance, bringing in authors to speak with the book clubs via phone or videoconference. One idea I really liked was the idea of doing a book club on a thematic basis instead of picking the same book for everyone to read, or picking an author for the book club to focus on and everyone selecting one of their works. I think that in this way people could get more out of a book club from their peers. It would be a greater learning experience and probably even more interesting!
Metzger, Margaret. "Teaching reading: beyond the plot." Phi Delta Kappan 80.3 (1998): 240. Academic OneFile. Web. 8 Jan. 2011.
I really enjoyed this particular article. It was on a teacher's method of helping her high school freshman English students learn to comprehend texts using a variation on the Socratic method. It's very detailed, and I think that her unit on close reading is probably very successful. I can imagine that some students initially feel that it is a dumb activity, but I think by the end of the unit (2 months) the majority of the students, from all reading levels, would feel like they had learned something or done some valuable thinking about these texts. I think doing this with high school freshmen is the perfect age group, too. They have never been allowed, or told, to mark up books, so that is a new and exciting experience, as well as the opportunity to sit and talk freely with their peers. I liked that at one point the author says her students threw her out of the inner circle, saying that she was not being helpful to their discussions. I think that is a really telling moment for her instruction, and knowing that it was working. Anyway, a really interesting article on helping all students to become better readers. I think that the premise of this article is really foreign to me: reading has always been fun and easy, so I never understood how people could dislike reading or find it difficult. There was a great quote on it, though, that really put it into perspective for me:
"Often teachers feel so desperate for some class participation that they accept any verbal statement, fearing that they will suppress conversation if they make judgments about the quality of student responses. Therefore, students don't know which answers are right and wrong, particularly since it is out of fashion to say that any answer is wrong. As soon as teachers hear a reasonable answer, they move on to the next question. It's as though in a math class, after several solutions were given, the teacher just moved on to the next math problem without saying which solutions were right and to what degree.
Most students do not understand how their more articulate, insightful classmates reach conclusions about literature. Unless teachers explain why some interpretations are more valid, class discussions confirm students' belief that some of their classmates "just get it" and that literature is inaccessible to them. Again, imagine a math class in which no one explains how a problem was solved."
In the 21st-Century University, Let's Ban (Paper) Books By Mark Prensky 2011
This article I thought was pretty ludicrous, let's say. By reading the comments at the end of it, I can tell that I am not the only person who feels this way.
I can appreciate some of his argument: at SI, the vast majority of our readings are all free and online, which has been great because textbooks are outrageously expensive and I pay a lot of money already for tuition, so not having to buy books has been great. But to ban print books altogether? To literally confiscate a print book if found on the campus at all, in anyone's private possession? That is insane. Let's take a moment to think about how insane that is.
Even if an institution had the kinds of funds available to 1.digitize their entire collection, 2. give every student and faculty member an e-reader, and 3. pay the licensing fees for all the materials necessary, year in and year out, this plan would take an enormous amount of time and manpower. Not to mention that even in those cases, people still just like paper books. Fact.
Rich detailed, and thoughtful post ... just remember this technicality: most of your readings appear free, but they're actually from subscription databases paid for, in part, by your generous tuition dollars. :)
ReplyDeleteOoh, I cannot wait for today's class ...
Ok, first off, your line about being a "recovering English literature student" made me giggle-- I have often had that thought about myself. English lit major, history and philosophy double minor. I know ALLLLL about making arguments that few others really care about....
ReplyDeleteThat said, the idea that every one of us reads a different book, even if it is the same book, is awesome, and entirely true. I bring different life experiences to my reading of a book than any other person that has ever read that book-- my brain picks out different details, and makes different connections to things that I know. In taking to others about the book that they read, and the connections that they made, I am able to learn more about both the book and my peers. And that, to me, is really powerful.