Nancie Atwell teaches English as a writing-reading workshop in a rural school she created in Maine (USA). Some years ago she was awarded with the Global Teacher Prize. In her book “The Reading Zone”, she explains her lifetime mission. “The good teachers I know from every grade and subject are in the classroom because they want to influence kids for a lifetime, to make a difference over the long haul, to inspire students to become thoughtful, productive grown-ups.”
So everything that could constrain teacher’s inspiration and freedom –like the obligation to follow the Common Core curriculum and assess students’ performance with standardized tests – will go against teaching as an inspirational and aspirational profession.
Atwell defines reading instruction as a process that “brings knowledge, joy, purpose, skill, personal preference and a sense of community”. This is a powerful definition of reading that makes knowledge only one component of the reading experience. As she puts it: “No child ever grew to become a skilled, passionate, habitual, critical reader via a fat, bland textbook.” Questioning “fat, bland textbooks” is another way of highlighting the importance of the reading experience as both a unique personal experience and, at the same time, one that is shared with peers.
Atwell understands reading as a personal art and defines the key for learners’ engagement: “every day they engage with literature that enables them to know things, feel things, imagine things, hope for things, become people they never could have dreamed without the transforming power of books, books, books”.
No such thing as competition to read better and faster; as Atwell puts it: “the passions aroused by stories and characters are the prize”.
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