Ronda’s Inquiry……

1. Ronda’s Inquiry…… Why are we still agonizing over how to incorporate literature into a content area classroom?

2. The Book Whisperer • “I noticed that the few students who were avid readers already would rush through the unit activities only to ask, ‘I am done with my work; may I read my book now?’ Horrified, I recognized that my classroom had become the same kind of classroom I reviled in my memories of school---a reading class with no place for readers.”

3. Readicide • “….the overemphasis on testing is playing a major part in killing off readers in America’s classrooms. A look at the practices of most schools suggests that when a school ‘values’ reading, what it really means is that the school intensely focuses on raising state-mandated reading test scores---the kind of reading our students will rarely, if ever, do in adulthood.”

4. Reflections on the Human Condition • “ In times of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”

5. Deeper Reading • “In an effort to leave no child behind, students must now take schoolwide quarterly benchmark assessments, district-mandated essays and multiple choice exams, yearly state-required tests, nationally normed assessments, midterms, final exams, and high school exit exams……

6. …..All of these tests are in addition to the many assessments classroom teachers regularly give. With all this emphasis on testing, it often seems we are one or two exams away from not teaching at all---students will be busy taking tests for the entire school year.”

7. Readicide • “Not reading to analyze the author’s use of tone. Not reading to answer multiple-choice questions. Reading for fun. If students are to read for fun, they need fun books to read. Many of them. They need immersion in a book flood, and because many of our students come from print-poor environments at home, that book flood needs to be found at school.”

8. LET THE • BOOK FLOOD • BEGIN!!