Chapter 8 of Book Love made sense to me

I admire Penny Kittle.  I think the passion she has for getting young people to enjoy reading is admirable.  With that said, reading Book Love has often left me saying to myself “Well, that idea would be great, but it can’t work in the real world . . .” or “Nice goal, too bad school administration won’t buy it . . .” or “That reading plan might work if a teacher never slept . . . ”  Especially in the early chapters, while I liked how she underscored the importance of reading, I found myself seeing potential roadblocks and problems to her methods.

Chapter 8 was different.  I could see how class-wide, year-to-year topic notebooks could be compelling and interesting.  Quarterly reading reflections reminded me of “turning point” essays I did for an experiential honors course as an undergrad, which worked extremely well.  The idea I found most intriguing of all was the creation of an “order map” where book titles and authors could be linked by topic, time, relationship, etc.  Putting that information on the back wall of classroom to show how ideas and books connect to each other is just good teaching . . . no high technology (or even batteries) required.

The chapter also made me realize that the biggest idea that runs through Kittle’s method is simply asking and asking and asking students about what they like, how they are reacting to what they are reading, and what ideas and questions they have.  It’s easy to forget or minimize, but an adult taking a young person seriously and talking with them about their thoughts is important.  The teachers that made the biggest impact on me did so by getting me to express myself, and those conversations were meaningful.

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And happy Easter

Thought on Ch. 7 of Book Love, but on a Saturday . . . or re-reading is good for you

Chapter 7 of Book Love surprised me. What Kittle is describing in the section “Analyzing the Craft of Writing” is something I think of as “close reading.” And close reading a writer’s work is something I only truly learned in graduate school.

When I was writing a long paper in high school or as an undergrad, I’d come up with an idea and try and pull evidence together as best I could. Since I’ve always been a good reader, I could usually remember and find significant plot points and descriptions and cobble something together. Throw in that I could string sentences together fairly well, and I’d end up with acceptable (if unremarkable) papers.

I agree with Kittle that if you want to truly understand a written work, and get at the how and why of it’s creation, then spending the time to re-read a text is important. While I never have storyboarded a novel, I have gone through a book with a highlighter and sticky note method looking to collect recurring themes, ideas, word choices, contradiction, etc. Yes, the book tells an obvious story, but an author creates a text by making choices that (should) all aim for a goal or idea.

I also like that Kittle likes and encourages students to imitate the style of writers. Doing this as an exercise is a cool idea. Every writer, whether they know it or not, uses bits and pieces of the works of others the like. Trying out a style is kind of like putting on someone else’s clothes and walking around a bit. Things fit and don’t fit, and there’s learning in that.

I posted this video in an earlier blog, but I think it fits better here.  This American Life’s Ira Glass says in this video that creative people (writers, artists, etc.) need to create and create and create.  Getting that experience, learning your craft, pays off with expertise and originality.   I’d add on to this for purposes of our class — people (young adults included)  need to read and write in tandem.  Each informs the other.