Reading Workshop

Great literature doesn’t tell us how to act, or what to think, or whom to become. Rather, great literature offers us choices and insights into how we might act, who we might become, and what we might think. The ambiguity inherent in great literature should not be seen as a hurdle to overcome, but as an opportunity for disrupting our traditional and stereotypical ways of thinking. By tolerating the ambiguity inherent in quality literature, we postpone or suspend the closure of our thinking, providing time and space for considering new and alternative ways of thinking. The most important thing readers should get from reading a book is the desire to read another. As teacher, we cannot allow school to squash this desire. By not allowing readers to ever choose what they read, by making them do mindless activities after they finish reading, and by giving them quizzes in the name of comprehension assessment, we drive the desire to become a reader further and further underg...

As a writer who rarely lives in fear of what I write, I do not know what it must be like to do so. However, even as a writer of children's books and professional development books, this story has deeply affected me. For one, I was in Paris over Christmas and walked around the area where the shootings took place. Second, I think that religious zealotry and fanaticism is the root of most of our social ills and the hatred that exists. Believe in what you want, but leave the rest of us alone!