I MAY not be able to prove that my literature class makes a difference in my students’ test results, but there is a positive correlation between how much time students spend reading and higher scores. The problem is that low-income students, who begin school with a less-developed vocabulary and are less able to comprehend complex sentences than their more privileged peers, are also less likely to read at home. Many will read only during class time, with a teacher supporting their effort. But those are the same students who are more likely to lose out on literary reading in class in favor of extra test prep. By “using data to inform instruction,” as the Department of Education insists we do, we are sorting lower-achieving students into classes that provide less cultural capital than their already more successful peers receive in their more literary classes and depriving students who viscerally understand the violence and despair in Steinbeck’s novels of the opportunity to read them
For anyone just joining us, last year for Accio Books NYDA helped to create the library at the New Beginnings Charter School. We just got through tutoring the third and fourth graders for State Exams, but what about the second graders. We shouldn’t leave them out. They will be taking the State…
Anya’s Ghost doesn’t exactly need any more praise, but I found it hilarious, engaging, and memorable. After reading Anya, I think I’ll be adding some more graphic novels to my list.
“Walter Dean Myers, a longtime member of PEN, has been appointed the 2012–2013 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. He is the first member of PEN to be named to this post, which was created in 2009 by the Library of Congress ‘to raise national awareness of the…
To be sure, the best part of the Temeraire series is the relationship between Laurence and Temeraire. Although, I didn’t think it was as successful as the first book I am glad to have read it and will also continue on with the series. To be honest, when finishing up this book I missed my subway stop by two stops, that’s how engrossed I was.
As of March 10th, I have 22 books towards by goal of reading 100 books in 2012. This puts me 4 books a heard of schedule.
Professional Development Books: 5
Young Adult/Children’s Books: 11
Fiction: 6
I have also made 2012 The Year of Sherlock (And Temeraire)! My goal is to complete the four novels and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (12 stories) by the end of the year. I also want to finish ALL of the books in the Temeraire series. I’m thinking about one per month.
Here is a tentative plan for future years:
2013: The Year of Jane Austen (Read five of her novels)
2014: Adventure (Kipling, H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Robinson Crusoe, Jules Verne, Victor Hugo, Jonathan Swift: 6 novels)