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Ms Braxton,
You asked a multitude of questions and gave a lot of thought provoking information 
(provocative!) in your posting.  As a media specialist at an
elementary school I follow the order from on high that says to only check out books 
to students that have AR quizzes.  I do this and while it sometimes
bothers me I accept the rule and enjoy the chance to introduce books to children 
and children to books.  Many of my students come from homes where reading
is not modeled and reading materials are non existent. By being held 
accountable for what they have read we are assured that they are a least
reading.  I am often amazed at the students who grab hold of reading and books 
who most assuredly would not if they had not been required to read and
account for their reading with a quiz.  It is a quick fix I suppose.  
After these students find their niches they they are incessant readers and
library visitors who often bring a buddy into the realm of reading and 
books. These reading enthusiasts are sometimes the only person in their
families who read for pleasure.
 
I was a reader as a child beginning with and loving those much maligned Nancy Drew 
books.  I would read under the covers and in the closet with a
flashlight.  To have taken a quiz on every book I read would have been a 
downer but I do believe that by somewhat forcing the hands of children who might
not otherwise read, we are getting the child to find out about the excitement that 
one can find only in reading for ones own pleasure.  Children who
want to read will read and children who don't want to read still need to 
read.  It makes me very happy to have one of my students who I know comes from 
a
difficult home situation tell me that he stayed up late so that he could 
finish his book.  I will do everything in my power to get children
excited about books but sometimes it takes that little requirement of an AR quiz to 
get them on the path to enjoyment.
 
I still love to read, indeed I have to read just as I have to breathe.  In a 
perfect world there would be no AR quizzes but until perfection
I will use any tool I can to get my little people reading and hopefully loving it.
 
Thanks for making me think.  I hope you finally got some sleep.
 
Angela Wilcox
I E Johnson Elem.
Laurinburg, NC
-----Original Message-----
From: Barbara Braxton
Sent: 2/1/2006 11:35:00 AM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Cc:
Subject: [LM_NET] SHARE: An observation (which may be provocative) ...

Recently, I asked about the impact and availability of Stephen Krashen's work, The 
Power of Reading,
(2nd edition) because the editors of Teacher Librarian had suggested I should refer 
to it in an
article I was writing. Because I was somewhat swamped by people saying that this is 
a critical text
to have, I ordered it from Amazon (which was quicker and cheaper than sourcing it 
locally, turning
down a number of generous offers from people wanting to get it for me because they 
thought it was so
important I should have it..

I now have my copy and have dipped into it to see just what made it so special. 
Although I haven't
read it entirely yet, my interpretation is that the book is based on this premise:

Krashen believes that whilst there is no "literacy crisis" as the media and 
politicians would want
us to believe, there is indeed a problem. And that is that there are a lot of US 
(read UK,
Australian, wherever) adults who don't read well enough to cope with the complex 
literacy demands of
modern society. And, he believes, and offers the research to back his claims, that 
the most
effective solution lies in free voluntary reading (FVR). FVR means reading because 
you want to -
graphic novels, teen romances, sports page or literature - with no book reports, no 
questions, no
quizzes, no having to prove you read something or dissect what you read. It means 
putting a book
down if you don't like it and choosing something different.

Krashen says all the evidence shows that when children and adults start reading for 
pleasure reading
comprehension, writing style, grammar, spelling and vocabulary all improve, giving 
them a chance to
function properly in today's world. The first step in the cure is to give people to 
access to books
- and he says "It is certainly true that you can lead a horse to water but you 
cannot make him
drink. But first we must make sure that the water is actually there, and if it is, 
then horses do
eventually drink." Well-stocked libraries are at the top of his list of providing 
the cure, and
again, there is research quoted.

He then goes on to demonstrate how all facets of literacy can be improved through 
FVR, backing his
claims with the research of others from all over the globe.

My question is this .. if Krashen and his work is so widely accepted and respected 
throughout your
schools, as it appears, why are programs such as Accelerated Reader which are based 
on proving you
have read and understood a book through a quiz or other activity, so predominant? 
Some of you have
written about having been asked to arrange your library based on AR; others about 
having to restrict
your purchasing to AR texts. The other day, someone asked about the suitability of 
the program for
a Kindergarten child, because in their school the program was not introduced until 
Yr 2.

It seems to me that Krashen and AR-type programs are mutually exclusive. I realise 
that those who
post to LM_NET are the tip of the iceberg of teacher-librarians and schools in the 
US but there does
seem to be potential for conflict. If you are a Krashen-believer how do you 
reconcile this if you
have to work in an AR school? Are you able to try to persuade the decision-makers 
to think more
without fear of losing your position or do you have to put your beliefs aside in 
the workplace?
Indeed, is it the teacher-librarian's role to be involved in the decisions about 
reading or are you
limited to resourcing the decisions made by others.

It's 3.00am here and too hot to sleep tonight and my brain was racing ...
Barbara

Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
Palmerston District Primary School
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA

T. 61 2 6205 6162
F. 61 2 6205 7242
E. barbara@iimetro.com.au
W. http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au
"Together we learn from each other."

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