"Please Excuse Any Miss Spellings."

Yep! That is a sentence I read at the end of a student's email. I have never met Miss Spelling, but I have seen a lot of misspelled words in my days as an English instructor.

I consider most misspelled words symptomatic of a deeper cultural problem: the lack of reading in our society. Most students who choose to come to a community college rather than a four-year institution have not been reading on a regular basis. Chances are the misspelling traditional students have not had a good prior educational experience, whether it was from their own lack of performance or the fault of the school they attended. Many of our older students find themselves with the same issues because they have not been in school for quite a while and have also not been reading.

What is the result? A lack of exposure to our most common words, and a lack of exposure to seeing words in print. For example, when Spell Checker gives students options for an erroneous version of "definite," many students will choose the option "defiant" without sounding out the word to recognize the error of their decision. This also leads to the humorous error of writing about their "collage" experience here at Yavapai College.

Then there is the issue of open, hyphenated, and closed compound words. Students are not used to seeing the printed forms of compounds. Nowadays becomes "now a days"; somewhere becomes "some where"; and anyone becomes "any one." I have seen high school as "High School," "highschool," and "high School." Air-conditioned becomes "airconditioned" or "air conditioned." I have even seen "with out" used in papers.

When in doubt, sound it out, right? Based upon this premise, students will write "would of" instead of "would have." They actually don't know this is an error because they are not used to seeing these words on a page.

Accompanying the spelling errors is a use of the vernacular or cultural dialect in writing. Here is where I must confess to my own grammatical prejudices as I teach my students about what will and won't be allowed in their essays. "To where" drives me nuts!  "He studied to where he fell asleep at his desk." And then there is the infamous "He asked where Suzie was at." Definitely a cause for red ink! This also leads to "try and see" instead of "try to see." All of these expressions have become a common part of our student's oral communication, but they are not an accepted part of academic communication...yet.

These trends lead me to an ongoing discussion with my students about the importance of reading for pleasure. The errors I have used as examples in this blog will probably not go away no matter how often the errors are corrected by instructors. They won't go away until our students begin to read on a regular basis, and this won't happen until they discover the joy of reading. As an institution, we could return to using the same kinds of spelling drills and grammar practice sheets in ENG 101 that so many teachers used during elementary school, but we are dealing with a different issue. Those drills exposed students to the norms of our written language that were reinforced as they read. Somewhere around the time of junior high or middle school, most students stop reading. When they reach an age filled with more choices for using their time (sports, TV, video games), most reading assignments become an avoided chore, a boring requirement, something to be avoided. This is when all that earlier learning begins to disappear because the students are no long immersed in our written language in the form of engaging stories. Many of the students we see in our classes made it through high school without ever reading a book. Ah, the blessings of electronic Spark Notes!

There is hope. Yes, many of our students arrive at college with poor spelling skills and a misunderstanding of when vernacular is appropriate. However, the more they read for our classes, the more they will relearn what they have lost from misuse. To encourage students to do the reading assignments, we need to help them get the most out of their books, and we need to make those reading assignments count. I have heard some say that their instructor doesn't require the textbook: I have heard others complain about the difficulty of the textbooks they are trying to read. I would challenge us all to teach our students how to read our textbooks. Our students don't know that scientists and historians don't approach reading in the same way. They assume that every textbook gets read the same way, in the same amount of time, and in the same night before the due date with the same skills that got them through high school. All of us need to take a few minutes out of class to explain how we would read our textbooks. What reading techniques work best with your texts?

We can even speed up the process of relearning spelling and removing the oral dialect if we can get our students to enjoy reading. We should be sharing our favorite books in our classes. The students are inundated with trailers for upcoming movies, teasers to get them to buy a ticket and a bag of popcorn. We should be creating quick, one-minute teasers about books in our fields that might be interesting to our students. This summer I read The Origin of Feces by David Waltner-Toews (not exactly in my field of study). I have shared the book with every one of my classes this semester. The title alone is the best trailer for the book, and when the students hear that there is an entire chapter devoted to the discussion of the most appropriate word to use when talking about this "taboo" subject, I have them hooked (You will have to read the book to find out what he concludes.). The author approaches an ignored part of every ecosystem that is now affecting us globally in such a humorous way that I think every student could enjoy it and learn from it. I may not have a single students take me up on the recommendation, but all of them will have heard about my delight in reading this book. If they are hearing the same message from all of their instructors...who know what might happen? A revolution of reading?

The situation is not hopeless, but it does require patience. Rather than dumbing down and giving up on reading assignments, we need to support our students in their efforts to learn how to take full advantage of this unfamiliar college culture based so much upon the written word. And we need to inspire the joy of reading.


Image from (www. cafepress.com)

Reading, Writing and Rrrr...eality

"The majority of Arizona high-school graduates’ scores on two popular college-admissions tests — the ACT and the SAT — indicate that the students are ill-prepared for college and would likely need to take remedial classes once there, according to reports from the groups responsible for administering the tests.
Of the more than 31,000 Arizona high-school seniors who took the ACT last year, only 21 percent stand a strong chance of earning a C or higher in first-year college courses related to math, science, English and reading, according to one report." Karen Schmidt.

