Reading KeyNote
- 1. Everything you ever wanted to know about Reading* *actually, possibly more than you wanted to know, although you will be blown away by the information, including way too many awesome quotations about reading from some VERY interesting and probably surprising sources by Helen Turnbull, Balboa High School, San Francisco, California Dedicated to the beautiful brains of my students, who make my day every single day.
- 2. What do you think about READING? Is it something you like to do? Or is it something you try to avoid?
- 3. Ever wonder why people (especially your teachers and parents) think reading is such a BIG DEAL? The truth is, ever since people have been able to write, some of the most brilliant and accomplished people from all times and walks of life have been celebrating the value of reading...
- 4. A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. --Chinese proverb
- 5. Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. --Frederick Douglass
- 6. Once I got my library card, that was when my life began. --Rita Mae Brown
- 7. Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them. --Lemony Snicket
- 8. It is not true that 'we have only one life to live'; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish. --S.I. Hayakawa
- 9. I learned to dream through reading, learned to create dreams through writing, and learned to develop dreamers through teaching. I shall always be a dreamer. --Sharon Draper
- 10. Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. --E.P. Whipple
- 11. Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. --Harper Lee
- 12. Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. --James Russell Lowell
- 13. And when I read, and really I do not read so much, only a few authors, - a few men that I discovered by accident - I do this because they look at things in a broader, milder and more affectionate way than I do, and because they know life better, so that I can learn from them. --Vincent Van Gogh
- 14. I like best to have one book in my hand, and a stack of others on the floor beside me, so as to know the supply of poppy and mandragora will not run out before the small hours. --Dorothy Parker
- 15. If you have never said "Excuse me" to a parking meter or bashed your shins on a fireplug, you are probably wasting too much valuable reading time. --Sherri Chasin Calvo Ouch!!!
- 16. To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. --Victor Hugo
- 17. I think that when you read about other peoples suffering and they have wound words around their wounds like a bandage that it can be healing, both to the writer and the reader. Its like going to a word hospital. --Margaret Cho
- 18. When I get a little money, I buy books. If any is left, I buy food and clothes. Erasmus
- 19. Through literacy you can begin to see the universe. Through music you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable. Grace Slick
- 20. One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. --Carl Sagan
- 21. Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere. --Mary Schmich
- 22. You have to remember that it is impossible to commit a crime while reading a book. --John Waters
- 23. Books, for me, are a home. Books don't make a home - they are one, in the sense that just as you do with a door, you open a book, and you go inside. Inside there is a different kind of time and space. There is warmth there too - a hearth. I sit down with a book and I am warm. --Jeanette Winterson
- 24. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in ones hand. --Ezra Pound
- 25. No one who loves life can ignore literature, and no one who loves literature can ignore life. --Laura Esquivel
- 26. Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. --P.J. ORourke
- 27. Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books. --bell hooks
- 28. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and others to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. --Sir Francis Bacon
- 29. As a child, I read because booksviolent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and notwere the most loving and trustworthy things in my life. I read widely, and loved plenty of the classics so, yes, I recognized the domestic terrors faced by Louisa May Alcotts March sisters. But I became the kid chased by werewolves, vampires, and evil clowns in Stephen Kings books. I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life. And now I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I dont write to protect them. Its far too late for that. I write to give them weaponsin the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed. --Sherman Alexie
- 31. It is nice that nobody writes as they talk and that the printed language is different than the spoken otherwise you could not lose yourself in books and of course you do you completely do. --Gertrude Stein
- 32. Outside of a dog, a book is probably mans best friend. Inside of a dog, its too dark to read. --Groucho Marx
- 33. REALLY?! A dog?
- 35. NYF, though! Maybe you didnt have the right support at the right time. Maybe you havent found the right books yet! We can fix that! And maybe youre spending a lot of time reading and writing online?
- 36. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gokm9RUr4ME Anyway, blame and shame dont help anyone become a better reader. Dont feel bad if you havent made reading a voluntary habit yet--lots of kids your age havent, and getting reading assignments in class doesnt always encourage you, either. Check out the video through the link below to learn about how common it is for kids to fake read in high school English class.
- 37. Whats so SPECIAL about READING?! Why do we do it? How do we do it? How do we get better at it? SO Why should I care?
