The Wonderful Blog Which You ve Never Seen

I grew up reading sports stories and playing hockey. So what better subject matter for my first foray into the children’s lit genre? “Good luck selling it,” a publisher told me when I showed him the manuscript. “Boys don’t read.”

Boys don’t read? That was the first I’d heard of it, and I have a five-year old son. I began to research the subject - and sure enough, I found out he was absolutely right. Once boys hit eight or nine years old, they stop reading.

Entire forests have been sacrificed in a bewildering array of reports on the subject. Educators tell us that boys are dropping out of arts courses as soon as they can. In testing of primary school children, girls consistently outperform boys in reading and writing tests by a wide margin. This is consistent with international results: The same finding was reached in a recent study of 36 countries. Business leaders are beginning to take notice, complaining that recent university graduates often lack basic literacy skills. Some 50 percent of all high school aged boys consider themselves non-readers!

These same studies make it clear, if it was not already, that reading is an essential life skill. In a 2004 Canadian government report, reading is described as “the search for deeper meaning” that enables children “to refine, extend, and reflect on their thinking” and will “result in high levels of learning.” Boys who read often get higher grades in school, and they are less anxious about schoolwork. And perhaps most significant of all, boys who read turn into men who read.

Most literacy experts have zeroed in on one culprit: technology. There is too much television, MSN, computers, video games, the Internet, Gameboy, and ipod. These mediums are winning the battle for the hearts, eyes and ears of our boys. The solution is equally clear - boys must be presented with books that strike them as equally meaningful and interesting as those other mediums.

We understand the problem. We have identified the culprit. We have a solution. So why haven’t we reversed the trend? To put it bluntly, why is reading something girls do?

Before writing my novel, I took a few trips to bookstores to check out the competition. At first, I was greatly encouraged: There was no competition. Virtually every book was for girls. The depth and range of these girl-oriented novels was impressive, and as a father of a 10-year old girl, I was pleased. The few selections geared toward boys were non-fiction sports books - either biographical accounts of athletes or a catalogue of statistics. Small wonder boys don’t read - there is nothing for them to read.

A vicious cycle needs to be broken. Boys do not read, so publishers do not publish books for them, and writers write for girls. Boys continue not reading because there is nothing of interest to them, which only encourages publishers and writers to avoid that market.

I want my son to read. I want him to be like my daughter, who will ignore several calls for dinner to finish a chapter, or will secretly turn on her nightlight to finish a book. I have a small cache of classics for him. But after we get through Tom Sawyer, what will he read?

More to the point, will he read at all - or just turn on the computer?

David Skuy is the author of “Off the Crossbar,” a sports novel for boys. You can visit his website at http://www.charliejoyce.com He is a popular lecturer, speaking to kids and parent groups on the importance of literacy and sports for children.

Tags: Books, fiction, Hockey, kids, Literacy, PreTeens, reading, recreation, Skuy, sportsBooks, fiction, Hockey, kids, Literacy, PreTeens, reading, recreation, Skuy, sports

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Most schools do not put enough emphasis on the fine arts, namely, as an examplethe art of language. In an English class the teacher will focus on reading skills, reading comprehension, grammar and vocabularybut language arts is recognizing written word as an art form.

Yes we do want our students to study and master the English language. But the fine arts should be reserved as different kind of lesson, preferably in a creative writing class that is separate from English class. But every English class, if there is no specific language arts class required, should at least include a unit that focuses on the beauty and importance of literary accomplishments throughout the ages. Poetry, plays, song lyrics, screenplays, novels, from authors like Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas, Ken Kesey, Harper Lee etc.

Language is composed of wordswords carry specific meaning and sometimes carry double meaning. So the primary tool of language is words, another is sound. Words are, in combination with an almost musical goal, can show the transformation of words and basic communication into art.

Words are to the writer what paint is to the painter, they are what the instrument is to the musician, and they are what tone and pitch are to a singer. That is why children must understand that English is not just what they learn in English classbut the language itself is spawned the language arts years and years ago.

The empty page means to the writer what the score of music means to the musician or singer. The empty page is the blank canvas, the untouched page in a sketchbook and so on, the empty page isthe thing that the any artist of the written word must make to come alive.

As I mentioned before, there is a musical aspect and technique to literary language that is hard to grasp without providing prime examples of it. The musical technique involved in the art of language is well exemplified by the works of William Shakespeare, but he is just one of many. The poem, when read silently or aloud. Should have a certain song about it. Whether it in written in iambic pentameter, as a sestina or in the more modern style of free form, the music should be there. For example in a poem by Dylan Thomas, the first stanza reads:

” Do not go gentle into that good night

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night…”

The poem was written as Dylan Thomas watched his father lay dying, and there is a beautiful song here. Note the repetition. Note the syntax in which the words are used which is different than regular speechthere are articles like “the” or “a” that the author will dropremoved for the sake of rhythm. This particular poem is easy to find at the library or on the Internet, and I highly recommend it as a tool for any Language Arts instructor.

There is technique and beauty, form, use of syllables, pitch, pacing and sound even in prose. So demonstrate to your students the versatility of words.

