Summer Reading about Reading
The first round of summer reading recommendations
Dear Reader,
I spend every June clawing my way through a fog. The long transition from the present school year into summer, as well as the nervous anticipation of the school year to come, leaves me exhausted, anxious, and, to the detriment of those around me, cranky.
But every summer, when I’m supposed to take a step away from the trappings of education and teaching, I’m drawn towards books that tug me back into the thick of my work. Oddly enough, distance from the classroom makes me more susceptible to its promises and inspirations. It’s only with distance that I can see clearly my accomplishments and my missed opportunities without buttressing my vanity or crippling my confidence. Thoughtfully written books about teaching restore my sense of purpose and vitality, which allows me to enter the new school year with renewed zest and stamina.
This week, I start a series of book recommendations for the summer. I read quite a few of these books by checking them out from the Brooklyn Public Library system, though they are all available in bookstores and online. Perhaps you are not like me, and you need to protect your summer time by blockading all materials related to education. I get it. These recommendations are good all year though, and they have been crucial to my development as a teacher.
Be Well,
Erin
Proust and The Squid by Maryanne Wolf
This book was my introduction the science and history of reading and writing. Wolf successfully traces the history of written language, and she does an excellent job showing how unnatural an invention it is. She also talks about the brain processes developed during early reading instruction, as well as explains what we know about dyslexia and other print-based disabilities. On top of it all, she’s an excellent and engaging writer.
Come Home, Dear Reader by Maryanne Wolf
Here she is again! This book, published after Proust and The Squid, tackles reading in an age of technological change. Wolf vulnerably shares her own struggles with reading after years of short reading mediated by screens, and she shares some of the (albeit incomplete) research on screens and digital tools on the reading brain. This book is much more approachable than her prior work, and it is the kind of book that can be read in the day. Similar to a project described by Wolf in the book, I started rereading one of my favorite novels (Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov) as soon as I finished Come Home, Dear Reader.
Language at the Speed of Sight by Mark Seidenberg
This book provides a technical explanation for how reading works, similar to Maryanne Wolf in Proust and the Squid. Seidenberg also spends quite a bit of time in the back half of the book addressing larger policy questions about literacy and teacher education in the United States, and he takes on a number of troubling, deterministic talking points common in the education debate today. Though a tad dense, it’s a book that will reward your hard work!
The 2000 National Reading Panel Report
This is not a book, BUT hear me out. The 2000 NRP is not the most updated research, but if all elementary schools across the country truly adopted their recommendations, we would be in a different place altogether. It’s free online. Just google it.