My current book choice is Peter and the Starcatchers. While I have chugged along through the Percy Jackson series, and made my way through the first book in the Penderwick series, I've struggled to move through this one. Why is that? As I was reading some of the posts in my Google Reader, I came across one that hit the nail on the head. While she was reading an adult piece of fiction, she was having the same struggle I was having. Desire to finish, but the simultaneous feelings of love and hate.
I'm about 125 pages into the 400+ page book at this point. Who knows when I'll finish, as I've been reading it for about a week and my slow reading rate isn't what is holding me back. Instead I simply can't get into the plot, and don't really have the desire to know more about the characters. That is in stark contrast to my feelings with Percy Jackson or the Penderwick girls. While I thought the Penderwicks dragged, I was curious to see what trouble they might elicit because of the class differences with their hosts. Perhaps it was also the feeling of the latter two stories being written in a way I could relate to them, as they are set in more recent times (full disclosure: I'm also not a huge fan of boats, preferring land to sea any day).
All of that makes me wonder how some of my kids tackle books. I had a few kids this year that read books incredibly quickly, and were able to give fantastic retells with detail. But I also had a few other kids that just struggled to move their way through books, and had some books sitting on their desk for weeks on end. It makes me wonder whether the right thing to do when someone is struggling is to have that friendly conversation about their interest in the book. Why is it that you don't like it? Tell me about the book thus far? What do you think would make this better (and be specific)? I don't want to encourage kids giving up on books easily, but rather having them think critically about why a book doesn't work for them.
HI, I think it's okay to try out books and not necessarily finish them. There are too many good books in the world anyway - no way to read them all. So, I suppose I would say that your idea of a "friendly conversation" is right on target.
ReplyDeleteMay I ask what platform you used to host your class website? I'm a fellow (2010) UWB grad and still hoping for a job. This is one area I'd like to play around in.
Suzanne
I agree with you about the abundance of good books. The sticking point is that kids tend to pick up and put down books without really thinking about why they are putting it down. The comment tends to be "I don't like it" or "It's boring." Those comments are all fine and good, very valid, but don't necessarily get at the root of why the book doesn't work for them. I think the other issue I run into is that some are ready to drop books at the drop of a hat because they aren't readily entertained. Sometimes a little persistence is needed to get into the meat of a book.
ReplyDeleteMy class wiki is done via pbworks.com. The site is http://mrhansonsclass.pbworks.com/
I set it up during student teaching and have used it ever since. I'll likely retain some of the pages as examples leading into this coming year, but will strip many of the pages so that kids can start with a blank canvas.