Yes, I know. It is nearly 5:00 a.m. and I am posting on the Blog. I was so tired last night so I went to bed at 10. For some reason I was wide awake at 4:30 and instead of tossing and turning and ultimately disturbing my husband, I decided to read the blogs.
Kayla posted about researching. We read all the time, more than we realize. One of the things I always stressed to my students (in my past life) was how important reading was to each of them. Of course I was dealing with teenagers who thought English class was boring and unimportant and anything learned was useless. So we read. We read stories in the text (no pictures). We watched movie versions of short stories and novels to show that the 'good stuff' had to come from somewhere. We acted out the plays in the text so they would be more involved in the reading process. We wrote outside after reading Walden. We read the newspaper. We searched for messages on billboards. We read ads. We watched a game show with the sound off and read the closed captioning instead. Reading is everywhere.
Just before summer break a junior class was talking about their classes for their senior years. Novels class was a senior elective--a fun class, field trips to libraries, to the movie theatre to see Dances with Wolves and A River Runs through It (those trips were a LONG time ago). One student commented that she had better things to do with her time---while we were wasting our time reading, she would be enjoying life.
I was happy that I didn't have to say a thing--the rest of the class jumped on her about how she read every day, whether she realized it or not, that reading was important just to daily living, and that so much could be learned/experienced/gained from reading anything and everything. They surprised me then by listing all the things they could read and what they could learn: recipes (new ingredients, new cooking methods, new food --Kevin would like that, right!), directions when traveling (new places to see, new places to go), weather maps and statements (it was tornado season in the northern Indiana flatlands), and on and on. It did my heart good!
While some may disagree that everything is 'literature' (and I would have to concur to some extent), the words appear on the page, the eyes read, the mind processes, and new information is added to the bank of knowledge. Food for the mind!
I agree Mrs. S. just about everything we touch or see has some type of writing on it. It may be a billboard as we are driving down the road or a menu at a restaurant. Reading can be as simple as reaching for a piece of gum and on the package it elaborates how many stains are prevented on our teeth by chewing their product!! Reading is knowledge and knowlegde is learning and learning new things will keep the brain healthy and motivated. Read America Read!! =)
ReplyDeleteI loved that the person who thought reading wasn't important was told all of the things we read on a daily basis...some people think that reading a book is boring because they've been so used to getting stimulation from tv and the internet but I think that it takes so much more of your imagination to read a book. And I love to read cooking magazines...though I don't have much time to cook big meals since I work second shift, I love to read about other cooks and simple ways to make cooking easier for a busy mom.
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