Yo, before you open your mouth, open a book, huh?

People who work in schools moan and moan all the time about how "the kids don't read" but you know what... the people who are moaning aren't really reading either. At least they're not, in large part, doing the professional reading necessary (IMHO) to stay up to date with what's going on the world of literacy and language arts.

I've got administrators screaming about how we need to make "data-driven decisions in the English Department" but these folks aren't reading what I consider to be some of the best, most useful, most insightful books about the world of ELA Instruction -- works that are replete with not only data, but reflections upon that data so that the reader/teacher/educator can make methodological decisions based on something other than "I am doing this because it came from above -- and I must always do what comes from above -- where it appears they simply pulled it out of their butt" mentality.

Here's a list of a few books NOT read by the folks who are barking at my department with orders as to how to improve, of course, our test scores:

Readicide
Holding On To Good Ideas in Times of Bad Ones
The Reading Zone
Disrupting Class
A Whole New Mind
I Read It but I Don't Get It
Why Students Don't Like School
Outliers

Now I could go on. And please do not ask me how I know that most of the top-ranking folks have not read these books because I've surreptitiously tested them in my own nefarious ways. However, the point is not to embarrass anyone. The point is to question how can anyone taking on the challenge of improving ELA in the 2009/2010 school year really be considered seriously if they haven't done this type of reading. (And yes, I know there are more titles as well.)

Sure, it's hard, time-consuming and dense. But not having the time is, to me, just an excuse. I mean me, I teach, I write YA fiction, I blog, I spend good time with my family and I try to exercise... but I also read! Why? Because I find it absolutely necessary to the development, implementation and application of my professional craft. And I am not drawing an administrator's salary, either. I do this as a regular ol' classroom teacher.

So when these folks come to me with "strategies for success" that seem to have ben taken right out of some field book from a Master's Class in the 1990's to deal with the problems we are facing in the here and now, I just gotta shrug and say, "Yo, before you open your mouth, open a book, huh?"

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Comment by Lorraine Stinson on September 6, 2009 at 3:58pm: I agree with you about the need to read professional lit, but it doesn't stop there. As a media specialist in middle school, I am always trying to encourage teachers to read YA lit. I have a teacher YA lit book club that includes math teachers, administrators, and support staff as well as language arts teachers. This is great, but I am always looking for ways to get all teachers to read more in order to recommend books to kids and to hold meaningful conversations about literature with their students.

Comment by Alan Sitomer on September 6, 2009 at 9:18pm: Hey, you are preaching to the choir here -- I mean I write YA lit... and I believe it is the key to literacy turnarounds. Worksheets, the textbook companies and their likes just do not have the keys to do so like YA like does.

So hallelujah!