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Apr. 11th, 2022 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evening_tsarSo my grade 5 kid has been assigned "Walking Home" by Eric Walters.
Now, nothing against Walters - a hard working writer who's penned about half the books on school shelves these days - but it's a bit much for my grad 5er. Not only is it long, and not only is the language rather sophisticated, its subject matter is pretty heavy.
The last thing he was assigned was "Iqbal", about a child slave surviving sweat shops in Pakistan. From there he's going straight to tribal violence in Kenya. He's ten. Might we not lighten things up just a little bit in between? Say by way of "Diary of a Whimpy Kid"? Something with a little less death by machete?
Look: I'm all for preparing kids for the evils of the world. That is our sad duty. But I'm also a big believer in letting kids be kids. They will have an entire life-time to confront the world's ills - there are more than enough of them, and they're accumulating every year. These kids will be disillusioned, jaded and traumatized in no time at all - why rush it?
It wouldn't matter so much if it were actually of his level. But it's a struggle and a slog for him, and I wonder whoever assigned it has ever actually listen to him read. He read slowly, missed most of the context cues, much of the implied meaning, and didn't understand about half the vocabulary words. Who thought this would be the best choice?
Walters himself has written tons of books for younger readers and reluctant readers - why not start with one of them?
Because I suspect the book was selected for its cross curricular value rather than its suitability for this reader. I'm not unsympathetic to this consideration, but it won't do this kid any good.
Challenging readers is important - but it can only work if the challenge can conceivably be met. It's like training for a marathon - your coach doesn't just say "do it all NOW." If you could do it all NOW there'd be no point in training, would there?
They're so worried about reluctant readers these days. Just getting them to crack open a book without prompting has become THE primary concern of all pedagogues, to the exclusion of just about everything else. Get 'em reading, all else will follow is the logic. I fully support this approach.
But if there are so many reluctant readers out there, could at least some of the reason not be that well-meaning teachers have (unintentionally) made reading feel too much like work? That for guys like my guy, reading is stressful, difficult, discouraging and depressing? Could it be that his own aptitudes and interests are of not taken account?
We'll see.
Now, nothing against Walters - a hard working writer who's penned about half the books on school shelves these days - but it's a bit much for my grad 5er. Not only is it long, and not only is the language rather sophisticated, its subject matter is pretty heavy.
The last thing he was assigned was "Iqbal", about a child slave surviving sweat shops in Pakistan. From there he's going straight to tribal violence in Kenya. He's ten. Might we not lighten things up just a little bit in between? Say by way of "Diary of a Whimpy Kid"? Something with a little less death by machete?
Look: I'm all for preparing kids for the evils of the world. That is our sad duty. But I'm also a big believer in letting kids be kids. They will have an entire life-time to confront the world's ills - there are more than enough of them, and they're accumulating every year. These kids will be disillusioned, jaded and traumatized in no time at all - why rush it?
It wouldn't matter so much if it were actually of his level. But it's a struggle and a slog for him, and I wonder whoever assigned it has ever actually listen to him read. He read slowly, missed most of the context cues, much of the implied meaning, and didn't understand about half the vocabulary words. Who thought this would be the best choice?
Walters himself has written tons of books for younger readers and reluctant readers - why not start with one of them?
Because I suspect the book was selected for its cross curricular value rather than its suitability for this reader. I'm not unsympathetic to this consideration, but it won't do this kid any good.
Challenging readers is important - but it can only work if the challenge can conceivably be met. It's like training for a marathon - your coach doesn't just say "do it all NOW." If you could do it all NOW there'd be no point in training, would there?
They're so worried about reluctant readers these days. Just getting them to crack open a book without prompting has become THE primary concern of all pedagogues, to the exclusion of just about everything else. Get 'em reading, all else will follow is the logic. I fully support this approach.
But if there are so many reluctant readers out there, could at least some of the reason not be that well-meaning teachers have (unintentionally) made reading feel too much like work? That for guys like my guy, reading is stressful, difficult, discouraging and depressing? Could it be that his own aptitudes and interests are of not taken account?
We'll see.
