Thursday, April 20, 2017

Week 16 Prompt

How have reading and books changed since you were a child?

First, I think that there is a much greater variety than when I was a child. Audiobooks are becoming more popular. There has been a rise in graphic novels. What graphic novels include has expanded. Graphic novels used to mean super hero comic books. While that is still very true, there are also full length novels. There are adaptations of typical novels. There are nonfiction graphic novels. The variety and availability is astounding. There are also ebooks now. You can get ebooks from a variety of vendors and read them on a variety of devices. They are also more accessible. Not only in terms of being able to get them, but also in the sense that people with disabilities have more options. There are applications that will read text on a page. You can enlarge the font on many devices. Some even let you change the background color. You have the ability to look up a word right there in your device rather than having to run to the dictionary (if people even keep those in their homes anymore). The sheer amount of ways that people can read and obtain books has grown.

Second, I think book use in schools has changed a lot. Over the last three years, I have held various positions in elementary and middle schools. When I was in school, we were always reading a book together as a class. It allowed us to discuss the book. It allowed students with a lower reading level to still be able to enjoy the book. It helped to show students that reading can be very enjoyable. It seems that most schools and classrooms have lost that. The amount of testing that takes place has grown. The importance of standards has made it so that reading as a class is more of a luxury in most cases. This means that the students are expected to read more on their own. I think that his means less students ultimately read or listen to a book. I think that it means that the discussion of novels has decreased and the variety of books that students are exposed to has lessened. I am afraid that this results in less lifelong readers. Maybe that is just me being paranoid, though.

What do you see for reading, books, and publishing in the future?

Unless the way our school systems are evaluated changes, I don't see the use of reading and books in schools changing much. I think that it is a result of our focus on standardized testing that has caused this. I really hope that doesn't mean that less children will grow up reading frequently, but it is a possibility.

I think that there will always be people that read and people that don't. It is a personal preference. I would like to think that the variety of ways to read will get more people involved in reading, but that may not necessarily be the case. If you aren't looking at books in general, you aren't going to pay attention when the formats of books change. There will always be some fluctuation, but I don't think there will ever be a time when reading is in danger. With the amount of public libraries, publishing companies, authors, and reading advocates, there is no way that books will get set aside altogether.

I think that it is very possible that the format and variety of books will continue to grow. How can it not? As we as a society grow and change and learn new things so do our ways to communicate with each and express our ideas and feelings. How they will change is a mystery, but I do believe that change and expansion are inevitable. I don't think the typical, physical format will ever be done away with, but there will be other options besides what we have today. People like the variety.

12 comments:

  1. Hi Paige,

    Some schools are replacing hard copy text books with e-text books. At my old job at an academic college library the college did some research and found that it was cheaper for the students to buy laptops and rent e-books than it was for them to buy text books (even used text books). This makes sense financially, however not everyone likes or is as effective a learner from e-text books as they would be when using hard copy text books.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't think you're being paranoid; it seems like a legitimate concern. Schools focus way too much on their standardized testing and not enough on the foundations that will follow kids through their lives. Reading is a part of that. If kids aren't being introduced to reading and making it an experience and fun, then they won't want to do it. If schools just demand that they read X amount of books, kids can just search summaries to answer test questions.

    ReplyDelete

  3. Hi Paige,

    I like and agree with your assessment that reading will never be in danger. I sure hope it never is! I can’t help but also agree with your thoughts on standardized testing and how it seems we as a society push kids away from the fundamentals and the fun and the arts. I agree that reading together as a class makes it more fun the younger the child is and paves the way for future solo reading. I think sometimes the "higher-up" school board decision makers forget or simply don't care what it is like being a kid. They need creativity, stimulation, and flexibility; not rigidity. I also enjoyed your ideas on additional book reading formats in the future. Who knows where we are heading? Virtual reality reading? The incorporation of more technology into our reading? Hologram books? Perhaps. I just hope we can hold on to our printed – physical book as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I completely agree that there will always be readers and those who don't enjoy reading. It's important to remember, I think, as some people seem to be fretting about the impact of technology on future generations.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree that schools don't put enough focus on getting children to enjoy reading, they are too focused on teaching kids based on the tests they have to take, which don't tell you much about what a kid knows...but that's a discussion for another time. As our reading for this week stated, "...There are readers like that still. Our schools are no longer serving them (or anybody else) well, on the whole; yet some kids come out of even the worst schools clutching a book to their heart.” I think even with the worst teachers and the worst school systems there are kids who will still grow up to love reading and that gives me hope!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Paige, I also agree that there is too much focus on standardized testing and not enough emphasis placed on reading. My teachers had us read for a certain amount of time each day. I forgot about some of my teachers reading a book to us. Reading aloud is such a great way to build listening skills. Reading allows children to learn how to think, because they are engaging and interacting with a story. I think standardized tests negates this interaction. That is my biggest problem with standardized tests; children aren't allowed to think for themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm excited to see what the next generation of readers will have when it comes to book formats. I do agree that reading won't ever be in danger because there will always be those who enjoy reading and those who don't. For those patrons who do not enjoy reading, but are looking for materials for their leisure, it may be more effective to recommend audiobooks and educational DVDs they can enjoy instead of print books.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think Common Core and the pressure of testing is largely to blame for the way books are used in schools. Common Core mandated students read 60% nonfiction texts. It makes me so angry that they dictate the types of books teachers can teach. I'm lucky I live in a state that has opted out of common core.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Paige.

    Interesting point about formats. When I was thinking about this question I thought a lot about the content. The content has remained the same, but the way we access that content has totally changed. Heck, it's dramatically changed in the last ten years. The library I work for introduced our digital collection less than 7 years ago and now it circulates more annually than all but three of our branches.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Paige,
    Several of our homeschool families use non-fiction graphic novels as a way to introduce people, places, and events to their students. Do you see this happening in schools as well? So many of the students who come to the library for a research paper they are doing have been given unrealistic expectations for the sources they may use. The book must have X number of pages, contain primary sources, can't be narrative non-fiction...Do you see this changing in the future?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes!! Even though graphic novels do not generally pique my interest, I love that they are a legitimate genre now. I read Fun Home last year and I was kind of blown away at how much it was actual literature.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wonderful final response! Full points!

    ReplyDelete