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.

What do you think about READING?Is it something you like to do?

Or is it something you try to avoid?

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...

“A book is like a garden

carried in the pocket.”

--Chinese proverb

“Once you learn to read,

you will be forever free.”

--Frederick Douglass

“Once I got my library card, that was

when my life began.”

--Rita Mae Brown

“Never trust anyone who has not

brought a book with them.”

--Lemony Snicket

“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

“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

“Books are lighthouses erected in the

great sea of time.”

--E.P. Whipple

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to

read. One does not love breathing.”

--Harper Lee

“Books are the bees which carry the

quickening pollen from one to another mind.”

--James Russell Lowell

“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

“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

“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!!!

“To learn to read is to light a fire;

every syllable that is spelled out is a

spark.”

--Victor Hugo

“I think that when you read

about other people’s

suffering and they have

wound words around their

wounds like a bandage

that it can be healing, both

to the writer and the

reader. It’s like going to a

word hospital.”

--Margaret Cho

“When I get a little money, I buy books. If

any is left, I buy food and clothes.”

— Erasmus

“Through literacy you can begin to see the

universe. Through music you can reach

anybody. Between the two there is you,

unstoppable.”

— Grace Slick

“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

“Reading is a discount ticket to

everywhere.”

--Mary Schmich

“You have to remember that it is

impossible to commit a crime while

reading a book.”

--John Waters

“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

“Man reading should be man

intensely alive. The book should be

a ball of light in one’s hand.”

--Ezra Pound

“No one who loves life can ignore

literature, and no one who loves

literature can ignore life.”

--Laura Esquivel

“Always read something that will

make you look good if you die in the

middle of it.”

--P.J. O’Rourke

“Life-transforming ideas have always

come to me through books.”

--bell hooks

“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

“As a child, I read because books–violent and not,

blasphemous and not, terrifying and not–were 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 Alcott’s March sisters. But I became the

kid chased by werewolves, vampires, and evil clowns in

Stephen King’s 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 don’t write to protect them. It’s far too late for

that. I write to give them weapons–in 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

“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

“Outside of a dog, a book is

probably man’s best friend. Inside

of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

--Groucho Marx

REALLY?!

A dog?

In other words...

NYF, though!

Maybe you didn’t have the right support at the right time. Maybe you haven’t

found the right books yet! We can fix that! And maybe you’re spending a lot

of time reading and writing online?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gokm9RUr4ME

Anyway, blame and shame don’t help anyone

become a better reader. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t

made reading a voluntary habit yet--lots of kids your age

haven’t, and getting reading assignments in class

doesn’t 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.

What’s 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?

Why do people read?There are as many answers to that

question as there are readers, but

here’s the short list:

•We read to learn--

•We read for enjoyment--

It’s really as simple as that. And if we’re 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.

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

it’s 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:

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:

While they may read differently, ALL

human beings (those with brains, anyway)

can learn to read.

Fascinating and EXTREMELY IMPORTANT Finding #3:

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?

Once you develop quick recognition of words,

your brain starts to pay more attention to other

things while you’re 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.

It’s like there’s 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

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 doesn’t 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. It’s like

your brain starts creating

shortcuts which allow you to

understand what you read

much more quickly.

What’s important about fluency is that it buys you time--the

time you need to really think about what you’re 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

ConnectionsSynthesizing

“And so to completely

analyze what we do when

we read would almost be

the acme of a

psychologist’s

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

Whew! Reading is a brain workout! No

wonder I need all that energy! Anybody

have a power bar?

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 you’ve 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)!

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--

there’s no limit! You only need to make sure it’s 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!

And finally, get

METACOGNITIVE!

Fluent, comprehending readers

have time to think while they’re

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 they’re reading to make sense of the text:

Determining

Importance

Making Connections

ImaginingAsking

Questions

SynthesizingInferring and Predicting

Checking for

Understanding

is when you pay attention to whether you understand what

you’re reading and know how to fix it when you don’t.

Sometimes this means rereading, close reading, or looking

for clues to understand new or confusing words.

Sometimes it just means realizing that you’ve been ignoring

the reading voice in your head to think about something

else...

Checking for Understanding

Determining Importanceis when you decide what’s really significant in what you’re

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.

Imaginingis when the text you’re reading causes you to imagine

something--a visual image, a sound, a smell, a touch, a

texture, an emotion, or any other sensory experience.

Making

Connectionsis when you connect something you’re reading to yourself,

other things you’ve read, or to the world around you.

Text to Self

Text to World

Text to Text

Asking Questions

is when you think of things you want to know more about

or ask questions about what you don’t understand.

Inferring and Predictingis when you notice clues in the text and guess what they

mean, or figure out something that the author doesn’t

state explicitly.

Synthesizingis 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 you’ve learned.

Why should I care?Because if you don’t, you will miss out!

On what, you ask?

But the worst thing is, you’ll 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*)...

You’ll miss opportunities for education

You’ll miss opportunities for careers

OPPORTUNITY!

"The man who does not read good

books has no advantage over the man

who can't read them."

--Mark Twain

“My alma mater was

books, a good library... I

could spend the rest of my

life reading, just satisfying

my own curiosity.”

--Malcolm X

“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

“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

“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

“No matter how busy you may think

you are, you must find time for

reading, or surrender yourself to

self-chosen ignorance.”

--Confucius

”I have a passion for teaching kids

to become readers, to become

comfortable with a book, not

daunted. Books shouldn’t be

daunting, they should be funny,

exciting and wonderful; and

learning to be a reader gives a

terrific advantage.”

--Roald Dahl

“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

“It must be that people who read go on

more macrocosmic and microcosmic trips –

biblical god trips, the Tibetan Book of the

Dead, Ulysses, Finnegan’s Wake trips.

Non-readers, what do they get? (They get

the munchies.)”

--Maxine Hong Kingston,

Tripmaster Monkey

“Reading is to the mind as

exercise is to the body.”

--Joseph Addison

“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

“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

“A book is not completed until

it’s read.”

--Salman Rushdie

“I’m always highly

irritated by people

who imply that

writing fiction is

an escape from

reality. It is a

plunge into

reality.”

-- Flannery

O’Connor

“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

“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I’ve 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; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making

things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s

imagination after a day that’s all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is

bliss.”

--Nora Ephron

“I think we ought to read only the kind of

books that wound or stab us. If the book

we’re reading doesn’t 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

“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

“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

“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

“A classic is a book that has

never finished saying what it has

to say.”

--Italo Calvino

”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

So, beautiful brains, go forth and

READ! You have nothing to lose

and everything to gain...

Citations