I've spent a great deal of time this week reading and reflecting upon the beginning chapters of Terri Lesesne's Naked Reading. Here is a brief summary/critique of Lesesne's opening chapters.
Introduction
Lesesne outlines her "DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) program", which her eight-year old granddaughter follows by reading in the bathroom, naked. Thus, the title for the book Naked Reading. The main premise for the book is to uncover why children like her granddaughter enjoy reading, while others receive no such joy through the written word. Why did her granddaughter decide to spend time reading? Understanding the grand daughters story can help teachers motivate reluctant readers, having more students like her granddaughter in their classes. It will also help to uncover what is needed for "lifetime readers" to develop (i.e. those that are able to read whenever or wherever.)
Lesesne has a genuine interest in this question, for she has worked as a middle-school teacher; currently she works as a MLIS professor, trying to implant the reading/learning bug in every student. She notes the alarming rates that students are developing a dislike towards reading. It's starting earlier than ever before. When Lesesne began teaching, in 1979, the majority of her seventh-and-eighth grade students continued to enjoy reading. Recently, however, she notes that an aversion towards books has started as early as the third or fourth grades. These students read only in school, and are known as "school-time" readers. This is dire, for those "pleasure readers" that read outside of school are also "lifetime learners". Losing outside readers lessens the possibilities of an intelligent populace, a group of people that choose to learn.
The purpose of this book is to find "appropriate material that is interesting to" tweens. Tweens are in-between children and adolescents, and locating enjoyable reading material for them is a difficult task; they reject children's picture books, but are not developmentally ready for YA books.
Chapter 1
The chapter begins by introducing two types of readers: ten-year-old Brad and Andrew. Brad is already a lifetime reader. He reads whenever he gets the chance. "The challenge with Brad is not motivating him to read. The challenge is to find new books for him as he devours book after book." Here is the main message: "Brad is ten, and the books he reads still need to be appropriate for someone of his developmental level. While Brad's vocabulary far outstrips those of other ten-year-olds and he can access more difficult text, he still is not ready for books that explore topics and subjects and issues beyond his moral, emotional, and social development (p. 7-8)". Andrew is described as a "reluctant reader". He sets himself a goal of twenty-pages to read each day, but he's pickier about the books he reads. It's hard for him to become interested in any given book, though finishing is a lot easier. Several librarians and teachers have helped him. Through their collective support, he's managed to find books of interest.
Naked, in the title, refers to "the abandoned and oblivious joy" readers "derive from the reading experience". We're told that Kylene Beers (1990) research has shown that "there is no one 'template for alliterates, kids who know how to read but elect not to join in". Lesesne uses Beers work as her jumping point. There is tremendous variation among tweens and therefore their reading will also highly vary. "Some elect not to read because their life is simply too hectic; others do not read because they cannot locate books that interest them; still others do not read because reading poses problems for them (p. 9)".
For the purpose of this book, tween is defined as students in classes four through eight (i.e. ages ten through fourteen). Lesesne notes that it's important to address physical, emotional/mental/psychological, and social/cultural issues when selecting tween books. She provides a list of books in the Five C's - competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring - that can help emergent tweens deal
with emotional/mental/psychological issues.
Lesesne denounces Accelerated Reader (AR) program as an ineffective means of developing lifetime readers. The AR program suffers, for it is extrinsically motivated, and limits book choice. For each book read, a quiz follows. The higher one scores on the quiz, the more points received. A perfect score is calculated differently, depending upon which level the book was from; higher books receive more points than books from lower levels. Students are continually pushed to read books in higher point categories, not books they choose to read on their own. At this time, there is no evidence to support the idea that this program will lead kids to read on their own. Instead of using these "canned programs", Lesesne encourages her readers "to offer books and experiences that will allow. . . students to make their own progress through the stages of unconscious delight, reading autobiographically, reading for vicarious experiences, reading for philosophical speculation, and reading for aesthetic experience. (p. 16)."
Lifetime readers (i.e. those that read for pleasure) comprise only a "small segment of the population". Three statistics are reported, though she does not cite her work; my main question is where did these statistics come from? The first statistic states that ten-percent of readers in the United States are responsible for ninety-percent of all books purchased. This follows with the question: "Are you doing your part? (p.17)" Lesesne provides evidence that she is more than helping the book industry, and briefly laments the demise of independent bookstores. Moving on, we learn that the average American reads only three books per year, and that this is the highest number of books read for pleasure worldwide. To Lesesne, this statistic is abysmal: "how in the world can we encourage our kids to become 'a nation of readers' when we are, instead, a nation of television watchers? If our children do not see us as readers, what unspoken message does this transmit to them about the value of reading in the adult world outside of school? (p. 17)" The final statistic, mentions, "more than seventy-five percent of teens graduating from high school will never read another book again (p. 17)". The citation to this find is, unhelpfully missing. However, she does address a 2005 article in the Washington Post, emphasizing the difficulties in developing lifetime readers. According to Lesesne, who is blameworthy? Standardized tests and required reading; the latter make reading increasingly unpleasant, especially through the middle and high school years.
Lesesne's answer to the above dilemma is to find appropriate books. Reading can be viewed in five stages, as described above. The first stage - unconscious delight - epitomizes those moments when we become lost in the printed page. Librarians or teachers must find suitable books, placing books in the hands of readers that uniquely speak to them. Books can also speak to us differently, through reading autobiographically. At some point in our reading lives, we search for those in books with characters or situations that are similar to ourselves, reminding us of our own lives. For some readers, however, reading autobiographically is too painful. Instead these readers search for books that can provide vicarious experiences; Harry Potter and Nancy Drew are just some examples. Reading for philosophical speculation, is the penultimate stage. In this stage, we question the way the world operates, the meaning, purpose of life. We also seek to understand ourselves more deeply, especially our identity, behavior, personality, and goals. This stage often requires children/tweens to venture to YA or adult books, in a quest for answers. As a teacher, Lesesne is cautious about the books she places in her classroom, choosing only those books that are written for tweens. With her granddaughters, however, Lesesne is more open, placing few limits on the books they choose to read. The final stage - aesthetic experience - is reading for merely the pleasure that reading brings. Books that we choose to reread are found here.
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