MORE READING

      The comments from my last post about reading has made me think about a few other things. I often think about how people learn to read. 

     When I attended school in the late 40's and early  50's we  had  a system that was very limited.  We had one room rural schools. We had people teaching with little or no training. Correspondence courses were developed but how do you expect a six year old to learn to read taking correspondence. These rural schools met their end in the late 40's  and  early 50's , The school I went to called Hiawatha, closed in 1955. There were 6 student enrolled in the last year. They were all boys consisting of three sets of brothers. My two brothers attended the last year.

    My first year of teaching in 1958 ,was in a rural school that had nine students. It was closed the next year. I had three grade ones. One little guy knew how to read but jumped through all the hoops. The other little boy was never going to read. I think the little girl learned from my efforts.

     I don't ever remember learning to read. I remember going through the work books and doing assignments but it was nothing I learned. I liked the work books.

    So after all this rambling , I'm wondering about how the learning to read makes life long readers..

    I think there are good programs to teach reading but do they fit all students? Do life long readers come from people who know how to read well? Or are the readers just curious people? Do life long readers find reading stimulating for a number of reasons such as entertainment?

    What do you think?

READING

      At one time I did a lot of reading. I wasn't someone who read 50 books a year or  anything like that. I would read about 25 books a year.

     When I first retired a read many of the books I had been missing. I read Clan of the Cave Bears. I read most of Rutherfurd's books. I liked historical fiction but not mysteries.

    Then I found I was reading less and the last few years ...reading close to nothing.

     I had an idea what was causing the decline in reading.

     Blogging was taking my reading time.

    In the couple of months around my surgery I had time to think of  a few things. I was off blogging for about three weeks. I thought about closing the blog. I decided to keep blogging but at a lesser amount. I cut out the replies I made to comments. That gave me much more time, However, responding to comments was a very positive part of blogging. I miss it.

    But guess what? I found myself reading much more right away! Well, I wouldn't give up blogging because it's very interesting. I might even start back with replies to comments. I might find I have time.

    One thing I have to do is change a few things on the blog. I tried to add a reader and found out that I had forgotten how. 

YEH, I WON !

      Well, I didn't actually win money, but money was involved in principal. 

      Alberta has a very well organized interlibrary loan system. From time to time I get a book in from another library if my home library doesn't have the title. 

     The last time I got an inter library loan , I found a sticker on the book that said there was a $150.00 fine for a lost book and $150.00 fine for a damaged book. This really caught my attention. I took the book back and showed them the sticker with the fine. I almost asked for a written receipt that I had returned the book. 

    I put in a complaint to the library board. I didn't hear anything but the librarian I dealt with assured me that she took it to the board. Since it's interlibrary a provincial board makes the decision. 

    So I didn't hear anything until today. The fine notice had been erased from the books. 

    Needless to say,  I was happy. I had friends outside so I went over to them and told them I just had to tell them something. They were happy too.

   I encourage reading. A fine like this would very clearly discourage reading. 

READING

           I don't think I would have much disagreement if I say that reading is a skill that all must have.  I taught at the middle school level and many think that the time to learn to read is long past. At that age each student has a different reading level. They have certain skills that are strong and missing or weak in other skills. 

        I learned how to administer one reading test. Mostly I tested the strategies kids. The strategies group activities  taught reading and the teacher wanted to know what areas needed work. 

       I think that all teachers and subject areas should make an effort to teach reading skills. 

      The odd kid in my school was a very avid reader and when the teacher wasn't looking they would read. I thought that for language arts if you let a kid read they would learn what was on the course of studies. Now the math teachers didn't like kids reading in their math class and it's true that kids wouldn't learn much math by reading. However , if I ask most adults today to divide fractions they are not able to do it. If I asked most adults to factor trinomials , they would look at me as if they had never heard about them. If I asked about grammar they would have very little idea. 

      So I'm getting to my point. I had one or two of those kids who wanted to read all the time. I let them. 

     Now one of these parents with a kid who always read came in for an interview. They were very concerned about this kid reading all the time. Other teachers had complained. I gave them my opinion that the kid would learn just as much from reading as following the class. It so happens that the Dad as our local MLA  (Member of the legislature) The Dad bought into this idea. But one look at Mom's face told me that she did not agree. A compromise was reached and I would make sure the kid followed the lesson. 

    For people who are avid readers life long learning happens for their  whole life. 

Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

     In the last year I've read many good books but none of them were fiction. Somebody in blog land must have recommended All the Light We Cannot See and it's a good story.

    The story is set during WW II. It features two children: one in France and the other in Germany.  The author tells their stories by alternating chapters. So one chapter describes what happens to Werner and the next one tells about Marie-Laure. The author makes their lives realistic as he describes the horrors of war children had to go through.

    I don't normally like war stories or stories with violence. This one was dark but I couldn't put it down. It's easy to read. There's lots of conflict and most of the predictions I made about what was coming next were wrong.

    For all stories a certain amount of research has to be done. Either Anthony Doerr did a lot of research or was extremely knowledgeable about science. Whether it was radio, physics, snails, biology or minerals and gems the details were there. Marie-Laure was blind and he had to know in great detail how blind people function.

    In the end we come away understanding much more about the horrors of war during the war and what people suffer years after the war.

    Now I haven't told you any part of the story. You'll have to get all the story yourself.

 I enjoyed the story and recommend it.

     After I finished reading this story I noticed that it won the Pulitzer prize.