- 38. Why do people read? There are as many answers to that question as there are readers, but heres the short list: We read to learn-- We read for enjoyment-- Its really as simple as that. And if were lucky, the two purposes converge! To find out what scientists and historians have learned, how to do things we want to do, to learn about the art, language, and cultures of other people, and to understand the world we live in, etc., etc. To laugh, to cry, to escape, to connect, to get inspiration, to find comfort, to find more things to love about the world, or just to appreciate a powerful or beautiful piece of writing, etc., etc.
- 39. How do people read? Scientists in the field of language and literacy learning have been finding out more and more about how reading takes place in the brain, and its really amazing what happens. Here are some fascinating findings: We are not born to read. We were born to run, born to recognize faces, and born to speak, but reading must be learned. The brain has to recycle the neuronal structures for language and visual recognition to read. Fascinating Finding #1:
- 40. Different types of written languages use different parts of the brain for reading. If you write with an alphabet (a system where symbols stand for sounds), your brain reads differently than if you write with characters (a system where symbols stand for words). SO COOL!!!!! Fascinating Finding #2:
- 41. While they may read differently, ALL human beings (those with brains, anyway) can learn to read. Fascinating and EXTREMELY IMPORTANT Finding #3:
- 42. Reading is a complex task involving the coordination of many cognitive processes. Every person who learns to read goes through phases: novice reader, decoding reader, fluent, comprehending reader, and expert reader. It all starts with attention, of course, first with the eyes. You learn to recognize that letters correspond to sounds and learn to sound out words. Then you learn to recognize whole words on sight. The Novice Reader So, what exactly is happening when people learn to read?
- 43. Once you develop quick recognition of words, your brain starts to pay more attention to other things while youre reading, things that build up your knowledge about types of books, types of sentences, and the types and parts of words. As you read more and more, your brain develops and strengthens the neuronal circuits you use to store and access that information. Its like theres a web inside your brain that gets stronger and more intricate over time as you gain more and more knowledge about reading. The Decoding Reader
- 44. The Fluent, Comprehending Reader Once you can decode quickly and also understand what you are reading, you have become a fluent, comprehending reader. As you become automatic in your recognition of letters, words, and parts of words, your brain doesnt need to pay so much attention to those things and can pay more attention to the ideas and information in the text. As this happens, the neuronal structures in your brain change even more. Its like your brain starts creating shortcuts which allow you to understand what you read much more quickly.
- 45. Whats important about fluency is that it buys you time--the time you need to really think about what youre reading as you read it. Once you have this extra time, you start to use a set of cognitive and metacognitive processes to understand what you read, such as questioning, inferring, predicting, connecting, clarifying, monitoring and fixing comprehension, imagining, determining importance, and synthesizing. These cognitive processes are like a toolbox inside your brain, and when you not only use these tools but can also actively decide which tools to use and when, you have become an expert reader. The Expert Reader Determining ImportanceChecking for UnderstandingInferring and PredictingImaginingAsking QuestionsMaking Connections Synthesizing
- 46. And so to completely analyze what we do when we read would almost be the acme of a psychologists achievements, for it would be to describe very many of the most intricate workings of the human mind, as well as to unravel the tangled story of the most remarkable specific performance that civilization has learned in all its history. --Sir Edmund Huey
- 47. Whew! Reading is a brain workout! No wonder I need all that energy! Anybody have a power bar?
- 48. How do I get better at reading? First, read more than you do right now The more you read, the faster you will get to the fluent reader stage, which is when you can read quickly and understand what you read automatically. There is no way other than reading to improve fluency, and without fluency, reading can feel like trying to run a marathon when youve barely learned to walk. Remember, your brain actually changes as you develop fluency--without lots and lots of reading experience, your brain will never create those shortcuts that save you time later. (a LOT more)!
- 49. Second, read more widely than you do right now! Reading more widely means reading lots of different types of books and other materials. If you love reading fiction, trying reading some non-fiction. If you already love one genre, such as realistic fiction, try historical fiction or science fiction. Read everything! Read graphic novels, blogs, comics, dictionaries, encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, brochures, pamphlets, reviews, plays, poetry--anything that captures and keeps your attention. Read travel writing, history writing, writing about art, music, politics, language, culture, food-- theres no limit! You only need to make sure its just right for you--not too hard, and not too easy. As you do this, you will create new neuronal structures in your brain, and strengthen and connect old ones to new information. You brain will grow like superelastic bubble plastic--in all directions at once. So set some goals for yourself as a reader and expand your mind--literally!
