The title of this post is quote from Penelope Fitzgerald who was a was a Booker Prize-winning English novelist, poet, essayist and biographer. In 2008, The Times included her in a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945. (Wikipedia) . How true.
This chapter is full of theories and vocabulary important for understanding how we read. It really was not a fun chapter but for the quotes she riddles the chapter with which lead the reader back to the importance of the chapter.
Below is some vocabulary we all need when discussing reading and language.
Semantic and pragmatic development. I am not sure why semantics and pragmatics are combined into one process. I think of the expression "it's just semantics". What does that really mean? What do we mean when we say "semantics" to someone who has just explained something in a way that it is wordy and hard to discern. Semantics is actually the study of meaning. When someone is being pragmatic, we say that someone is being logical. Phonological development is clearly the development of hearing and decoding sounds.
Syntactic development is the grammatical forms and structures of sentences. Orthographic development is about the visual aspects of print and letters. Finally, Morphological development, which Wolf says is the least studied of the systems and "prepares the child to learn the conventions surround how words are formed from smaller, meaningful roots and units of meaning or morphemes (113).
Today I will leave you with a final quote from this chapter on the natural history of reading where Wolf writes "as every teacher knows, emotional engagement is often the tipping point between leaping into the reading life or remaining in a childhood bog where reading is endured only as a means to other ends" (132).
I am often awed by those for whom reading is a true love. There are those for whom, punishment is when a book was taken away as a youngster. I love books, but I love the covers, the titles are a source of awe for me, the colors and book jacket text make me smile. I have had a title for my book since the first inkling of being a writer was born. I envision myself holding them at my book signing, I have chosen the picture that will grace the inside flap, it is a picture of me, seven and toothless, atop an old rocking horse wearing my summer pajamas.
I love books, I just don't always love to read them...
I love the beginning and ending quotes you used, they are fantastic! Your point about books being taken away as punishment makes me laugh, I've had bookworm kids in class who will be punished by their parents and teachers by taking away their books because they are reading too much and not getting anything else done, I love it!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that your post/ text read was more for a teacher in a younger classroom, however, I LOVE your beginning quote. I thought it was fantastic. Also, taking away the book reminded me of my childhood. My own mom used to give me a hard time for reading so much, but in my eyes, I was thinking, you want me to get perfect grades and a true sign of the bookworm nerd is someone who loves to read sooooooooooo what exactly is the problem? lol. Made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your posting in many ways. The quote at the end very much echoes what I am reading. Kids in school see the instrumental value of school and of reading and then again only do it as it is a means to am end. I love books too but don't often love to read them. My wife on the other hand would be that child who would consider it punishment to have the book take way. My daughter is beginning to display the same traits.
ReplyDeleteI'm the kid who thought it was punishment to read anything other than my comic books or sports illustrated magazines. I lost it with your closing remarks about loving books but not always loving to read them. I have an awesome book collection, comprising of must reads, suggested reads, have to reads, and don't ever read agains. I like looking at them but I have to be in the mood to look inside them. Morphological development was an awesome thing to research after reading your post. I had never heard of morphemes, very interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteaaah, a collector. Every year we have a garage sale, and for the past 5 years or so I have always gotten rid of a ton of books. (Because I was beginning to feel like a hoarder. And yes, kids & their stuff take up space...) Like Orlando, above, I have books to read again, books I want to read, books I like the cover of, etc. This year I finally said, no way. I am keeping ALL my books. Every year I have regretted getting rid of a book, and have even re-bought more of them than I want to admit.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dartmouth.edu/~readingbrains/ResearchFiles/reading.html
this was a great link too, that summed up the different developments. I was interested in reading more about orthographic development. i thought of visual learners, or artistic kids.. do these developments happen systematically? step by step? simultaneously?
The orthographic system – orthographic processing involves the visual look of a word or string of letters; you might depend in part on orthography to quickly know that “cat” is a real word while “cta” is not. Research suggests that the ability to automatically orthographically process strings of letters as words might depend on the so-called word form system, which may develop over time with experience with words.