Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/114027
Students are reading for a test or because they have to meet a standard, and that is not inspiring a love of literature or the written word. michelle albaugh Exercise for the brain Kelly Gallagher wrote Readicide after he brought up the topic of View Middle School in Beaumont, finds students are losing the abilAl-Qaida for discussion in class and an honors student asked him to ity to "endurance-read" because of anthologies. spell Al's last name. "It's like physical fitness, except it's mental fitness. They lose the "Due to a lack of reading, kids come to class with limited prior ability to push themselves through a difficult part of a book and then knowledge and background. I could give them a politifeel at the end it was worth it." cal cartoon, and they wouldn't understand the lesson Brubaker believes less reading results in reduced if they don't know Susan Rice is being interviewed for vocabulary; students tend to use words used in everysecretary of state. It's worrisome. Studies show that day conversations rather than a rich vocabulary gleaned adults who read regularly are more involved in their from books. (Gallagher calls this phenomenon "word communities and civic life." poverty" and says students are becoming more limited Because the brain gets exercise from reading material in their word usage due to less time reading.) that is challenging and extended, students are not exerThe biggest threat, says Brubaker, is a loss of critical cising their brains the way they once did, he asserts. thinking in teens. "They lose the ability to maintain concentration. It "When you read, you imagine possible worlds and becomes a chicken-or-the-egg thing; they won't read become a person who sees what other people don't Jerry Tivey long pieces, so we don't assign long pieces. But it's see. In a good book you are challenging your views, absolutely necessary that kids read challenging and difbecause it opens a window into something that is not ficult works, because that is when valuable brain exercise comes into your life and forces you to understand something unlike yourself. play. And that includes the classics." Reading not only makes you smarter, it makes you more compasJonathan Brubaker, a seventh-grade English teacher at Mountain sionate and understanding." 14 California Educator March 2013