Reading!

Aidan

Reading!

Women Studies

In Ms Gold’s presentation, we discussed our favorite readings. We chose three pieces to present: first, a book from our childhood; second, a New York Times article we found interesting; third, one of our favorite books. Also Ms Gold shared with us the story of how she was published for a piece of writing she did on how she gets her students interested in reading again.

She talked about how the great majority of adolescence don’t read and how she used her class to combat that. In Junior class, she gives the students ten minutes of free reading at the beginning of each class. The student picks the book of their choice that they think they want to read and then at the start of each class they have time to read it. The results have been very positive to the students and the class. For starters, the students are now reading and enjoying it, they’ve become proficient readers, checking-out something like 250 books from the library. But also, according to Ms Gold, it has been very beneficial to the class. She says it sets an atmosphere for the class, ten minutes of silent reading sets a tone for the class of quiet and studious work.

I think that being a good reader is very important to people. The ability to read efficiently is important, but also reading for pleasure is important too. It’s hard to take the time to read in high school. There's a lot of work to be done and little time to kick back, so it's understandable to pick something like watching TV over reading. Watching TV is more instant entertainment. But if the habit of reading were reinforced then reading might become more popular.