reading

A milestone at my book club

Posted on by Mark Isero
Photo by Deanna Lee

favicon My book club has been meeting for nearly 15 years. There are seven of us, and every few months, we get together, eat good food, and talk about a good book.

We’re reading our 50th book in June.

That’s certainly something to celebrate. But an even more monumental event occurred last Saturday at our most recent meeting.

For the first time ever, the majority of book club members read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in electronic form.

Yep. Four of us read the book on the Kindle (three Kindle Keyboards and one Kindle Touch) and one listened to the book on Audible.com. That left just two who read the book in paper.

“This is a milestone!” one member said. She then spent a few minutes taking a picture (above) and updating her Facebook status.

I’m happy to report that complete mayhem did not ensue. We did not have a major argument or a constitutional crisis. I will say, however, that the Pro-Paper Members made it known when the Pro-Kindle Members grabbed paper copies to check out the back of the book or to flip through the pages to find a good scene.

One frustrated Pro-Paper member admonished the majority. “It even has a nice cover!” she said.

Overall, the quality of the discussion did not decrease. It was as animated as ever. But what would have happened if someone wanted to engage us in a close analysis of a specific passage? (No, that doesn’t happen often!)

We’ll have to wait and see if this trend continues — and if so, how it changes the nature of the book club. I’ll make sure to keep you posted. favicon

teaching

Khan Academy: The future of education?

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon 60 Minutes ran a feature last night on Khan Academy. As a teacher, I’m supposed to dislike Sal Khan and his venture into education. But as I watched the video, I found that I don’t have any problem with the man himself.

Here is the video. It’s about 13 minutes long:

I do have a problem, however, with the notion of Khan Academy videos replacing the teacher as a major part of instruction. Indeed, Mr. Khan says that the teacher should become a coach alongside students, rather than a lecturer at the front of the classroom. I totally agree. Nevertheless, his videos are much better for targeted remediation rather than general instruction.

There’s nothing wrong with his videos, but they’re not particularly engaging. I watched one last night and got through about three minutes of it before stopping. It’s intriguing that many students, particularly those in elementary school, enjoy learning with Khan Academy. I’m pretty sure my students would resist after a half hour.

What I’m most worried about, actually, is the continuing trend that’s suggesting that random people are better than teachers at figuring out solutions in education. At the end of the segment, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said that innovation always comes from outside the institution, so Khan’s success is no surprise.

In general, I try to embrace change, and by all means, I know that there’s a lot to fix in education. After all, I know that I can become a better teacher. So Mr. Khan, I welcome you to the conversation of education reform. I am hopeful, however, that you — along with Bill Gates and the others — will make sure to include teachers in the dialogue in a meaningful way. favicon

teaching

Weekenders: An alternative to weekend homework?

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon I’ve been thinking of banning homework on weekends, but I can’t get myself to make the move. After all, if there’s no homework on weekends, that really means there’s no homework on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays — nearly half the week!

On the other hand, even if I assign homework, that doesn’t mean my students will do it. Take a look at the bar graph below, which shows homework completion over the past couple weeks — and which clearly demonstrates the weekend homework slump.

You could make the argument that because my students mostly do not do homework on the weekend, I am punishing them and actively creating failure in my classroom. After all, I don’t have a strong enough way to encourage them to complete homework on the weekends. My text reminders and phone calls don’t seem to work.

Another idea is to create an alternative to weekend homework. That’s partly what I’m trying to do with Weekenders this year. Instead of your normal homework assignment, I’ve been having students write posts on our class website, iseroma.com. I particularly like this week’s assignment, which encourages students to read something other than our class novel.

But even though Weekenders seem more fun than other assignments, the turn-in rate still isn’t particularly high. And that’s why tonight, I’m feeling like a failure. Sure, I could text my students again, prod them, encourage them, even call them up, but I don’t much feel like it.

Sometimes, I’m ineffective, and instead of working immediately to fix the problem, it’s OK to do some thinking and figure out what’s next. favicon

reading

“He used to hate reading.”

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon I bumped into the mother of one of my students today in the school’s parking lot. She’s great. After catching up a little and talking about the nice weather, she grabbed my wrist and asked, “What have you done with my child?”

I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. “What do you mean?”

“He used to hate reading. But ever since you gave him that Kindle, all he does is read — like, even on the weekends.”

I’d detected a shift, too; after all, in my colleague’s classics unit, he’s finished two books already — Slaughterhouse-Five and The Catcher in the Rye — when most of the class is still reading their first.

And I’d also observed that he was getting ahead in Blink, the current teacher-assigned book in his Psychology class.

But by no means did I know that my student was also asking his mother to stop by libraries and bookstores to get additional books.

I was incredulous. “What?” I asked her.

“Yeah, it’s crazy,” she said. “I’ll be driving around town, and he texts me to ask if I can pick him up a book.”

Apparently, my student– who did not enjoy reading for a long time and is three months from graduation — has become an underground avid reader.

I’m hearing stories like this almost every day. My students and I are talking about Brave New World and 1984 and Emma and Dante’s Inferno. One stopped me in the office today to say he’s reading The Odyssey after finishing up the Hunger Games trilogy. A little portion of the school is engaged in reading.

I think that two things are contributing to this success:

1. My colleague is allowing students to choose their own books,

2. The Kindle is making reading cool(er).

These two things, I think, are leading my students to see reading as a calming, focusing activity in which they can consider their futures after graduation.

And this story confirms to me how all young people do, in fact, like to read. They just might not know it yet. favicon

teaching

Teaching students about race through the Jeremy Lin story

Posted on by Mark Isero

favicon Although the first wave of Linsanity has recently passed, Jeremy Lin’s story is still a phenomenal one.

We identify with Lin’s rise and appreciate his basketball skills. We also like his grit despite being overlooked several times.

As a teacher, I’ve noticed that many of my students — and not just Asian-Americans — also connect with Lin. He represents many of the values that my students espouse.

In addition to talking to students about Lin, I’ve encouraged them to read articles about the larger social ramifications of his success.

There are many articles to consider, but here are my two favorites:

Jeremy Lin’s Triumph Over Stereotype Threat, by Touré, Time Magazine, Feb. 28, 2012
Touré defines stereotype threat as “the idea that we are all aware of the stereotypes that exist about our demographic group and we try to avoid fulfilling those pre-existing notions.” This notion, studied most closely by Stanford University’s Claude Steele, affects many students, particularly students of color attempting to navigate our school system. Touré argues that Lin’s achievement makes it easier for young Asian Americans to extend themselves beyond social expectations.

Jeremy Lin Forces National Discussion on Asian Americans, by Stuart Leung, Asian Week, March 5, 2012.
Many Americans, particularly White Americans, don’t particularly enjoy talking about race. It’s much easier to be silent or to perpetuate racist notions. But Jeremy Lin’s rise, according to Stuart Leung, encourages a dialogue about race that includes Asian Americans. Leung recounts a racist incident at a local pub and then analyzes the recent media responses to Lin’s success. He argues that Lin forces us to notice Asian Americans in a new way, leading to deeper discussion.

I’ve found that my students love talking and reading about current events. Because the Jeremy Lin story combines sports with issues of race, it is a great teaching opportunity.