Thursday, July 1, 2010

Topic: Essential Role of Teachers



10-second review: Put into the hands of each child one good book—and that child will become a reader.

Title: “Mission Possible.” P. Kittle. Voices from the Middle (September 2009), 39-40.

Quote: Nancie Atwell (2007) said: “For students of every ability and background, it’s the simple miraculous act of reading a good book that turns them into readers, because even for the least experienced, most reluctant reader, it’s the one good book that changes everything. The job of adults who care about reading is to move heaven and earth to put that book into a child’s hands.”

Comment: How you help students find that one good book differs. Almost no one would agree with how it happened to me. When I was a junior in high school, I was practically a non-reader. My father was a Joseph Conrad fan and one afternoon when I had nothing to do, he sat me down and said, “Read this book. All the way through. I insist.” The book was Lord Jim, the story of a coward turned into a courageous human being. I struggled with it. It took me several days, but I read it all the way through and I became a reader because that book became an experience that made me think. RayS.

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