Monday, March 7, 2011
Chapter 3
It is quite clear from this chapter that the author expects a lot from her students. As they read an average of 20 books a year, that is a lot of reading for one student. Personally I would be quite irritated as a student, with the feeling "Does she not understand we have other classes?" I feel that assigning twice as many books for the year leaves no time for critical thought development. Students who are plowing through books seem like they are only learning plot and themes. It would be quite impressive that they could understand the in depth analysis that the classic books call for. I do like the fact that she has the students perform literature circles. Those are great times for students to talk about the books. "California's standardized testing program significantly cuts into instructional time" (pg 45). This seems the be the theme all throughout the country. The government is forcing education to become standardized leaving less time to teach critical thought.
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To me it seems like Jago is really out of touch with the actual lives of teenagers. On page 48 she says "Students have the time for longer books. They just need to be persuaded to reallocate minutes from other pleasures." This just shows that she doesn't realize that teenagers have to deal with other classes, preparing for standardized tests, after school jobs, and extracurriculars. Assigning them that much work will just make them hate reading.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you. I love to read, and I loved all the classics I read in school, but I did have other classes with other homework, and extra curricular activities so I would definately not have wanted to read that many books. I'm the kind of person who won't want to read for pleasure if I have to read a lot for my classes, so to me, it seems like it would discourage pleasure reading.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of what we talked about in high school journalism today about how standardized testing is getting in the way of critical thought. I was shocked when in the first chapter Jago mentioned test scores and how students are being tested on things they have never seen. This confuses me a little. Aren't we supposed to be avoiding "teaching to the test"? This makes me wonder where the happy medium with standardized testing really is.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree! If I was a student I wouldn't be too happy with the fact that I have to read 20 books in a year, and there are a lot of other classes that I am taking as well as my students. Though it is kind of amazing to think that all her students read that much, I think that instead of reading just books maybe break it up between books short stories and poems. I'm sure she is taking all of those so it may not even seem like the students are reading that many books.
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