If there is one thing I loved best about high schoolit was what I learned in my Advanced English class, which was exclusive to the analysis of the literary arts

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for websites on gardening, parenting, fashion, education and home d

Tags: English, English class, grammar, language, language arts, Poetry, reading, teaching language artsEnglish, English class, grammar, language, language arts, Poetry, reading, teaching language arts

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The word is not just a sound or a written symbol. The word is a force; it is the power you have to express and communicate, to think, and thereby to create the events in your life. - Don Miguel Ruiz

One New Jersey woman, “Maria,” read at a third grade level. She held a job and fudged her way through everyday tasks without reading. When she would go to a restaurant, she would order what she knew was on the menu - a hamburger, salad or grilled chicken - or point to someone else’s plate at the next table and ask “for what he’s having.” Maria even went so far as to keep her illiteracy a secret even from her husband of ten years. Because she could not read the mail, she would pretend that she forgot her glasses at work or say that she had been too busy to open the mail and ask her husband to do it. One day, they were walking past a shop window with a sign in it. As they looked at the display, the husband suddenly realized that his wife could not read. Maria was embarrassed and humiliated. But she sought help and now reads, works on a computer and teaches others to read.

In 2002, before the Subcommittee on Education Reform Committee on Education and the Workforce, United States House of Representatives, actor James Earl Jones testified: “92 million Americans have low or very low literacy skills - they cannot read above the 6th grade level. To be illiterate in America - or anywhere for that matter - is to be unsafe, uncomfortable and unprotected. For the illiterate, despair and defeat serve as daily fare. Can any of us who do know how to read really understand the sadness that is associated with the inability to read? Can we truly relate to the silent humiliation, the quiet desperation that can’t be expressed, the hundreds of ways that those who cannot read struggle in shame to keep their secret? The struggle out of illiteracy is still a part of the story of America.”

Today, our nation faces an epidemic that is destructive to our future. The disease is functional illiteracy. According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), it has overtaken one-third of America’s children by the fourth grade - including two-thirds of African-American students and almost half of all children in the inner cities.

The basic definition of literacy is the ability to read and write. So the basic definition of illiteracy is the inability to read and write.

Beyond the basic definitions, there is significance in the shocking statistics about the functionally illiterate. What illiteracy means is that millions may not be able to understand the directions on a medicine bottle, or be able to read their telephone bill, make correct change at a store, find and keep a job, or read to a child.

Illiteracy has long been viewed as a social and educational issue - someone else’s problem. However, more recently we have come to understand the economic consequences of the lack of literacy skills for America and American business.

Illiteracy has a significant impact on the economy. According to Nation’s Business magazine, 15 million adults holding jobs today are functionally illiterate. The American Council of Life Insurance reports that three quarters of the Fortune 500 companies provide some level of remedial training for their workers. And, a study done by the Northeast Midwest Institute and The Center for Regional Policy found that business losses attribute to basic skill deficiencies run into the hundreds of millions of dollars because of low productivity, errors and accidents.

In addition, as reported in the 1986 publication entitled Making Literacy Programs Work: A Practical Guide for Correctional Educators (for the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections), one-half of all adults in federal and state correctional institutions cannot read or write at all. Only about one-third of those in prison have completed high school.

Evidence indicates that the problem begins at home. A National Governors’ Association Task Force on Adult Literacy reported that illiteracy is an inter-generational problem, following a parent-child pattern. Poor school achievement and dropping out before completing school are commonplace among children of illiterate parents.

The reasons for illiteracy are as varied as the number of non-readers. The adult non-reader may have left school early, may have had a physical or emotional disability, may have had ineffectual teachers or simply may have been unready to learn at the time reading instruction began.

Because they are unable to help their children learn, parents who can’t read often perpetuate the inter-generational cycle of illiteracy. Without books, newspapers or magazines in the home and a parent who reads to serve as a role model, many children grow up with severe literacy deficiencies. Clearly, there is no single cause of illiteracy.

Adults have many reasons for requesting reading help. Many are prompted by the need for increased levels of literacy in their jobs. Others may wish to read to a child, read the Bible or write to a family member for the first time. All express a hope for a better quality of life through higher levels of literacy.

According to Barbara Bush, “It suddenly occurred to me that every single thing I worry about - the breakup of families, drugs, AIDS, the homeless - everything would be better if more people could read, write and understand.”

Let us all do what we can to make illiteracy not a part of the story of American today but a part of America’s past.

About The Author

Penni Wild is the Executive Director of New Jersey Reads. New Jersey Reads was established in 2002 by a group of literacy advocates dedicated to encouraging literacy among adults and children throughout the state. Currently, almost 40 percent of New Jersey adults cannot read medicine labels, roadway signs, or job applications, and illiteracy rates in six major New Jersey cities are more than twice the national average. As a champion of literacy for all in New Jersey, New Jersey Reads seeks to obtain funding and resources for literacy initiatives from individuals, corporations, and foundations. For more information about New Jersey Reads, visit www.newjerseyreads.org or call 609-394-5416.

Tags: communication, education, illiteracy, News, reading, schooling, society, writingcommunication, education, illiteracy, News, reading, schooling, society, writing

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