SWA #1

Skube is concerned because he finds that students don’t have a grasp of the English language. He finds that he has to explain words that he finds to be basic to students who graduated high school with GPAs 3.5 or higher. Even college seniors preparing to graduate from some of the better colleges in the US don’t seem to have a very good grasp of the language. He thinks that this in large part due to the fact that students today don’t like to read. Without reading students aren’t able to expand their vocabulary and completely understand all aspects of our language. I find that the fact that students don’t read is true, not only from my observations in the classroom but from my own experience as a student. I detest reading. In my elementary school years I loved to read. Middle school somehow managed to destroy my enjoyment for reading and I haven’t read many books that weren’t required for school since. Sure I’ve worked in The Lord of the Rings and a select few other books, but I’d say since I got out of elementary school I’ve read less than ten books outside of school. That’s not a whole lot, especially when compared to the number of different movies I’ve seen, the number of different video games I’ve played, etc. In my case his correlation between not reading and not knowing a lot about the English language is true. I would be lying if I told that I excelled in English or that I had an exceptional vocabulary, and my spelling and grammar checker doesn’t exactly have it easy right now. I find that most people I know don’t usually say “read” when asked what they like to do and it’s been a while since I’ve discussed any books with somebody I know. When I walk into the majority of my friend’s rooms there isn’t a bookcase in sight. It’s just not that popular these days. At the same time I don’t think that all of these people would fall in line with Skube’s argument. Most of them are a lot better in English than I am. I don’t think that the amount a person reads is really the best way to tell if they are going to excel in English or not. I’d argue that the language you hear plays a large part in your grasp of the language too. If neither of your parents graduated from high school and you hang out with a group of people who use a lot of slang and poor grammar you aren’t likely to be the next Shakespeare. If your parents graduated from Harvard and your friends make fun of each other when you say “good” instead of “well” you have a good chance of being able to write well. I’m not trying to say that Skube’s opinion is entirely wrong; he just doesn’t factor in all the possible variables.

If the students Skube is concerned with follow Hagstette’s idea of “aggressive reading,” they will get more out of what they read. Hagstette mentions several new ways of approaching reading. One problem he brings up is daydreams. There have been many times that I’ve been reading a book and suddenly realized that I have no idea what’s going on. I have a very active imagination. Hagstette has a very obvious solution to this, which is just to go back to the last place you remember reading and start from there. Many of the students Skube is concerned with would likely just keep reading even though they weren’t really sure what was going on because since they don’t like to read, they wouldn’t bother to make more work for themselves. Hagstette also says that repetition is important. In his opinion, you should need to read some forms of writing at least 10 times before you fully understand them. Once is never enough. Reading things multiple times would help students notice more things about the language and perhaps pick up on the meanings of more words that they hadn’t picked up on the first run through. The whole idea behind Hagstette’s “aggressive reading” is to get as much out of the reading as possible. The more language that Skube’s students are able to draw from the reading the closer they will come to meeting his standards.