Lisa sent me this interesting article from Today's Washington Post:
Odds Stacked Against Pleasure Reading
By Valerie Strauss
The extensive required reading in her high school classes -- including Advanced Placement English Literature, where she flew from one classic to another -- left her with no time to pick up books she thought would be fun. And she was frustrated by teachers who offered either too little help in understanding the complex texts or conducted tortured efforts to wring symbolism out of every word....
Allowing students to pick their own books is more than a democratic reading experiment. Studies show that reading achievement is significantly improved when students have an opportunity to choose from a selection of interesting texts rather than being dictated to.
(Thanks Lisa!)
Posted by Emily at May 24, 2005 03:38 PM