I apologize if you need to register (it is free) in order to read this article....but it has me thinking about some earlier learning I've done.
Grant Wiggins (of UBD fame) has written a provocative post suggesting we ban fiction. Okay, not necessarily ban it but perhaps rethink it in terms of how much of it makes up our reading curriculum.
Wiggins argues that fiction is a leisure activity....ie not many of us will have a job in which we will be required to read fiction. Instead most of us will be reading heavy duty non-fiction such a reports or other technical documents...yet this type of reading makes up only a small fraction of what children read in school and based on NAEP scores kids aren't very good at reading non-fiction.
Couple that with what Willingham and Hirsch say about reading success being tied so closely to background knowledge it makes me wonder if we might be doing our students (especially boys, Wiggins says) by not reading more nonfiction.
Something to think about for the LA committee as they work on reading lists etc.
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