Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/114027
Teachers choose reading material with "power standards" that will be on the test and improve scores. Students have to have time to be curious about something, says Lynda Campfield, here asking Kairi Bynum about his book, 'Wait Till Helen Comes.' Jerry Tivey, his 11th-grade International Baccalaureate English teacher, believes reading is evolving due to technology. "You have to look at the big picture, and ask what the ultimate purpose of reading is," says Tivey, San Bernardino Teachers Association. "We read to get news, learn instructions or piece together something. We read a memo from the boss. I don't think Twitter, Facebook or Internet news is any different; it's just another way to get and exchange information. It may be useless information, but students are reading, processing and sharing with friends as they decide what to keep and what to delete from their account. We have to look outside the box when it comes to what we think reading is." 12 California Educator March 2013 Albaugh agrees students don't read much for pleasure because they are watching more TV and spending time online. But the Huntington Beach Elementary Teachers Association member thinks changes in the way schools have been teaching reading under NCLB are also to blame. At her school, students must read a 500-page textbook of anthologies (containing excerpts of novels and short stories) before reading an actual novel. So it's not until end of the year that students can start To Kill a Mockingbird. Meanwhile, short stories or snippets of stories don't hook them in. Some say the anthology approach is like asking students to interpret a corner of Lilly Alaniz talks with Marcavious Vega about stories they read during silent reading.