Was there a book you read or was read aloud to you that you have always remembered or that has impacted your life? Tell us about the book and why it touched you so deeply.
A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote is the book I would choose as the one I have always remembered. My eleventh grade English teacher read it aloud to us the day before we got out for Christmas in 1984. And she read it with such passion that even when the bell rang to dismiss us, not one of the juniors in the room moved because she was not finished with the story. I remember her doing an impressive variety of voices for the characters in the book.
This book made a huge impact on me for several reasons. First, I was definitely a nerdy, teacher’s pet kind of an English student in eleventh grade so this kind of book/story was right up my alley. Next, it was so out of character for this tough-talking, red pen-marking grammarian we had encountered so far in the course that we were enthralled, yes, enthralled all 25 of us sitting breathlessly in our desks waiting for her to finish the story. And yet I think we all didn’t want it to end either, but end it did and it even ended sadly. I don’t know if it was that the story took place in the South, or that I am a true lover of Christmas (my initials spell ELF, you know!), or that Capote’s prose is just so engaging, but I know that story almost word for word over 25 years later.
When I was a high school teacher, I had to give exams the last days before Christmas until the last year I taught. I encouraged my IB Theory of Knowledge students to come to class on that day before the break even though they were exempt for the exam because I had a gift to give them. I read them A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. I tried to do my best voices for the different characters, but I don’t think I was as good as my former teacher. I paused at important points and ran through the list of fruitcake ingredients in one breath and spoke softly and loudly at all the right moments; and I had my class of wonderfully intelligent and dedicated students in the palm of my hand. And we all cried when I read the lines, “A message saying so merely confirms a piece of news some secret vein had already received, severing from me an irreplaceable part of myself, letting it loose like a kite on a broken string. That is why, walking across a school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky. As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying toward heaven.”
And that is why when I copy and paste those lines today, I get a little teary and chill bumps all over. This is the book that has made the biggest impression on me because I had it read to me and I had the privilege of reading it to others. The themes in it are universal. The characters are memorable. The relationship between Buddy and his friend is one that we all want to have at least once in our lifetime.
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reading. Show all posts
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
My Life as a Reader
I am taking up the challenge of fall blogging a little late, but here goes with the topic of my life as a reader.
My life as a reader is really the core of who I am. I read lots of different material--best sellers, cozy mysteries, favorite authors, inspirational books, books recommended by the magical algorithm at Amazon, books recommended by my friends on Facebook, books that my former book clubs are reading, professional books, blogs about education, the newspaper, magazines, catalogs. I don’t think there is anything I won’t read in a pinch. I can remember when I was growing up my grandparents had the newspaper and TV guide and that was it so I learned that when I visited to take my own books and magazines with me.
I asked another teacher what she was reading once and her answer surprised me--she said ,”I only read stuff for class during the school year. I save my pleasure reading for vacations and the summer.” Another colleague NEVER reads fiction or really any book--she did inform me that she reads 4 or 5 magazines a month. Friend #3 reads biographies almost exclusively and will sometimes venture into other non-fiction but rarely reads fiction. How sad for them all, I remember thinking. I almost always have a fiction novel or non-fiction book going and sometimes I have both. And I also usually have a book on my iPhone that I am listening to so that would make three. I read like this when I am working, when I am relaxing, when I am breathing!
Hmm my favorite author would be hard to pinpoint because I do read such a variety of stuff. But for fun let’s choose Janet Evanovich as my favorite fiction writer--her Stephanie Plum series makes me laugh out loud and I devour the early summer volume every June. I love her descriptions of the places and people in Stephanie’s world and her comedic timing is great. For my favorite non-fiction author, I would have to say Dan Pink. I have read A Whole New Mind several times and have even purchased copies to give to others. I still need to read Drive, but in some silly way, I feel myself saving it for a time I can really devour it and the middle of a semester of 5 classes is NOT it. I dabble in most other genres so I can’t really pick a favorite.
My favorite reading spot is my chair in my living room, I guess. But any comfy chair works for me--I like hanging out at Barnes and Noble or the public library or the Riverwalk. Sometimes I read in my office at my desk and sometimes in one of my “visitor” chairs. I haven’t been doing this lately, but I also like to read before I go to sleep. I have been trying to make this a habit again.
Okay to remember what I was reading when I was in college I am going to have to go look up some college course descriptions and some best seller lists from then. Gimme a minute. So my college reading according to the University of Alabama catalogue included Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Kate Chopin, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Studs Terkel, lots of Shakespeare, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Ben Johnson, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, John Keats, and Percy Shelly. I enjoyed most of those on that list and even taught a few of them when I taught English. But those dreary, dreadful 20th century British authors like Joseph Conrad, W. B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forrester, Doris Lessing, and Seamus Heaney were the bane of my first senior year! (I had the honor/misfortune of having 2 senior years at Alabama.). However, I continued to read for fun during these times, too; my list of books I read for pleasure then included If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon, Wanderlust by Danielle Steel, Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow, Patriot Games by Tom Clancy. During this time I think I started reading Dean Koontz, Mary Higgins Clark, John Grisham, Michael Crichton. And sometime in there I also become a bit obsessed with serial killer novels--I really chewed through them (hat tip to Hannibal Lector) as if I was planning to commit the perfect murder.
