BOOK LOVE

Hello parents of our students,

A central goal of English class is to establish a reading habit in the busy lives of

students in high school. I am hoping we can work together to recapture the pleasure

and passion of readers. This letter is long, but the assumptions it rests upon are too

important to be treated in a superficial manner. Please take the time to read this and

know what you’re signing before you do.

The best books challenge our beliefs by helping us see through different eyes

—to live a different life.

I won’t know the details of every book students read and refer to this

Marking period, and I won’t remember the details of all the books I recommend to

students. What I seek for all of my students is a compulsion to read—for pleasure—

for knowledge—for a passion for story or information that will keep them into the

pages of a book past our assigned time for reading.  This has tremendous benefits.

 Here are a few:

• Reading relieves stress. School can be stressful. Reading takes you

out of the present and into another place and time; it is a perfect

escape.

• Reading builds stamina to prepare students for college. Reading for

an hour or two in one sitting is a basic expectation in college. In this

class we will exercise muscles soon to be strained in the coming years.

Reading for fluency and stamina has been proven to improve the

reading rate for students. Fast reading develops confidence and an

appetite for books as well as teaching vocabulary in context, which

improves writing, but it only happens when students find books they

want to read. But the truth is, some of those books might make you

uncomfortable.

• There is a lot of talk in the media that ‘students today won’t read,’ but I

believe students substitute all of those other distractions (the internet,

TV, etc.) if they feel no passion for the book assigned to them. In my

experience, students who haven’t been readers since elementary

school will suddenly become quite passionate about reading with the

right book in their hands. But those books might challenge your

values. Is that okay with you?

I believe we have to trust these young adults more. We have to trust that books

won’t corrupt them anymore than the movies might.

It is more important that they’re reading! So you may pick up a book left behind

on a nightstand and open to a passage and wonder why reading it is a

homework assignment, and I will answer, “Your son or daughter chose it.” I might

have recommended it because I read it and loved it, or the book may be

unfamiliar to me because your child borrowed it from another student. The

bottom line: I will not place a tight filter on what is read in this class and I’m

asking for your support in this. I hope you will talk to your child about what he/she

is reading this semester.

I suggest you get a copy of a book and read it if you’re concerned about the

content.

Thanks for your support,

Mr. Annen

P.S. Our classroom benefits every year from cast offs. Please send books you

no longer need to our library, especially ones you’ve loved, if you can bear to part

with them. Better yet… come to class and share a book with us. Share your

passion for reading; get to know these amazing students at Coopersville. I would love

to have you join us some morning. Thank you.

(Much of this is borrow from Penny Kittle’s Book Love seminar that I attended recently.)