Chesapeake reading program has kids in a 180

Hampton Roads Pilot ^ | 2-24-08 | Amy Coutee

[Tax-chick]

Thanks! When I hit the library catalog, I’ll make that my first choice, if they’ve got it.

[Tax-chick]

Note to self, avoid Georgia. Florida has Intangibles Tax, too.

[hinckley buzzard]

it’s really not funny that it takes a specialist to convince whoever’s in charge that giving students books they can’t read about subjects that don’t interest them is a losing proposition.

The tragedy is that it takes a specialist to believe it would be a winning proposition.

[AnAmericanMother]

Yeah, and we've got an income tax TOO!

I would avoid GA, except I've lived here all my life and I'm used to it. Plus, I'm NOT taking any more bar exams for any reason whatsoever.

[Tax-chick]

Good point.

[stevio]

I remember those commercials during Bugs Bunny when I was kid. Do you have any experience with that course? How did they teach it?

[dennisw]

Some think-tank program like this was put in place at some of our county schools recently. They were *simply shocked* to find that students did more reading when they were allowed to select books they liked that were at their level of reading competence! Who’da thunkit?

I had an old wicker hamper full of comic books when I was little. That got me off to a good start

[ReignOfError]

My 'natural' accent is Atlanta Southern, which is not very much more pronounced than my professional one (native Atlantans have very little accent at all, there are a couple of shibboleths but you have to know them.)

Oh, yeah. In my experience, Southerners in big cities generally have a more subdued accent than in small towns or the countryside. A lot more mingling with transplants, from elementary school on. I have less of an accent than my mom did, and she had less than her mother (who grew up in Habersham County, moved to Atlanta to work in a factory during WWII, and stayed), and she had less than her mother, who was from an Athens society family, by way of Wellesley.

An interesting phenomenon was that my southern accent became more pronounced when I went to Emory. I'd never had as many Yankees in my circle of friends, so I think it was a subconscious backlash.

I can blend in in just about any American city, at least until the first time I say y'all. I'm militant about y'all -- American English needs a second-person plural pronoun, and we in the South have been good enough to provide one.

[Marysecretary]

Me, too. My folks always brought home Nancy Drew books and books like The Secret Garden, one of my favorites. I would still rather read those than some of today’s stuff. Give me a Reader’s Digest condensed book any time (LOL).

[Tailback]

There’s no surer way to put kids off reading than forcing them to read “Moby Dick” or “Last of the Mohicans” when they are at a much lower level.

My HS Freshman English teacher tried to talk me out of Moby Dick as my chosen book to read and write a report on. (she didn't know me very well at the time) We had almost all of the first grading quarter to read the book and give weekly status reports. I finished the book in a week, had the final report done two weeks later, and spent the rest of the quarter reading whatever I wanted. I did struggle a bit with Chaucer and Shakespeare, but I'm glad we got the exposure to them. It helped me appreciate seeing "Taming of the Shrew" live at the Ashland, OR Shakespearean festival a few years ago.

[ShadowDancer]

Wow, my parents would have croaked if I got a C in math! - Now its a good grade?

It depends. If math is a struggle then yes, it is a good grade. You can't base everything on A's.

[AnAmericanMother]

LOL!

The difference is, you chose it.

A week is a pretty quick gulping of the poor devil of a sub-sub, though . . . . it might stand a re-reading now. I didn't read it until I was a sophomore in college, we had an entire semester course on Moby Dick (along with sidelights on the author, the New England transcendentalists, etc. etc.). But the book did repay extended and thorough scrutiny. And I decided I liked Melville after all (I was more of a Hawthorne fan in high school.)

[AnAmericanMother]

The Secret Garden has always been one of my favorites, Theosophic overtones and all.

There is a lot of Frances Burnett on line at Gutenburg and at the UVA Modern English collection, if you want to look at some of her other stuff. I was amazed at her novel for adults A Lady of Quality. It's a whacking good read.

[fightinJAG]

I don’t understand why kids can’t just select books out of the school library. The books supposedly are all appropriate (ahem) and cover a wide range of reading levels.

[magslinger]

Does she have the Jane Austen action figure?

I'm not kidding, google it. My daughter has one.

[SoftballMominVA]

Excellent! A birthday present!

She thinks it's great, especially when she saw it came with a copy of P & P !

[BerryDingle]

I remember those commercials during Bugs Bunny when I was kid. Do you have any experience with that course? How did they teach it?

No, never took the course. I would imagine it was a correspondence course of some type.

[magslinger]

Mrs Mag got that one I mentioned for our oldest for Christmas. She is a little older than your daughter, but I thnk it was the number 1 hit under the tree this year.
Has your daughter tried Debra White Smith? My daughter called while I was posting this and suggested it as a Christan update to the Austen books.

[SoftballMominVA]

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll look her up

[Tailback]

A week is a pretty quick gulping of the poor devil of a sub-sub, though

I don't want to sound like I'm bragging but I'm a borderline speed reader. I struggled to pass Freshman Algebra in HS but in the 4th grade I was tested as having the reading ability of an average college freshman. After the Army I attended college for 2 years and in Chemistry and Anatomy and Physiology I would have a weeks worth of reading done in a night. The girls in the nursing program hated my guts because I'd show up for the Wednesday class with the weeks work done and invite them all to drinks and pool on Friday night.