[etni] book appreciation

From: "R. Borenstein" <rachcb1@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:14:33 +0200
Along the line of getting them read of their own free will:  Three month
ago, an "average" student came to me, fed up because she couldn't find a
book. Like all students who come with this complaint, I asked what things
she does enjoy reading, in Hebrew.  We settled on "cook books". I had a new
book about baking with a few pages or more at the beginning of each section
with instructions and tips.  We looked through the book together, chose two
topics to focus on (we're talking about a large book with mid-size font) and
she read all about making pizza and cookies, had to go through the book and
make a dictionary of forty ingredients, summarize what she'd learned, and
then she baked a pizza and brought it to class. 
 
Yesterday, we met in the library during recess to find a new book to read,
One by one, we went through, read the summary.  We settled on a book that I
told her I'd read about 30 times as a kid. (This was after we narrowed down
which genre I shouldn't even bother showing her). She realized she may enjoy
it too.  
 
I also don't have a problem with students reading a book that they've read
in Hebrew. The point of reading English books is to pick up vocabulary and
learn syntax, among other things. Even if a student can tackle a 500 page
Harry Potter in English b/c they've already read it in Hebrew, they are
still exposed to an immense amount of slang, proper language use, and the
ability to distinguish between proper English and J.K. Rowlingisms. I'm not
concerned these students will start referring to everyone as muggles, even
though some students think they are wizards.
Rachelle  

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[etni] book appreciation

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