We’re on a fast track in this country. We think that moving kids up to higher and higher reading levels faster and faster is the way to go. We reward kids for reading lots of books, rather than encouraging them to spend time enjoying, learning from, and mining fewer titles. In “The Case for Slow Reading,” Thomas Newkirk makes the case for slowing kids down, rather than speeding them up. He gives practical ideas for how to do this, e.g., attending to beginnings, annotating pages, and reading poetry. Rather than me trying to explain what Newkirk says, I urge you to read his article for yourself—slowly and deeply. It’s a keeper!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Slow and Steady...(You Know the Rest)
We’re on a fast track in this country. We think that moving kids up to higher and higher reading levels faster and faster is the way to go. We reward kids for reading lots of books, rather than encouraging them to spend time enjoying, learning from, and mining fewer titles. In “The Case for Slow Reading,” Thomas Newkirk makes the case for slowing kids down, rather than speeding them up. He gives practical ideas for how to do this, e.g., attending to beginnings, annotating pages, and reading poetry. Rather than me trying to explain what Newkirk says, I urge you to read his article for yourself—slowly and deeply. It’s a keeper!
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Sharon,
ReplyDeleteThank you for directing me to this article. I am glad that there are
educators like yourself that keep bringing up questions that challenge
my thinking about my practice.
This article brought several points that I will ponder in the next few
days. My teaching will be better because of my reflection.
hey judy, good to hear from you. newkirk certainly did a great job thinking this through. and now you're thinking...cool.
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