...Pike was writing more than a century ago, and people were much more accustomed to reading then. One computer program I have tests the reading level of material. The average newspaper story today is written somewhere between the fifth and the ninth grade reading level -- as we now define those levels. When I measured several newspaper stories from the late 1800s (...), I found they averaged the fifteenth grade level -- the level of a junior in college. And these stories were read and understood by people who, on average, did not past the third grade. One wonders what has happened to our standards.
Jim Tresner writing in Albert Pike: The Man Behind The Monument
I have found over the years that people who read are better writers and are able to learn new concepts and ideas better than those who do not. When I was teaching at Lynn-Mar schools in Marion, Iowa I became very disenchanted with the basal readers that we forced the students to read and then answer questions about the text. The writing was "watered down" to a simpler level and if you were reading a classic and compared it the richness of the language just wasn't there. The students were not challenged to learn new words.
Students could read material which was above their usual reading level and the dumbed down basals did not challenge them. If a student encountered a word which she or he did not
understand they could still get the meaning of the piece of reading by skipping over that word and reading in context. Then most of them could understand the meaning of the words which they read.
I went to the Reading Consultant and suggested a new way of teaching reading. Let's put the Basals away and allow the students to read entire books. Instead of answering questions about the text we would have conversations about the book. She gave permission and we did it and the students made about two years of growth in reading that year. I remained convinced to this day that for students to become better readers and writers they must read, read, read.
And of course, the biggest deterrent to reading is the television set. But that is another story.
Thanks for stopping by, ARTYAL, Hugs, j
Students could read material which was above their usual reading level and the dumbed down basals did not challenge them. If a student encountered a word which she or he did not
understand they could still get the meaning of the piece of reading by skipping over that word and reading in context. Then most of them could understand the meaning of the words which they read.I went to the Reading Consultant and suggested a new way of teaching reading. Let's put the Basals away and allow the students to read entire books. Instead of answering questions about the text we would have conversations about the book. She gave permission and we did it and the students made about two years of growth in reading that year. I remained convinced to this day that for students to become better readers and writers they must read, read, read.
And of course, the biggest deterrent to reading is the television set. But that is another story.
Thanks for stopping by, ARTYAL, Hugs, j
2 comments:
As with anything, the more you do it the better you get.
Meet My Mates #3 - Quilly
Glad you're reading Tresner's book on Pike! It's a treasure!
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