Reading, writing, and 'rithmetic--the three basics that have been the foundation of our education. All three have been affected in interesting ways with the advent of technology. I will leave the math instructors to address the impact of calculators and computerized math programs on their field. We college English instructors are dealing with the impact of the Internet and technology upon reading and writing. Yes, students are actually reading and writing more than was predicted at the advent of the technology. However, the nature of both has changed drastically. We saw this in the essays written for our composition classes for several years. When texting first became available through the number pads on those old cell phones, we read many essays using "i", "cuz", and many other abbreviated words. I still have a copy of an email that I had trouble deciphering because of  the text-speak used. The development of those small keyboards helped because most students returned to typing whole sentences instead of chopped up phrases. Now smart phones automatically capitalize the first letter after a period for those people who can't be bothered or, in the case of some of our students, may not know that is how you begin the next sentence. Student writing is also impacted by the fact that texting and Facebook encourage short messages. As a result, students facing academic discourse must adjust to writing longer "text" that reflects more complex thinking.  This only comes with practice, practice, practice--something most of our students have not had enough of when they enter our classrooms.

What has affected writing has also affected reading. Students are not accustomed to reading longer text. Since their technological world is adapted for short, quick reads, they are losing the attention span for sustained reading of longer paragraphs and multiple pages of text. And they assume that the reading skills they use for the Internet and texting are sufficient for academic text. As a reading instructor, my main learning outcome for students beyond the stated learning outcomes of my courses is to strengthen this attention span for longer interaction with text. Because of this, I want to use books and readings that will grab the attention of my students. If I can get them to re-discover the joy of reading, I can reach that outcome. Thus, I must be very careful about the material I choose.

I am always looking for new books to use in my reading classes that will engage my students in ways that will prepare them for this sustained attention. For ENG 082 and 083, I have to be very careful about the reading level because I want the book to challenge the students without discouraging them. Thus, I seek out books that they will find interesting and approachable. Once I find a book, I design my assignments to encourage students to become active readers.

One book I have used is October Sky by Homer Hickham, a great selection because his memoir focuses on his high school experiences--some humorous, some sad, some inspirational, and some touching.  Every student can compare his or her teenage years to Hickham's. Because of this, I have been able to design the reading responses to be both personal and interactive with each new section of the reading. Rather than asking short answer questions about content, I ask students to write two detailed paragraphs. In the first paragraph, they give their reactions to the reading: Was anything surprising or unexpected? Did they find the section boring or interesting? For the second paragraph, I have them interact with content specific within the chapters. Sometimes they are asked to compare their experience to Hickham's. Other times, they might compare their education to that of the 1950s. This allows them to bring in their own knowledge and experience while showing me that they indeed read the assignment.


A book I am using for the first time this semester is Havana Real by Yoani Sanchez, an award-winning blogger out of Cuba.  My motivation for this choice came from reading Generation on a Tightrope by Arthur Levine, et al. In this compilation of survey and interview results from current college students, the authors conclude that this generation is globally more aware but internationally ignorant. When I found Havana Real, I was attracted to the short, personal blogs of a woman who chose to return to Cuba in hopes of bringing about change. The added benefit is that she is still actively blogging whenever she can, so my students can read what she is currently posting. Through Sanchez, I and my students are learning about daily life in a Communist country while making a personal connection to the author. My students can view the inside of a country that they have only known before through history books. With the added benefit of technology, students can also view YouTube videos of Sanchez, read blogs by other Cubans, and research Cuba with the motivation to learn personally. And they are being challenged by the courage and audacity of this woman, and her fellow bloggers, who dares to speak across the Internet. As a result, not only are my students getting hooked on active reading and proactive research, they are also becoming more aware of the ordinary people living in other countries. As with October Sky, the reading responses ask for personal interaction with the text and critical thinking about the content.

I tell my student throughout the semester three important results from active, habitual reading, the kind in which the student becomes immersed in our written language:

• The more you read, the better you read. I am convinced this is why most of my students test into ENG 082 or 083. Our culture does not encourage reading for pleasure. Most students will confess to their loss of reading pleasure around seventh or eighth grade. Part of this is the educational shift in these grades to more non-fiction such as textbooks; part of this is because this is when the students' lives get filled with other time options such as sports, video games, etc.
• The more you read, the better you write. This was the conclusion of my research for my Masters degree. The premise is that fluency in any language requires immersion in the culture. Students who learn a language through grammar drills, test really well, but lack fluency in speaking. Students who are immersed in the language, usually by moving to the country, speak fluently even though they may not test well on specific grammar functions. This same principle holds true for reading and writing. The more students immerse themselves in our written language through reading, the more fluently they will be able to express their ideas through writing. Thus, trying to teach students to write better without having them read will be a very slow learning process. This is why some colleges are now moving toward combining developmental reading and writing into one course.
• The more your read, the better you think. We humans are wired to interact in very interesting ways with words on a page. This activity actually develops our ability to think critically, even from childhood. For example, in Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It by Dr. Jane Healy, a chapter discusses the importance of reading for children. Reading stories during a certain age range promotes imaginary thinking, a stage which is vital to later development of critical thinking. If children watch the movie (Thank you, Disney!) instead of having the book read to them, this imaginary thinking is not developed in the same way in the brain. But all is not lost if a child is never read to, as long as that child develops into an avid reader later. 

None of this comes from the passive activity of the eye tracking words across a page. Yet how many of our students think that this is all that is necessary to get those reading assignments done? 

Reading, writing, and 'rithmetic: 12+ years of education to prepare students for college. Technology has changed the lives and habits of our students, but it does not prepare them for the expectations of college learning. Many are shocked to discover how much of college learning is expected to take place within the pages of written text. They will continue to balk at the reading until they become engaged in the subject and  until they can sustain the attention for longer texts.

"According to a similar annual report on the SAT, Arizona high-school seniors who took the test last year scored an average of 1498 — below the benchmark of 1550 that predicts students will achieve grades of a B- or higher in their first year of college. Students who meet the benchmark are more likely to earn a higher GPA in their first year of college and more likely to graduate, according to the SAT report." Karen Schmidt