Re: At least they are reading something!

[Betty Dawn Hamilton <bhamilt@TENET.EDU>]

On Wed, 25 Sep 1996, Eva Bennett wrote:

>     No, there is no research that I know of suggesting that reading bad
> literature leads to avid consumption of good literature, or to better
> reading skills, or to critical thinking skills; however, there is some
> research documenting that the more one reads, the better one reads.  The old
> saying, "practice makes perfect", is somewhat true.

To add to that, I have noticed that as students *consume* those romances
and horror books, they actually *complete* a book.  Then when you slip a
book into their hands that has a bit more "meat" to it, they can't say
they have never read an entire book.  They are just a little less afraid
to try to *finish*!  One of my romance readers picked up Carson
McCuller's _Member of the Wedding_ (modern cover) the other day and read
it.  (The new books were all mixed together on the new book cart and
_Member_ was one of them.)

We are getting ready to put out those classics (forgot the publiser) that
are hardback but are little, skinny ones.  They are taught as short
stories or novelettes sometimes in classes.  The authors are Dostoevsky,
Tolstoy, Saki, Steinbeck, etc., but are all *skinny* books with nice shiny
covers.  They are also on Accelerated Reader. We'll see how these work as
a student choice. Students will think they are putting one over on the
teacher when they get one of those to read because of the few pages!

Betty
        Betty Dawn Hamilton * bhamilt@tenet.edu * 806.637.4523
Learning Resources Specialist * Tenet Master Trainer * Brownfield High School
                701 Cub Drive * Brownfield, TX 79316