To tie this blog post up in a neat little bow, I will tell you that I am currently reading Readicide by Kelly Gallager (non-fiction, professional), Chapter and Hearse by Lorna Barrett (fiction, cozy mystery), and listening to Jack Higgins’ Flight of Eagles(fiction, World War II) on my iPhone. I guess I am nothing if not an eclectic and adventurous reader.
My life as a reader is really the core of who I am. I read lots of different material--best sellers, cozy mysteries, favorite authors, inspirational books, books recommended by the magical algorithm at Amazon, books recommended by my friends on Facebook, books that my former book clubs are reading, professional books, blogs about education, the newspaper, magazines, catalogs. I don’t think there is anything I won’t read in a pinch. I can remember when I was growing up my grandparents had the newspaper and TV guide and that was it so I learned that when I visited to take my own books and magazines with me.
I asked another teacher what she was reading once and her answer surprised me--she said ,”I only read stuff for class during the school year. I save my pleasure reading for vacations and the summer.” Another colleague NEVER reads fiction or really any book--she did inform me that she reads 4 or 5 magazines a month. Friend #3 reads biographies almost exclusively and will sometimes venture into other non-fiction but rarely reads fiction. How sad for them all, I remember thinking. I almost always have a fiction novel or non-fiction book going and sometimes I have both. And I also usually have a book on my iPhone that I am listening to so that would make three. I read like this when I am working, when I am relaxing, when I am breathing!
Hmm my favorite author would be hard to pinpoint because I do read such a variety of stuff. But for fun let’s choose Janet Evanovich as my favorite fiction writer--her Stephanie Plum series makes me laugh out loud and I devour the early summer volume every June. I love her descriptions of the places and people in Stephanie’s world and her comedic timing is great. For my favorite non-fiction author, I would have to say Dan Pink. I have read A Whole New Mind several times and have even purchased copies to give to others. I still need to read Drive, but in some silly way, I feel myself saving it for a time I can really devour it and the middle of a semester of 5 classes is NOT it. I dabble in most other genres so I can’t really pick a favorite.
My favorite reading spot is my chair in my living room, I guess. But any comfy chair works for me--I like hanging out at Barnes and Noble or the public library or the Riverwalk. Sometimes I read in my office at my desk and sometimes in one of my “visitor” chairs. I haven’t been doing this lately, but I also like to read before I go to sleep. I have been trying to make this a habit again.
Okay to remember what I was reading when I was in college I am going to have to go look up some college course descriptions and some best seller lists from then. Gimme a minute. So my college reading according to the University of Alabama catalogue included Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Henry Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Kate Chopin, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, Studs Terkel, lots of Shakespeare, John Donne, Andrew Marvell, Ben Johnson, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, John Keats, and Percy Shelly. I enjoyed most of those on that list and even taught a few of them when I taught English. But those dreary, dreadful 20th century British authors like Joseph Conrad, W. B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forrester, Doris Lessing, and Seamus Heaney were the bane of my first senior year! (I had the honor/misfortune of having 2 senior years at Alabama.). However, I continued to read for fun during these times, too; my list of books I read for pleasure then included If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon, Wanderlust by Danielle Steel, Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow, Patriot Games by Tom Clancy. During this time I think I started reading Dean Koontz, Mary Higgins Clark, John Grisham, Michael Crichton. And sometime in there I also become a bit obsessed with serial killer novels--I really chewed through them (hat tip to Hannibal Lector) as if I was planning to commit the perfect murder.
To tie this blog post up in a neat little bow, I will tell you that I am currently reading Readicide by Kelly Gallager (non-fiction, professional), Chapter and Hearse by Lorna Barrett (fiction, cozy mystery), and listening to Jack Higgins’ Flight of Eagles(fiction, World War II) on my iPhone. I guess I am nothing if not an eclectic and adventurous reader.
Monday, June 14, 2010
What's good enough for assigned reading?
This article talks about the relatively new phenomenon of asking entering freshmen to read a common book to have as the basis for discussion in freshman seminars. I was struck that the National Association of Scholars in a report deemed many of the books that colleges and university chose as not worthy since they were not classics. Some of the titles included Three Cups of Tea, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Enrique’s Journey and many more. So what is wrong with these titles? The NAS seems to think that the classics of the 19th century and before are the only books worth studying or requiring for students. After deeming only these titles as worthy of study--Frankenstein, Walden, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The Communist Manifesto--the report states “The best we can say is that all (or almost all) the selected works have some merit. We don’t see the list as comprised of third‐rate writers or writing. There are, to be sure, a handful of choices that look eccentric and are of doubtful merit.”
