Re: At least they're reading something

[Mary M Woodard <marlow@TENET.EDU>]

A few years ago I took a summer class called "Reaching Reluctant
Readers."  The instructor cited some work done by Bob Carlson at the
University of Iowa (if my notes are correct) about the Stages of Reading
Maturity.  The idea being that there are distinct stages that ea person
must go through to become a "mature" reader.  The very first one is
called "Unconscious Delight" and occurs from about grades 3-6.  It is
during this stage that a student becomes enamored with a certain series
of books or a particular genre.  They then proceed to read everything
they can find in the series or genre, and will continue to do so until
they are ready to move on to the next stage.  According to this theory,
kids must experience this type of reading before they can move on to
other types of books and other reasons for reading.  So whether the
series is the Hardy Boys or Goosebumps, we can take comfort in the fact
that "it's just a phase"! ;-)

Mary

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Mary M. Woodard, Librarian
Kimbrough Middle School
3900 North Galloway Ave.
Mesquite, TX  75150
(214) 882-5914
marlow@tenet.edu
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