Why Can’t My Application Essays Develop This Easy?

I have been thinking about how I wanted to approach this blog all week. How did the Miller text resonate with me? How am I going to synthesize what I read in the Miller book with my own experience and everything else I am learning in my classes? How am I going to use this reading to really interact with the world?…

My boyfriend and I were driving to his mom’s house tonight for his birthday. And driving is when I do a lot of my thinking. And when I jabber on about all my crazy thoughts and ideas while by boyfriend patiently smiles and nods (while inside his head he is thinking pure sports). I started asking him about his reading habits and the fact he was a “fake reader” in middle and high school. I then got a brilliant idea to make a movie interviewing him, his mom (who is a kindergarten teacher), and his step sister (who started 8^th grade with a 3^rd/4^th grade reading level). And it was going to be BRILLIANT!

My boyfriend (Riley) refused to be recorded.

His mom (Andrea) was willing, but after a long day of being with 5 year olds… well, need I say more.

And the step sister (Natalie) is shy, so I knew a one on one conversation without a camera would be more authentic.

So even though I don’t have an awesome video in lieu of a written blog post, I did have some really great conversations with the three of them regarding reading…

I have been with Riley for five years and I have seen him touch less than five books (excluding textbooks…and every book he has touched encompasses something in regards to sports). Even while taking AP Literature class in high school. He passed the class with an A and did not read a single book. I’m pretty sure he wrote his papers based off of my explanations of all the books. And this lack of being a reader has always perturbed me because his mom is a teacher and a strong advocate for reading…

                Are you a reader?

                Uh… no! (with a “you already know this” tone and a hint of a chuckle)

                Were you ever a reader?

                I used to read all the time when I was little. (The Boxcar books were some of his favorites… he HATED Harry Potter…“I hate when people write about things that are clearly ‘fake’”)

                When did you stop reading and why?

                Sara, I was busy playing sports. I did not have time to read. I think I stopped reading around 8^th grade.

Andrea had a similar response. She remembered that she stopped reading for pleasure during 8^th grade. And was so thrilled when she graduated college because she could finally start reading again! (Funny thing how our identities switch!…if we want so bad to be readers, then why don’t we develop the habits of a reader?)

Her and I then had a great conversation around her stories as a teacher. The English Language Arts program at the school she teaches at. Her husband’s reading habits. Her friend that just finished her Master’s thesis about the reading habits of boys. And many interesting topics emerged.

1. Her husband does not read books…an undiagnosed reading “disability”. A father who did not read. A deaf mother. He has this mindset that “readers” look down on “non-readers” and judge them.

                But I don’t think that is the case…well…actually, maybe that is true. Many people who do not     read books are judged by those who do read books.

2. Fairy tales. She taught a whole unit on royalty. After reading The Princess and the Pea one of her kindergarteners said, “I wouldn’t want to be that princess.” When she taught 4^th grade (and when Riley was also one of her students) she has them write their own version of Cinderella. Fairy tales have a very “white narrative.” Oh, and without prompting she discussed how disturbing Little Red Riding Hood is.
3. After lunch she used to read a story out-loud to her kindergarten class then they would get their “book boxes” to read their own independent books. This because a struggle for her, because as infant readers they had to read out loud…their little brains can’t handle reading without the verbal action of reading. It was hard to maintain an atmosphere that allowed for reading when they were all trying to “whisper” their stories. Now she does “reading circle” and during “free time” most of them immediately rush over to her huge class library.
4. SIPS. An intervention reading program that the school just embraced as a standards for the entire school. I didn’t fully understand the complete concepts behind it, but I guess it works great for the school. And they have a lot of success in English Language Arts. Somehow is really allows students to read at their own level and have competition with themselves instead of with other students.

It was a really fun, interactive dialogue happening between the three of us. And I learned a lot.

Then I had a dialogue with Natalie (the step sister with the low reading level). She is shy and the whole family dynamic is unique, so this was my first real conversation with her (yes, even after five years).

I didn’t think I would get her to talk to me, but she actually kept the conversation going and had a lot to say about reading and her English class.

Her parents got divorced when she was young and her mom moved around a lot, so she was home-schooled for several years (that is how she fell far behind in her reading levels). She just started attending public school this year (her 8^th grade year) at the same school Andrea teaches at. There has been a lot of struggle getting her to read and write…

                Are you a reader?

                A fast replied, no!

                Why do you say that?

                A reader is someone who reads in their free time and I don’t do that.

                Why don’t you like to read?

                I get so bored! It just…is boring.

                Did your mom make you read much when she taught you?

                No. That is where I fell behind with my reading levels.

I later discovered that a lot of this boredom is due to the fact her teacher picks out books for her to read and that when she tries to read books above her AR level that difficulty turns her off toward reading. I get a sense that it makes her feel “stupid” and unworthy, which is why she finds them “boring.”

                Have you found any books that you really like reading?

                She immediately lit up and smile…City of Bones!

I have never read this series, but we had a conversation about how interesting and exciting they were. She also disclosed that she liked The Maze Runner.

               What about Divergent and The Hunger Games?

                I read parts of them, but I didn’t like them as much as other series. I really tried reading them,    but then I just got caught up in watching the movies instead. (In this case, I felt like it was more     of a desire to fit in with other girls her age)

                Do you ever have to read different books than what your friend are reading? How does that     make you feel?

                Ya. Sometimes it motivates me to be like the others, but I still struggle with it.

                Have you ever pretended to read during a time in class that you were supposed to be reading?

                A secret smile and a giggled yes.

She then brought up that they had just finished reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream—they just turned in a project on it today. We had a great conversation about Shakespeare and his funny language and his family and how he invented the word “swagger.” She said the reading wasn’t so bad because the teacher explained it all, but when it came to writing a paper on it that had to have quotes it was difficult to remember what it all meant. I reassured her that I am an English major and still have a really hard time reading his language.

And while this whole blog may seem irrelevant to Miller and her ideas, it is not. My conversations covered many of the concepts addressed in the frost chapter of the book. “Fake-readers.” Making time in the classroom for students to read. What motivates students to read. Identifying as a reader. Making time to be a reader.

The conversations were highly insightful and I benefited from the dialogue more than this blog can ever reflect. I was able to view the process through the lenses of an actual teacher and through the perspective of a “fake reader” and a struggling reader who was never given the opportunity to create an identity as a reader. These different stories and dialogues reflected the importance of Miller’s ideas AMC the need to create wild readers.