Mabel G. Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions and the first year experience at Ohio State University, says that students have responded to the books that the NAS has critically dismissed in a positive manner. She also states, "We assume that students in their course work have the opportunity to pursue what would be thought of as the classics by the NAS," she said. "What we are trying to do is create a sense of community." I find this interesting because Dr. Freeman sees the freshman reading experience for what it is--a way to bring together a class of diverse students from many different backgrounds around something they will have in common. In no way do freshman reading assignments mean to take away from the study of literature or the classics. The leaders of these programs want to get students to think about current issues and topics that they can relate to in some way. How many freshmen in the fall of 2010 will have a lot to say about the Communist Manifesto? History has already taught us that communism has failed, so why would read this? Maybe it would be helpful in a history class, but it is not really about the world we live in today. Just my 2 cents worth!
I struggle with the question of should our high school students be reading the same things that were read in the 20th century? Although I was once a high school English and Latin teacher, I can see that there need to be some major changes to the literature canon that we ask our 21st century adolescents to read both in high school and in college. It is important to embrace new literature as it appears in a world where information bombards us every day and now anyone can be a published author. I hope to be an advocate for reading common texts to create community in my work with local high schools and with my own university students.
Mabel G. Freeman, assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions and the first year experience at Ohio State University, says that students have responded to the books that the NAS has critically dismissed in a positive manner. She also states, "We assume that students in their course work have the opportunity to pursue what would be thought of as the classics by the NAS," she said. "What we are trying to do is create a sense of community." I find this interesting because Dr. Freeman sees the freshman reading experience for what it is--a way to bring together a class of diverse students from many different backgrounds around something they will have in common. In no way do freshman reading assignments mean to take away from the study of literature or the classics. The leaders of these programs want to get students to think about current issues and topics that they can relate to in some way. How many freshmen in the fall of 2010 will have a lot to say about the Communist Manifesto? History has already taught us that communism has failed, so why would read this? Maybe it would be helpful in a history class, but it is not really about the world we live in today. Just my 2 cents worth!
I struggle with the question of should our high school students be reading the same things that were read in the 20th century? Although I was once a high school English and Latin teacher, I can see that there need to be some major changes to the literature canon that we ask our 21st century adolescents to read both in high school and in college. It is important to embrace new literature as it appears in a world where information bombards us every day and now anyone can be a published author. I hope to be an advocate for reading common texts to create community in my work with local high schools and with my own university students.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
My K12 Online Conference Experience
Once upon a time on a blog post far, far away, I saw a promo for something called the K12 Online Conference. I was intrigued since I was not able to travel to conferences at the moment because of a decided slow down in my cash flow. So I went to the promo page and read about the K12 Online Conference concept. It was very simple—online presentations were shared with people from around the globe—and everything was free! No cost to register, no travel expenses, no giveaways—just online learning and sharing from passionate learners like me.
I downloaded the application to present and ruminated over it for a while. At the same time, I was in an online course learning how to develop online professional development courses for teachers. My topic was reading and web 2.0 tools so I decided to give that a try for the K12 Online Conference. And much to my surprise and delight, Reading Revolution: New Texts and New Technologies was accepted for the K12 Online Conference 2008. I was even more excited when I saw that it was a fairly exclusive group chosen to present. I was on the same presenter list as Vicki Davis, Chris Lehmann, Sharon Betts, Cheryl Oakes, Brian Crosby, and Scott McLeod! Yikes! Nothing like being a newbie with the "big dogs"!
I posted my K12 Online Conference teaser using Animoto and received some great feedback. I grew both more excited and more nervous as the conference approached. And as it approached, I couldn’t figure out how to video my 20 minute presentation since I didn't have a video camera and a Flip camera was not in my budget. So, I finally decided to do it a little differently and I created a wiki as my presentation. I showcased using blogs, wikis, and podcasts for encouraging students to read.
So the actual conference arrived and my presentation went live on October 22, 2008. I had 2 live chats the day the presentation was posted and talked with people from the UK, Canada, and the US. I posted a message on Plurk for the live chat two of my Plurk buddies, loonyhiker and agapejen, joined me to talk about my presentation. It was great! I also chatted with a concerned dad and pharmacist from Canada about the pros and cons of using multimedia for reading as opposed to print only (but that is another post!). Later in the week, I participated in the Fireside Chat for all presenters and keynoters from Week 1 of the conference. We used Elluminate to talk, share, listen, and chat with folks from all over about the presentations from the first week. In this online arena, I met people from Los Angeles, San Antonio, Venezuela, and Maine. Although I am a geek girl at heart and I expected to enjoy this conference, I have loved being a presenter more than I thought I would since I am also a big Face-to-Face person. I have had a great time discussing my presentation with people from around the country and around the world. And I learned some new tools along the way. Isn't this what a conference experience is supposed to be about?
Finally, I want to give a great big shout out to my convener, Darren Kuropatwa, who helped me navigate the uncharted waters of my first K12 Online Conference. Thanks so much! And another shout out to all the people who make this conference a possibility—you know who you are!
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