Throughout my years in Middle School and High School, especially in my History classes, teachers emphasized the importance of reading primary sources, newspapers and other historical texts IN ADDITION to reading the textbook. When learning about World War II, we read The Diary of Anne Frank along with the textbook chapters, when learning about colonization, we read primary documents from explorers coming to the American Colonies, and throughout my time in schools, my teachers always had students present "Current Events" projects-- forcing us to read newspapers and scholarly magazines. A key point mentioned in this chapter is the importance of choice for young readers. You set the boundary of requiring students to be reading something, but allow them the freedom to read about things that interest them; this kind of reading is definitely more appealing than "read pg. 20-56 in your text book for tomorrow."
 |
| (DEAR/Deer joke) |
(word count: 235)
I seem to remember doing this more in elementary school than anywhere else. The sad thing is that past that reading other books than ones assigned in class became harder to do. In elementary school I would go to the library almost everyday. In middle school about once a week, and in high school maybe once a year. I wish teachers would have given students more freedom to read in class, even content related books. -Levi (84)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you brought up DEAR. And I agree with Levi that these types of activities seem to dry up as students move up the grade levels. As you think about your future classroom, don't forget these experiences, and don't forget the positive impact reading basically anything will have on your students' performance in your discipline.
ReplyDelete