     Don't check Wiki Pedia as it gives a story summary

Bring Me Back a Present

     When I taught middle school I had a newspaper unit for one of the grades. We looked at all the parts of a daily paper starting with the header and ending with classified ads. We looked at headlines, first sentence of a story, editorials ..absolutely everything. The assignment was to make a scrapbook with about 10 different examples from the paper. The assignment was easy but it made the kids look through a newspaper. I killed a few birds with this stone. It got the kids reading and had them look at writing for a purpose. We did the crossword as a class and generally rooted through the whole paper. For a fine finale we took a field trip through a daily paper and saw how the paper was produced from start to finish.

I think I might need some new glasses

   I hope that some people found newspapers. I know the odd one is working for a newspaper but not likely from my newspaper unit.

   When  someone would tell me they were being taken out of school for a trip, I would look them in the eye and say, "You have to bring a present back for me!" A nervous distraught look would come over their face which said, "Is this guy for real?" I would give them a few seconds to be uncomfortable. The odd one would say ,"No way." Others might say, "Well , what do you want." Usually I got them off the hook and said , "Bring me back a newspaper." A look of relief  flooded across  their face and they enthusiastically said , "Oh sure!" I told them they didn't have to actually buy a newspaper. Their would be newspapers that they could pick up.

    So when they came back with their newspaper , I would make a big deal over the paper and we would briefly go through the paper and pass it around. Later on when they were going away they would ask me if I wanted a paper. Then they would come and say , "My Dad's going to Russia. Do you want a paper?" Some time later they would proudly come in with a paper. 

   I made a lot of mileage out of this gag. Quite a pile of newspapers built up over the years. Sadly there wasn't a lot of storage space so I had to clean out the closet from time to time. When I retired I disposed of all the newspapers that were left. Many memories went with the newspapers I collected. 

    "Bring me back a present" was a lot of fun.

Surprise From the Past

     We steadily go through stuff in the house trying to downsize. For nearly 50 years we have collected things and it is very surprising how much has accumulated.

     This last while we have been tackling book cases...a shelf at a time. I am instructed to go through and pick out what a I don't want. I can make a pretty big pile of "don't wants" in a hurry. My wife will go through a second time and choose ones she doesn't want to part with. I thought that I had thrown out all university texts years ago. There were still lots on the shelves and some of them weren't thrown out this time. 

    I did make some discoveries that were very surprising. I found about a dozen books that I had received as a little kid. Books that were Christmas presents and birthday presents. My Mom's sister was only 12  when I was born. She spoiled her nephews rotten and she still does today when she's 85 and her nephews are 73. Our Aunt gave us books for gifts. She found a series that we liked. Mom would read these books to us. Once we were all ready for bed we would crawl on Moms's bed. She would read and we were absolutely quiet . When about half of us had fallen asleep she would quit and that was bedtime.

    Like many people I left home right after high school. I did not have a permanent residence. Over the years the things I had as  a kid disappeared. Once I had settled down my Mom said one day, "These are the only things of yours that are left here." She gave me the books a I found the other day. My brothers established homes before I did and took things that they had as kids to their houses. Not much was left when I established roots.

     So the other day when I found these books it was like rediscovering a very ancient past. To say the least, these were books I didn't throw away.

The books were always neatly written in with a greeting. I anybody familiar with the Sugar Creek Gang series?

My 1950 birthday present.

In the country schools we would draw names and give that person a Christmas gift which was presented at the Christmas concert. Wesley was in the grade ahead of me,

Hans Brinker doesn't appear to have been a gift as there is no inscription in it. I read this a couple of times. As you see it's in pretty bad shape.

Sleep tight!

Sometimes You Need a Chuckle

      I'm a fairly avid reader. I spend the greatest amount of my time on blogs. Next to that is reading.


      I read a fairly wide variety of books, but sometimes I can't find the right book at the time. That's when I can rely on some old favorites and I go back to them. I have lists of books I've read a way down on the right side of my blog. 


      Recently I was looking for a couple of books in the library but they are signed out and have been for some time. I've been waiting for "Oliver's Twist" which is an autobiography by Craig Oliver. Another one I've been looking for is "To Kill a Mocking Bird."  I finished high school before this novel was used for study.


      So because I was in a hurry I picked up a P.G. Wodehouse book. Wodehouse is well known for his English humor. He wrote the "Jeeves" stories which were a television series at one time. Wodehouse wrote 14 books using Jeeves. So I pick up a Wodehouse book and have some light reading where I don't have to concentrate too much and I get a great chuckle out of Bertie Wooster who is such an airhead and unflappable Jeeves who is Bertie's butler and always gets Bertie out of trouble.


     Another writer I read when I can't find anything is Louis L'Amour. L'Amour is easy to follow and there is lots of "Rockem Sockem " action. L"Amour's heroes always draw faster than the bad guys. I'm surprised art how many people read Louis L'Amour.


     I have readers I know and I always ask them what they're reading so that I can find something new . One of my 90 year old friends is a voracious reader. So I always say, Bernice , "What are you reading?" She smiles and says, "You wouldn't like what I read." So then I tease her about reading romance. Some bloggers are really good at telling what they are reading. Some bloggers have a list of books that they have read.


    Sometimes I blunder into a series. I've read all of Jean Auel's Ayla stories. I like historical novels so I have read Quite a few Edward Rutherfurd. I like Leon Uris. I have also read a few James Michener's.