Status: Finding my mojo
Last night was my first night of teaching for the winter term, and I'm still recovering. The first day is always exhausting and exhilarating. Somehow, I have to find a way to make 20 odd strangers feel excited about the prospect of writing something each week for the next 10 weeks and striving to do their best. I also have to make them feel comfortable with each other and excited about what we will be reading. It's a tall order. I always open with the eons-old "go around in a circle and tell me your goals" routine. I hate this necessity, so I try to change up how we break the ice each term with silly questions in addition to the name/major/goal questions. I like asking what the last thing was that they wrote or read, and it is always amazing to me how many just don't read. Not don't read fiction, or don't read print books, but just don't read period.
One of my returning students reported that the last thing he read was the last homework assignment for me in November. I know he's an avid sports buff, so I pressed him a little more than I would a newbie. No sports page? No Sports Illustrated? "Nope. It's all on TV." He's a tremendously bright guy, so the lack of reading just baffles me. Another student is a huge music and gaming buff, but he reports that "so much online doesn't need reading anymore." It's enough to make me want to stick my head in the sand and chant "plenty of YA readers, plenty of YA readers, plenty of YA readers . . . "
However, one student reported that she is not usually a reader at all and last read a book in high school, but then a few months ago, she was home with a new baby, and someone gave her copies of the Twilight books. She was hooked and read all four and sounded genuinely excited about the novel we're reading this term. Just like that, non-reader to reader--thank you, Twilight franchise. I can guarantee that she has a better chance of getting a good grade in my class just by having read more than most of the other students in the last year. The more students read, the better they tend to write.
I try to pick fail-safe books for my students--ones that I think the majority of them will love. I try to pick books that are quick reads that hook them and make them want to keep reading. I save the dense, literary tomes for upper level courses and go straight for award-winning popular fiction that combines great writing with an exciting story. In other words, I have them reading the sort of books that most of us want to write, in a variety of different genres.
I think because we are all readers and we are surrounded by other readers, sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the vast non-reading population. But how many of them, like my student above, are simply waiting for the right book? My hope springs eternal each term that somehow, someway, I can get the right book to the right student at the right time.
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Your turn: Pretend your non-reader best friend/husband/parent/child is stuck in bed and the TV is broken. Heck, pretend there is a power outage. What book would you bring to him or her? Beyond Harry Potter and Twilight, what books have you seen make readers out of die-hard non-readers? Have you ever given the right book at the right time to someone who isn't usually a reader? Do tell.
8 comments:
I've known several teachers in my life and I am always impressed with their passion and dedication to help other people grow and improve. I wish I was taking your class!
There are two YAs that I love and have passed along to other people, both adults and children. One is Dorothy Gilman's The Maze in the Heart of the Castle and the other is View From the Cherry Tree by an author I actually knew fairly well and liked a lot. Naturally, I can't remember her name but I'll look it up and report it later. Now that I think about it, I'm wondering if she also did a book on juvenile diabetes -- I'll post her name in the next spot because I can't remember how to do multiple windows at the moment.
Anyway, the first one is an excellent parable for loss and grieving and had my ten year old and twelve year old in my bed every night to read the next chapter before bed. The second one is just plain fun and I loved the fact the author wrote adult fiction until they asked her to make this book into a YA, so the cat is still named S.O.B. and she claims she changed little else. I think some YA authors tend to write down -- the goods ones don't.
I got my husband reading mysteries with the early Robert Crais books among others but frankly, everyone else I know either reads or isn't going to read because of eye issues. I've gotta go get that name -- it's driving me nuts -- it's right on the tip of my tongue -- back later -- and if any Mac user out there can remind how to open multiple windows, I'd appreciate it.
Got it. I kept thinking Nora Roberts which I knew was wrong -- the name is Willo Davis Roberts. She died a few years ago. She also wrote a diabetes book which is selling on Amazon.com for $.01 called Sugar Isn't Everything.
I gave Lord of the Rings to my daughter when she was 18 and no longer "had to read" fiction for an assignment. She went on to buy other fantasy books after that, mostly urban fantasy. So in a manner of speaking she discovered not all fiction are old classics.
I agree with Alice, I wish you were my teacher!
My husband is a non-reader. Well he reads the newspaper if he has nothing better to do and he reads the Capital Press ads. I can't even get him to read my books. But it comes from the fact he had a bad school start and doesn't read very fast. I've tried to get him interested in fiction books but he wants to read tractor part books and animal diseases.
Our oldest son who was forever getting in trouble in school for always picking nonfiction books for book reports read a romance when he was stationed in Iraq and liked it. I sent him a couple more westerns. I don't know if he ever read them or not. He said his mother-in-law gave him a book about the corrupt government officials in Texas for Christmas and he is enjoying reading that.
I think it depends on the person to really find a book that works for them.
Thanks for the kind words everyone, and thanks for the book recommendations!
Geez, Wavy, I'd probably fail miserably at the task of recommending a book for someone who doesn't read. I just can't fathom that someone doesn't read. After I wiped the stunned expression off my face so I didn't make them feel totally horrible, I'd probably take them to the nearest library or book store and have a book spree.
Guess I'll thank my parents the next time I talk to them for making books such a natural part of my childhood. I grew up in a pretty backwoods kinda town, but there were always books to read in our house.
How very cool that are introducing people to the wonderful worlds of books!
I admire anyone who can inspire someone else to read. I'm afraid I would suck at it. I've been reading all of my life and my taste is so personal and varied, I'm at a loss when I try to think of a book that would appeal to almost anyone (even bestsellers don't always do that!). Whenever I'm asked for a recommendation, I always end up turning the question around and asking, "well, what kind of things do you like?" LOL
Great post, Bethany!
I think the key to getting people to read is finding what interests them. My 10 yr old wouldn't finish a book until she picked up Harry Potter, and now she's flying through the series even though it's slightly advanced for her reading level. She loves them and can't put them down. I've tried for years to get my hubby to read, but I never saw a spark in him until a friend gave him "The Economic Hitman" a nonfiction book about economics and what governments do to sway the economies of the world to their own gain. Since then I've seen him pick up more and more books. He's still not a fiction guru, but he does read my books (and says he loves them. LOL)
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