Good Times... Noodle Salad....

I say, let the kids read what they want as much as possible. While you have to assign books to read, they will get more out of the book if they are actually interested in reading the book they have. Perhaps this is too much to ask for younger kids, so I would give them a list to choose from.

I think it's important to teach kids how to look for books to see if they are interested in them. Teach them about genres and how to read summaries and such.

I said all this in my last entry. It is important that the kids are motivated to read the books. In essence, you have to trick them into doing it themselves. Kids are rebellious, therefore, we have to give them as much rope as they can. Teachers like to follow the students with a stick and smack them if they get out of line. I think it would be better if we gave them boundaries... with room to move from side to side. Perhaps different corridors and doors to go through. This would give the student options. As the student gets older, we can make the boundaries wider, give more doors and more corridors.... Until they are old enough to just let them run free.

However, it is wise to assign at least some readings. I think that these readings should have variety. I see no problem in letting students read banned books. You have all of that garbage on TV, naked girls on magazine covers. There are sex, drugs, and hate everywhere. Why do we try and pretend it doesn't exist in the classroom? Letting the students read these books will also spark their attention more. I do not want to read about "1984." I want to read about sex and drugs. So I think we should allow these questionable books to be read in school. It will spark students interest, as well as educate them on how bad and unwise things are ("Go Ask Alice").

So I think freedom and variety are important when giving adolescents reading assignments.