Your point about letting kids choose for themselves definitely worked for me. My 6th grade teacher blocked out a reading time each day - anywhere from a half hour to an hour. During the time, the only requirement was that you read something. He would take the time to visit with a few individuals each day and talk to them about what they were reading, and perhaps to make suggestions about other things they might like. More than anything else in my formal education, his class helped to hook me on reading. But even then, it almost failed. In high school, the assigned books completely bored me, and I took it as a challenge to see if I could still get As without doing the reading. Turns out that was pretty easy - listen to the teacher and regurgitate what she said on the exams. Then one test, the class overall did horribly on a test (which I aced), and she gave a pop true/false quiz about events in the book. I failed the quiz miserably, she asked me how that was possible, and I told her the truth.
On the subject of manga I think you would very much enjoy Vagabond since it's heavly based on history and follows Musashi Miyamoto journey. :) Plus the art work is amazingly good, flows very dinamicly, can feel very rough or delicated when needed and just compliments what is happening very well. In case you ever get to look into it I would love to know your thoughts about it.
Pete Dexter, Ellroy, Stone, Leonard, and Estleman! That list makes up for the sequence from part 1. I had a similar discussion about reading in school with our Humanities department chair just this morning as we looked at collaboration between our departments. The insistence on using “contemporary literature” which is mostly just autobiographical fiction is also pushing more and more potential readers away. I keep a small library in my class, mostly crime fiction, and it gets play from a few students with about one a year borrowing a volume of poetry by the end.
I think your idea about reading in high schools would work in the pre-internet era, but especially now when most high schoolers own phones and have owned them since at least middle school, it has become physically impossible for many high schoolers to actually read a full novel, even if it is Elmore Leonard. This seems to be because of social media, and mostly because of sites like Vine and now TikTok, which manufacture very short clips. This has caused many to lower there attention spans. I think trying your idea would be good to try as I’ve never seen it happen, but I think it would fail.
Your point about letting kids choose for themselves definitely worked for me. My 6th grade teacher blocked out a reading time each day - anywhere from a half hour to an hour. During the time, the only requirement was that you read something. He would take the time to visit with a few individuals each day and talk to them about what they were reading, and perhaps to make suggestions about other things they might like. More than anything else in my formal education, his class helped to hook me on reading.
But even then, it almost failed. In high school, the assigned books completely bored me, and I took it as a challenge to see if I could still get As without doing the reading. Turns out that was pretty easy - listen to the teacher and regurgitate what she said on the exams. Then one test, the class overall did horribly on a test (which I aced), and she gave a pop true/false quiz about events in the book. I failed the quiz miserably, she asked me how that was possible, and I told her the truth.
Will be dropping off some kittens on your doorstep later ha ha ha 🐈🐈🐈
A Patrick O’Brian read along sounds amazing.
I’ll have to check out the Jason Momoa Conan.
Many thanks for answering my questions!
On the subject of manga I think you would very much enjoy Vagabond since it's heavly based on history and follows Musashi Miyamoto journey. :) Plus the art work is amazingly good, flows very dinamicly, can feel very rough or delicated when needed and just compliments what is happening very well. In case you ever get to look into it I would love to know your thoughts about it.
I appreciate you answering my questions.
Pete Dexter, Ellroy, Stone, Leonard, and Estleman! That list makes up for the sequence from part 1.
I had a similar discussion about reading in school with our Humanities department chair just this morning as we looked at collaboration between our departments. The insistence on using “contemporary literature” which is mostly just autobiographical fiction is also pushing more and more potential readers away. I keep a small library in my class, mostly crime fiction, and it gets play from a few students with about one a year borrowing a volume of poetry by the end.
Thanks, for answering my questions.
Looking forward to a Superman starter kit.
Favorite Kate Bush Novel? mine is Hounds of Love (followed by Sensual World).
Sorry Deb, I tried 🤷♂️
Hah! She's beyond saving, bub!
Thanks for the answers!
A really good manga I'd recommend is Pluto by Naoki Urasawa.
I think your idea about reading in high schools would work in the pre-internet era, but especially now when most high schoolers own phones and have owned them since at least middle school, it has become physically impossible for many high schoolers to actually read a full novel, even if it is Elmore Leonard. This seems to be because of social media, and mostly because of sites like Vine and now TikTok, which manufacture very short clips. This has caused many to lower there attention spans. I think trying your idea would be good to try as I’ve never seen it happen, but I think it would fail.
Oh I thought this was a CarTube channel....sooooo you’re not a car dealer?
I'm older than dirt-worst book required to read in high school was Segal's Love Story. Mawkish, treacly, horrible, WTF?