Finding the Right Book

Last night a good friend of mine and I had a discussion about my son's teacher (and really, any teacher) who has their little pet projects, passions they want to pass on to their students, whether it be about math, science, reading, writing, etc. Learning, too.

I've seen a lot of this particular strategy for such things: lots and lots of homework.

As the wife of a junior high math teacher, I totally get that teachers are in a huge, pressure-filled bind. They are teaching to the tests (NCLB, bah) and have their hands tied in other ways, ways that confine them to how, exactly, they can teach. The list of "do-nots" is gigantic and only growing.

When speaking to my son's kindergarten teacher last year, she lamented the half-day schedule because there was just so much to teach these kids. She also expressed a desire to only have her kids leave her at the end of the year loving school. And while there's only so much you can do (especially these days), I appreciated her sentiments and recognized her limitations. She had 18 boys in a class of 26, I believe, and 6-8 of her students were English learners or otherwise needed special attention.

Anyway, so my son loved school last year. He had his days, but he enjoyed it. He'd bug me in the morning, "is it time to go yet?"

This year, however, not so much.

Eric and I had to split up for Back to School night, and Eric took Jason's class. His teacher said something to the effect of being laid-back in the area of homework, but hot damn the woman sends home a lot of homework.

Again, I get the pressure. But crap.

I want my kid to, if not love, like learning. I want him to like reading. I don't necessarily need book nerds, but I have a firm belief in the power of reading. And learning. And not just out of obligation, but out of curiosity and love. And I don't believe that piling on the homework and requiring a certain amount of reading per week is necessarily beneficial to this. For a first grader, 20 minutes a night is a lot of reading.

(and to be fair, this was more my daughter's first grade teacher's encouragements)

Because I feel this is a lot to ask and I don't want them to become discouraged or resentful, I only ask one book a night, more if they want. My daughter is asked to read at least an hour a week this year, but she loves books. She's in second grade reading fourth grade books. Asking her to read is no problem at all.

But it's different for my son, and I think demanding a set amount of reading per week is too much and will actually discourage him. I won't have that. It's also not as if he doesn't like reading books, but it's not an everyday interest for him. That's okay.

So my friend and I discussed this and began to focus on finding the right book. This is somewhat a new concept to me. I don't remember needing "the right book." I just read. I'm hardly always reading, but I enjoy it thoroughly. My husband, however, needed "the right book." My sister hated books until she discovered Twilight (hey, whatever right?). I gave up on reading for some years until I came across Harry Potter (maybe i'll get into that sabbatical thing later).

Jason seems to enjoy anything funny. I'm finding that funny books for kids are great gateway books. For the older crowd, junior high and up, subversive books seem to work great (per my friend who teaches 7th grade English). But it's difficult to find books for kids--boys--his age. Their attention span isn't exactly long. Suggestions, anyone?

Sometimes, if there's nothing he's interested in, I just keep the reading per night to the instructions on his (math, writing) homework. It's practice, and that's all they're really concerned with right now.

But back to the "right book" thing. My friend is in the process of teaching her students to find "the right book," beginning with throwing a pile of books in front of them and asking them to simply look at the cover, the title, and the summary and picking out which ones appeal to them most. No reading is required right away, just observation. I think it's a fabulous idea. Fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, magazines, anything.

I love this stuff and now I want to begin building a library for my kids as they get older so they have ready access to good, engaging books.

I'm excited to read them, too :D