Get it? It’s a proposal. A PROPOSAL!
…You didn’t get it?
Fine. Don’t mind me. I’ve only slept five hours in the last two nights.
Here we go.
Thesis: Humans learn by doing. We learn basic behaviors based from imitation and practice. That being said, mandated reading times in the classroom encourage not only imagination and exploration, but also basic literacy skills necessary for life. Imposing bans on that time can have the adverse effect.
Pros: There is plenty of research out there including research done by a former teacher of mine.
Cons: How do you account for the students who just don’t care?
We had a lot of reading days in school. They were viewed as a wonderful thing by me but as slacking/ sleeping days to others. I think some really interesting research could go into this. Curious to see where this goes!
Also try the whole sleeping thing… 🙂
Oh, come on, Katy. Who actually sleeps? 😛
But really, though. A lot of this came from a conversation with my 12th grade English teacher. The principal told her she couldn’t hold reading days anymore and the upcoming class is essentially illiterate. I’m going to try contacting her for the project.
I don’t remember having much “mandatory” reading time while in school but teachers often required huge lists of books for us to read each year. I don’t think it’s easy to force kids into reading though–you have to want to read the subject. I’m an avid reader, but I still struggled through books like Jonny Trumain in middle school.