- 50. And finally, get METACOGNITIVE! Fluent, comprehending readers have time to think while theyre reading--but what do they think about? Reading researchers have discovered that good readers are metacognitive--they use the extra time they gain to think about the text and their own understanding and reactions while they read. These scientists have identified about 7 strategies that all proficient readers use while theyre reading to make sense of the text: Determining Importance Making Connections Imagining Asking Questions SynthesizingInferring and Predicting Checking for Understanding
- 51. is when you pay attention to whether you understand what youre reading and know how to fix it when you dont. Sometimes this means rereading, close reading, or looking for clues to understand new or confusing words. Sometimes it just means realizing that youve been ignoring the reading voice in your head to think about something else... Checking for Understanding
- 52. Determining Importance is when you decide whats really significant in what youre reading. You use this strategy to summarize, highlight, take notes, or take extra notice of key facts or events while you read. Cognitive scientists can track eye movement to see how readers pay attention to text while they read--the picture shows how some words got more attention (time) than others.
- 53. Imagining is when the text youre reading causes you to imagine something--a visual image, a sound, a smell, a touch, a texture, an emotion, or any other sensory experience.
- 54. Making Connectionsis when you connect something youre reading to yourself, other things youve read, or to the world around you. Text to Self Text to World Text to Text
- 55. Asking Questions is when you think of things you want to know more about or ask questions about what you dont understand.
- 56. Inferring and Predicting is when you notice clues in the text and guess what they mean, or figure out something that the author doesnt state explicitly.
- 57. Synthesizing is when you take the information and ideas from the text, combine them with your own knowledge and interpretations, and combine them into something new: an opinion, a point of view, or a new representation of what youve learned.
- 58. Why should I care? Because if you dont, you will miss out! On what, you ask? But the worst thing is, youll miss opportunities for joy, wonder, humor, love, friendship, adventure, discovery, self-discovery, and the chance to learn all the amazing things that are out in the world waiting for you... (snif*)... Youll miss opportunities for education Youll miss opportunities for careers OPPORTUNITY!
- 59. "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." --Mark Twain
- 60. My alma mater was books, a good library... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my own curiosity. --Malcolm X
- 61. There are two kinds of books in the world--the boring kind they make you read in school and the interesting kind that they won't let you read in school because then they would have to talk about real stuff like sex and divorce and is there a God and if there isn't then what happens when you die, and how come the history books have so many lies in them. --LouAnne Johnson
- 62. Literacy is not a luxury, it is a right and a responsibility. If our world is to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, we must harness the energy and creativity of all our citizens. --Bill Clinton
- 63. There are books so alive that you're always afraid that while you weren't reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too, and like a river moved on and moved away. No one has stepped twice into the same river. But did anyone ever step twice into the same book? --Marina Tsvetaeva
- 64. No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance. --Confucius
- 65. I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldnt be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage. --Roald Dahl
- 66. They should read books knowing that what they are bringing to the book is as important as what is in the book. Unless someone reads a book, it is just a lot of black marks on paper; it means nothing. A book only takes on meaning when someone reads it. As an author, I want students to think not just about what I have to say, but also about what they have to say now that they have read my book. It is through their reflections that the book becomes meaningful. --Alma Flor Ada
- 67. It must be that people who read go on more macrocosmic and microcosmic trips biblical god trips, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake trips. Non-readers, what do they get? (They get the munchies.) --Maxine Hong Kingston, Tripmaster Monkey
- 68. Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body. --Joseph Addison
- 69. When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young. --Maya Angelou
- 70. You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me to all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. --James Baldwin
- 71. A book is not completed until its read. --Salman Rushdie
- 72. Im always highly irritated by people who imply that writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality. -- Flannery OConnor
- 73. A book is more than a verbal structure or series of verbal structures; it is the dialogue it establishes with its reader and the intonation it imposes upon his voice and the changing and durable images it leaves in his memory. A book is not an isolated being: it is a relationship, an axis of innumerable relationships. --Jorge Luis Borges
- 74. Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like Ive accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; its a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and its a way of making contact with someone elses imagination after a day thats all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss. --Nora Ephron
- 75. I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book were reading doesnt wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief. Franz Kafka
- 76. Do not, under any circumstances, belittle a work of fiction by trying to turn it into a carbon copy of real life; what we search for in fiction is not so much reality but the epiphany of truth. --Azar Nafisi
- 77. I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle. Kurt Vonnegut
- 78. I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life. --Warren Buffett
- 79. A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. --Italo Calvino
- 80. It is only a novel... or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language. --Jane Austen
- 81. So, beautiful brains, go forth and READ! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain...
- 82. Citations