Hello Friends,

Reading has primacy in all of our teaching and learning. If you are a teacher, you are a reading teacher. If you are a parent/grandparent/caregiver, you, too, can be a reading teacher. As a 10-year-old visiting a grad class once told us: "Just read, read, read." The majority of this issue of WinkWorld is reflective of some recent reading about reading I've been doing. As always, I conclude with New Angels, Prairie Pedagogy, and Notes from the Real World.

Of Reading and Rewards: Three Short Stories

First Story
Note Sent Home with A Pre-K Grandchild Somewhere on The Face of The Planet "For the month of January, we will be doing a reading incentive. Please read your child two books a day, or ten books a week. This even gives two days a week when you don't have to read."

Note:
The mother is catching her breath before responding to this note from school. This particular Grand (a.k.a., "A" for Adorable) flies through 10 books every day with his Mommie. Fortunately, he does not understand the concept of "two days a week when you DON'T have to read." He only understands that he GETS to read every day. Adorable knows that reading is its own reward.

For more thoughts on doubts about extrinsic rewards for reading and learning, see Alfie Kohn Homepage, http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.html
More is also available at WinkWorld, July 2005 (http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2005/news0705-intro.html)

Second Story
As some of you may remember from other years, Denise, the WebWizard of WinkWorld, and her family are avid readers. They keep a log to record all of their books they read for each year. (http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2006/samplelog.pdf). This year Denise reports she only read 138 books, or 52,274 pages. Shel, her husband, only read 87, or 30,739 pages this year; Elliot, age 13, read 23 books.

Denise's reflection on their reading year:
In 2006 our reading correlated directly to our lives. Shel and I were both on the run with different projects and family obligations. In some months those duties allowed us more reading time and in other months you can tell it was all we could do to open a book. I compared 2005 to 2006 since a picture sometimes tells the story better.
http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2007/hurdfamlog.jpg

Third Story
I have written previously of Wyatt, our 10-year-old grandson, who was a reluctant reader, until his mom pulled him out of a scripted mandated school reading program. After that, he morphed into an avid reader within 2 to 3 months. See WinkWorld, November 2006 (http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2006/news1106-benchmarks.html), January 2004 (http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2004/news0104-dawn.html), and September 2003 (http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2003/news0903-boxers.html). Dawn and her kids have been so inspired by Denise's Family Reading Log that they, too, have created one. I noted that when we were in Santa Fe for Christmas, Wyatt was reading the Harry Potter series for the third time. He grabs whatever book he's reading and curls up in the book nook several times throughout the day. When a section is too good not to share, he giggles to himself and say, "Hey, Mom, listen to this!" and begins to read aloud.
http://www.joanwink.com/gifs2/wyatt-reading1206.jpg

With a cursory glance at my living room coffee table and bedside table, I believe that I have only read 20 to 30 novels for pleasure in 2006. Pretty humbling when compared with of our grandkids, who are now all avid readers.

For more on reading, see:
Susan Ohanian Homepage, http://susanohanian.org/
Stephen D. Krashen Homepage, http://www.sdkrashen.com
Jim Trelease Homepage, http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/
Also see, Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, available on-line and FREE! Go to www.ijflt.com The latest issue has an interview with Susan Ohanian and a second interview with Alfie Kohn.

100 Groups Seek NCLB Overhaul
Forum on Educational Accountability (FEA)
http://www.edaccountability.org
Educator Roundtable
http://www.educatorroundtable.org/index.html

Implicit Racist Test
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/takeatest.html
Try it, but I can't promise you that you'll like it.

Linguistic Human Rights
Dawn Wink
http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2007/newmexican.pdf
http://www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2007/nuevomexicano.pdf

Critical Pedagogy/Critical Literacy
Susan Sandretto, colleagues, and students have created a new webpage.
http://education.otago.ac.nz/criticalliteracy/blog/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_literacy

To Reference This Web Page Wink, J. (2007, January). WinkWorld
Retrieved ,
from www.joanwink.com/newsletter/2007/news0107-intro.html.