March 2010
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The Book Review Blog Carnival
My post on Roberto Bolaño’s The Skating Rink is featured in this week’s Book Review Blog Carnival over at Clark Bjorke’s beautifully titled blog I’ll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book! A number of other interesting posts about interesting-looking books are featured, so go take a gander. Continue reading
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Why Children Shouldn’t Read
I love this excerpt, published in today’s Globe and Mail, from children’s author Susan Juby’s new memoir, Nice Recovery. This book has gone straight to my list of “what to read next,” and it may be a contender for the reading list for next fall’s personal narrative course. In it, Juby discusses her struggle, beginning… Continue reading
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What I’m Learning From Roberto Bolaño’s The Skating Rink
A friend gave me a copy of The Skating Rink for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I’d told her that I’ve been trying to get into mystery novels lately, and she’s been devouring Bolaño but didn’t want to plunge me into his difficult masterpiece 2666. It’s a relatively slim book, with an attractive,… Continue reading
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What I’m Learning From What I’m Reading: Sara Maitland’s A Book of Silence
I’d like to propose a hypothesis: “Students in college should be required to study literature because it’s not too late for them to become lifelong voracious readers.” The obvious followup question is, “Why should they become lifelong voracious readers?” I’m collecting answers to that, and Sara Maitland’s A Book of Silence suggests a few. Maitland… Continue reading
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What I’m Learning From What I’m Reading: Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto
On Thursday, I received a number of pre-spring-break, post-1st-major-assignment visits, emails and phone calls from students who are now hopelessly behind. These communiqués are always bad for my blood pressure. I start obsessing about what I will say if they challenge my “no makeups without a medical excuse” policy. I twitch every time I think… Continue reading
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What I’m Learning From What I’m Reading: Zadie Smith’s Changing My Mind
There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What… Continue reading
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Teaching This Week: 5 Cool Things
I managed to make some time this week (mostly due to a couple of sick days) to mess around online, and see what the world of teaching looks like right now. 1. The big talk is around the New York Times Sunday Magazine’s article “Can Good Teaching Be Learned?” (or, as it is known online,… Continue reading
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Carnival of Educators: Mar. 9, 2010 Edition
The latest edition of the Carnival of Educators is up at Notes from a Homeschooling Mom. Continue reading
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Steven Pinker, Jezebel, Cathleen Schine and Others on the Value of Reading
In response to my recent posts on the value of reading (and teaching literature), I’ve been sent some terrific links that shed light on the topic. BikeLizard over at my OpenSalon version of this blog mentioned a Jezebel article called “Page Rage: When Books Make Kids Hate Reading.” In it, the author grapples with the… Continue reading
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Encountering the Other: How Literature Will Save the World
Lately, I’ve been thinking about reading. A month ago, I asked you why the study of literature should be mandatory in college. You gave me lots of interesting responses (both here and on my OpenSalon blog). Not only did you help me start formulating the research question I was looking for, but you also got… Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 