Thing 3: Reflections on Reflections

So finally, I've had some time to read other blogs that were recommended by our project, or those that friends here at school have put up. I'm so amazed by the diversity of opinions on different subjects (especially regarding homework), but also by how much congruence there is between my own professional curiosities, interests and concerns and other people's.

That struck me especially when reading budtheteacher's What's "Print"? post. How murky the waters have gotten on that one! After years of trying to get students to broaden their understanding of texts to include works that aren't necessarily books with pages full of words, but also films, paintings, and webpages, I feel now as if I have come full circle and now need instead to remind them that books count too. Categorizing and labeling resources has become difficult, so much so that the 2009 MLA guidelines now require one to indicate the "Medium of Publication" - Print, Web, CD-ROM, DVD, Film, etc. - at the end of each work cited entry.

What's strange to me is the way that I have a split personality when it comes to my own feelings about texts and books and print. The genesis of the Kindle has challenged me to question my feelings about reading, or perhaps my feelings about what the experience of reading is. While I am totally comfortable with electronic texts for the classroom - I assign lots of reading that's available online, and distribute readings to my students as PDFs instead of on paper - I have struggled to embrace the Kindle as delivery for my pleasure reading. I resist it with passion and zeal usually reserved for some sort of religious proselytizing; as much as I can sit and stare at my screen to read the Hawthorne stories my American Literature students are reading, the idea of curling up and reading Richard Russo the same way is loathsome. I have yet to successfully evince or articulate the reasons why, but that's just the way it is for now. Do I associate computers and technology too stringently with work tasks? No, there are lots of other ways I use my tablet for recreational or social activities. Do I want a paper copy so I can mark it up and re-read sections at will? Not really; I rarely mark books I'm reading for fun, and recognize that I could do that just as easily on a Kindle or tablet anyway. I can't put my finger on it, but it's real to me.

The other blog that really gave me pause was Why I Don't Assign Homework. I don't want to belabor any points that have already been made - many other readers have already elucidated clear arguments for and against dy/dan's theses - but I do think that there are qualitative differences between subject areas that make it very difficult for me, as an English teacher, to fathom this. The homework my students receive involves reading and writing that couldn't possibly be completed entirely in class. When skill acquisition is the primary goal, I can see an argument for better, but not necessarily more, opportunities to practice; independent acquisition of content, on the other hand, warrants time out of the classroom being devoted to schoolwork. The separation of the students from the teacher in this situation is an important part of the means by which we help students develop a pro-active role in their education. And while my feelings about a lot of other things are mixed, I'm 100% sure that that is something I'm all for.