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 8/25/98 |
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It has been proven that people who are avid readers, who spend a significant quantity of time in self-selected reading, achieve more highly academically (as measured, of course, by standardized tests). Unfortunately, too few people are avid readers. The amount of time children spend reading, on average, follows a bell curve that peaks in late elementary school/early middle school. By the time students reach high school, they are reading the same amount as they had in second and third grade - only a few minutes per day. With computers and television, it's not hard to predict where this trend will lead.
So here comes the 100 Book Challenge. Originally conceived by Jane Hileman as an elementary school program, the goal is to have children read. A lot. And every day. Reading is so important that at least 20 minutes of class time each day should be devoted to it. Students should also read for 20 minutes a day at home.
What is very important, however, is that the students get to choose their own books. I am fond of saying that there is nothing as boring as an assigned book. By choosing their own books, they gain ownership of them, and get to follow their preferences. I mean, how many people's reading tastes lean toward Dickens or Thoreau? Sure, they were good authors, but I personally prefer science fiction and fantasy literature, regardless of how hackneyed the genre has become. Many students say they hate to read; their experience in reading has been reading textbooks, reading aloud in class, reading assigned books that they wouldn't have chosen, etc. Of course they hate it. They never read anything for fun.
So I have been working with Jane Hileman and other teachers to make the 100 Book Challenge a reality in the Philadelphia School District. It has gained wide acceptance, and is even being done schoolwide in some schools. They use reading as an integral part of every subject. Not just textbook reading, but fiction, non-fiction, you name it. For example, if students are studying the Civil War in Social Studies, their reading in class is from books about the Civil War. This could include biographies, historical documents, fictional accounts, etc. How might reading Gone With the Wind influence your view of the Civil War? Do you think you could learn anything from it?
Of course, reading isn't the only component. Students keep reading logs that show what they are reading and how long they have read for (and yes, some students do cheat...). The teacher also has mini-conferences with each student - spending about 5 minutes (though it always ends up being longer) talking with them about their reading individually. This can be very telling. I have had some students admit to me that the book they just read is the first one they have ever finished on their own. Ever. And these are seniors in high school.
Class time is also spent sharing reading, what they have found or learned, recommending books, doing creative literature-based projects, etc. The idea is to build a literate community. When everybody is doing it, it becomes a positive behavior, not something nerdy and stupid. When people get excited about their reading, that is infectious. And better readers are better learners. You don't gain vocabulary by doing lists - you gain it by seeing words in context. And even when reading the trashiest books, you run into new words or have the words you already know reinforced with different connotations.
You've been wondering, "So do they read 100 books?" Well, beginning readers do, but their books are picture books and short books. As reading level increases, a "book" is a flexible term. It could be 100 lines, or chapters. At the high school level, it's 100 hours (figure 180 days/school year, so a half hour per day is 90 hours - 100 hours is achievable). Eventually, you have to break away from using a book or number of pages as a measurement because not only are books written at different levels (Moby Dick is a tad harder than a Danielle Steele novel), but students read at different rates. A fast reader may read over a page per minute, but the average among my students is about a page every two minutes. Try timing yourself sometime.
So I am fully vested in this project. My classoom is full of books - over a thousand of them. Many are pretty bad and will never be read, but they still have a certain presence to them. And I have been fortunate to be able to get money to buy books, so I have increased the number of decent, interesting books as well. I do steer students toward better books - I don't think there's no such thing as good literature - but in the end, it's got to be their choice. And I am reading right along with the students, so this experience has not only allowed me to learn a lot about books, but has also forced me to start reading again. And it's hard for me too - it's much easier to turn on the computer or television than to pick up a book. But when I remember why I loved reading in the first place - immersing myself in a book, time disappearing in words, then I'm glad I'm doing it again.
I may add various resources to this page - I figure I should show it to Jane
Hileman and I'll probably get stuck as the 100 Book Challenge webmaster,
but that's not so bad if it's mostly text. If you've made it this far,
congratulations. Read a book.