This time I would like to share with you a general impression I had when talking about our reading experiences during the seminar time. This class was devoted to reflections on our reading experiences since we had our first book contact until now.
First of all we were talking in small groups about those things we remembered of our childhood. Once we were putting it in common with the rest of the class there were diversity of memories. However, there was something that I was a bit shocked about. There were some of us who agreed on the fact that reading when we were teenagers was so boring. Why does it happen? Does it depend on students who do not like reading or is the study planning the responsible of that?
Based on my own experience, I have to admit something. At the age of twelve, reading was the most boring, disgusting and senseless activity I had to face with. At the school I enjoyed reading, as I said I loved books such as Kika’s adventures, meanwhile once I entered in the high school I started reading for obligation and I stopped considering reading as a fun activity.
I remember myself reading a huge amount of books, doing a summary of all of them, doing exams, reading them as much quickly as possible and even crying because I could not finish one of them on time. In my opinion, and I would like to know yours, it should not be like that. Nowadays, it is said that young people read less or even do not read at all. I was lucky because I discovered again the meaning of reading for pleasure but I am asking now how many of my classmates stopped reading at the age of 12 or 13 years old and have not taken a book since then.
As a conclusion I would like to say that we, as teacher, should be aware of these facts and think in our experience. We know what we liked doing or not, so we should try to keep it in mind. Reading for pleasure in my case is one of my favourite hobbies, I love having some free time and enjoying of a good book. For that reason I think that the first thing we should do is to help our students to have fun when reading instead of reading a lot of boring books in a short period of time without any sense at all.
Hi Susana,
First of all, the first thing that really got my attention about your post was the title. Once I started reading through it I thought to myself that I could have even written this.
I agree with everything you wrote, it is true that for some reason it is very boring to read during our primary and secondary education period. I think that one of the reasons why we got so bored with the activity is the fact that “we were obligated to do it” and “you could not choose the book that you wanted to read (with some exceptions)”. Some compulsory books are not related with our personal lives nor are they connected with our personnel lives.
Additionally, I would like to share with you the experience I had during my second work placement. I had a great time, especially because I saw how the students loved to read. I could not believe it, as they normally read two books per month. Some of them are use to reading trilogies very quickly; they used to tell me every single detail from the book. How did that that happen you may ask? Basically, the teacher did not insist on a specific book for the students to read. Once per fortnight, they would go to the school’s library and take out one book, the one they wanted. They would have around 20 minutes to read the summary and decide the book they wanted to choose. This library was full of different types of books and it was really well maintained.
Furthermore, the school works specifically on projects. The level of the student´s intelligence is high, therefore this ensures that each student maintains a good level of reading.
I think that it is vital for students to have their time to decide the type of book they want to read instead of imposing one. It would also be of great benefit to the student if they explained in front of the class what the book was about, if they liked or not and why, (the teacher during my second work placement used to do it and it really helped :) )
The decoration in the library also makes a big difference. During my primary education I remember that the distribution and maintenance of the library were very poor, so it did not appeal to anyone wanting to read as it was simply boring.
In conclusion, as pre-service teachers we have to engage the kids so they feel passion and the need to read. The main thing is to prepare them to start the adventure of reading as soon as possible. The sooner they start, the better it will be for them.
Here are some ideas about what to consider when choosing a book. We know most of it but it is always good to refresh our ideas. I took it from the website “Primary books guidelines”.
Please find below the link. I recommend you to have a look.
http://primaryschoollibraryguidelines.org.uk/
• Set and use criteria with content, bias, accuracy, currency, and relevance in mind.
• Select books that are well-made, printed on good quality paper with bindings that will withstand little hands.
• Select stock to meet pupils’ needs, interests and abilities, and encourage reading for pleasure.
• Donations need to meet your criteria too.
Choosing fiction and picture books: some questions
• Is the appearance of the book appealing?
• Are the illustrations and stories interesting and exciting?
Choosing non-fiction books: some questions
• Does the book have a useful contents page, index with helpful references, suitable glossary, etc.?
• Does the material present a balanced perspective?
• Are illustrations (photographs, maps, charts, diagrams, drawings) clear, accurate and relevant? Do they have suitable captions?
• Do the illustrations give accurate representations, avoiding stereotypes and tokenism?
• Is information accurate?
• Is the language and terminology accessible and appropriate?
• Is the layout clear and the typeface well-spaced?
• Is the content at an appropriate level for intended readers?
That’s all folks. I really enjoyed sharing my opinion with you. See you in the next class.
Lourdes
Hi Susana!!
Firstly, I would like to thank you for sharing your own personal reading experience with us, and, especially, for focusing on the topic about the inversely proportional relationship between the love to reading a book and the obligation to analyse it and learn it by heart to pass a test to prove that you have read it.
I have to say that I totally agree with you in all you have written in this post!
During the seminar session I think that we all could notice that no one liked to read those books that were compulsory to read when we were students, especially at high school; and the reason was mainly that we had a limited time to enjoy the stories contained in them because we had a reading planning to fulfill and a final test to pass. That fact degraded the true sense of reading: to learn new things, to live thousands of different lives, to “escape” from reality for a few time, to relax and to enjoy, etc.
Furthermore, I am sure that reading for obligation also killed really great books and converted them into boring and hateful amounts of paper. I base this affirmation in my personal experience: during Primary school, reading for me was fascinating; my shelves were full of books, and almost every week I got a new one that I “devoured” many times. But, since I started Secondary school, I could only read those compulsory books my teachers chose, which were mainly old classical books. As a consequence of that, reading became horrible and we could not stand it. However, something wonderful happened during my 4th Year in Secondary school, when a new Literature teacher came to teach us in the middle of the year, and the methodology for encouraging us to read was totally different from the previous ones: she also asked us to read Classical books of Spanish Literature, such as Don Quixote, but we all analysed them in an enjoyable way that we could discover the deep sense of the stories and became really interested on reading more and more books, because we found reading enjoyable and pleasant again after some years of empty love.
So, I can conclude that for us, as future teachers, it is very important to reflect on our personal experience and try to take those positive ideas we lived to encourage reading in class, and also look for other ways and share them with our classmates.