Summer Reading

Every summer I stock up on books I plan to read over the summer. And then I get through a fourth of them. So this summer I'm keeping the list short. And sweet.

 Here it is. First up, A Technique for Producing Ideas: The simple, five-step formula anyone can use to be more creative in business and in life!

This reminds me so much of the works I've read in the past, namely Imagine and Where Good Ideas Come from.  It's a short read, but excellent.

After that, I'll read Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation.  I've already read the fist essay in the collection.  It focuses on how many literary 'masterpieces,' are only considered that because of chance or passionate supporters. 


The author, Tom Bissell, focuses on Herman Melville, Emily Dickenson, and Walt Whitman.  Whose works were all far, far more popular after their deaths than during their lives.  And in every instance there was a large number of critics and publishers that thought their works were trash.  My favorite line concludes his section on Melville and the first true American masterpiece novel, Moby-Dick: "And 76 years after its publication, Moby Dick as an American classic was born."


This reminds me, of course, of the classic epic Beowulf.  Or at least what I thought was the classic epic Beowulf.  The way my lit professors in college talked about it, I just assumed every human grew up reading about the archetypal hero in the western world. 


Then I read an article that said the supposed classic epic had almost fallen out of use in anthologies and textbooks until JR Tolkein wrote an essay on it.  That kick started its popularity.  What would have happened had Tolkein not written that essay?


Love it.  Don't give up.  Ever.


But what is really frightening (at least as a teacher of English and as a writer) is that maybe we currently have no real idea of what is 'great' literature.  At least in our lifetimes.  Who knows maybe my great-great-great grandkids will be assigned Stephen King instead of Shakespeare?


Also on my list is Write Beside Them by Penny Kittle.  I've already started this one and it makes me feel like - in terms of teaching writing - I've been asleep in the classroom for the past five years.


I can't wait for next year to roll around and I can try some new things.


One thing that I love that Kittle does for a final essay is she has her students submit an annotated paper.  In their annotations they attempt to illustrate for the reader what they are thinking about as they write and what they are trying to get the writer to think and believe. Now why can't I think of that?  Instead I read their essays and just guess at what they're trying to get me to think.


You naysayer may be thinking, 'but if they do a good enough job writing, they don't need to annotate.  The reader will understand what the writer is trying to get across.


Perhaps.  But I like the idea of putting a student writer in the position of thinking metacognitively about their writing.  That is, I want them to explain to me what they're thinking about as they're thinking in their writing.


Another must read is Don Tapscott's Grown Up Digital.  In the past in College Comp II we have read Mark Bauerlein's The Dumbest Generation.  Then we countered it with Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good For You.  But I might sub in Tapscott's book after listening to several of his presentations on iTunes U.


Then on my reading list is the Steve Jobs biography that Kristie got me for Christmas.  


Toward the end of summer, when we can purchase from our new supply budgets, I hope to purchase Larry Ferlazzo's Building Parent Engagement in Schools.  We talk all the time about student engagement, but how can i get parents more actively engaged in my classes?


Now all I have to do is squeeze those books in while teaching 8 weeks of summer school, taking one PD course in flipping my classroom, teaching (hopefully) three other technology courses at the NWSC, and the start of football practice.  Not to mention being a husband and father too.  And maybe even squeezing in a trip to South Dakota!