Reading Assignment

Last Friday before I handed out two stories to a class so that they could read them on the weekend, I asked the students how many of them had read Obama's winning speech, which I handed out three weeks ago.   As expected, I saw only a few hands up.  

If I had asked them to do something about the reading, I might have seen more hands.   However, when I gave them that reading material, what I wanted was that they sat back and read for pleasure, ready to be touched by Obama's eloquence. 

Not seeing many hands, I didn't feel angry.  I understood how busy they were.  They had so much to study for the SAT.  Always looking on the bright side, I was still happy that there were some who had read it.  They benefited. 

Sometimes it seems that most students still need "reasons" to do reading outside class, for example, writing a summary, answering questions, or even taking a quiz. 

So this time when I handed out the two stories, one of which was "The Girl in the Fifth Row" from a Chicken Soup book and the other was "Paging Dr. Carson" from Reader's Digest, I told them what they had to do.  They were supposed to read both for pleasure, and then chose one to write a summary in class this week.   I asked them to jot down 10 key words or phrases on a piece of paper when reading the story of their choice for the 2nd time.  Then in class with these 10 words/phrases as reminders, they wrote a 120-word summary in their own words.  Knowing the SAT is only about six weeks away, I still hope this assignment won't be too demanding. 

P.S. However, I'm very happy quite a few students have borrowed English books or Reader's Digest from me.