More about Calkins
Two responses to Helen Lewis’s Atlantic article, “How Lucy Calkins Became the Face of America’s Reading Crisis.”
The (Lucy Calkins) empire strikes back
I see so much self-mystification and evasion of fact in Calkins’s response to her fall from favor.
Fourteen lines? tl;dr
“Daniel Shore, the chair of Georgetown’s English department, told me that his students have trouble staying focused on even a sonnet”: from an Atlantic article by Rose Horowitch, “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books.”
“Is Reading Over for Gen Z Students?”
Listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos — two suggestions offered in this podcast — don’t replace the work (and joy) of reading. Podcasts and YouTube videos might, on occasion, supplement the work (and joy) of reading in worthwhile ways. But without the reading, what’s the point? If instructors are unwilling to assign “an entire novel,” exactly what are podcasts and YouTube videos supposed to be supplementing? And what happens when the work of listening and watching becomes odious?
Struggling to read
Adam Kotsko writes about the decline in college students’ reading ability.
Gothamist hears from Lucy Calkins
WNYC’s Gothamist reports on the dissolution of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. And Lucy Calkins responds — dishonestly and unconvincingly.
TCRWP LC? LLC!
Lucy Calkins doubles down.
To: Calkins, Fountas, and Pinnell
An e-mail to three prime movers behind the mistaken forms of reading instruction examined in the podcast Sold a Story.
“Slow Reading”
Richard Lanham: “Every course in composition ought to be a course in Slow Reading.”
W(h)ither grammar
How many problems in reading stem from an ignorance of basic grammar? And how many problems in writing stem from an ignorance of basic grammar?
★☆☆☆☆
It’s always sobering to read Amazon’s one-star reviews of literary works. One-starrers can serve to remind teachers of lit of what they may be up against.
Tim Parks on “reading upward”
“In the teaching world, the idea of reading upward often leads to a preoccupation with gateway books. The way to get ‘them’ interested in, say, Charles Dickens, is to start with, say, J. K. Rowling. Uh, no.”
On “trigger warnings”
I wonder: what do students who favor trigger warnings expect to find in literature?
Bobbing for apples
“to read, really read, one must do much more than bob. Repeated immersions, to the limit of one’s ability to remain underwater: that’s what will let you come up with something worthwhile.”
PUSH
An old metal sign, good advice for reading, writing, and teaching.