{"id":1454,"date":"2014-05-23T11:24:36","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T18:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2014-05-23T11:24:36","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T18:24:36","slug":"i-read-because-its-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/2014\/05\/23\/i-read-because-its-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"I read because it’s beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the sessions I attended at the IRA (International Reading Association) Conference a couple of weeks ago was called “The Art of Teaching Reading”.\u00a0 It was presented by Tim Rasinksi<\/a>, a professor of literacy education at Kent State University.\u00a0 He shared the importance of ensuring our students enjoy reading through song, poetry and more.<\/p>\n

One of the poems he shared reminded me that I “read because it’s beautiful”.<\/p>\n

Read It Because It\u2019s Beautiful
\nby Karen Morrow Durica<\/p>\n

Somehow a life without poetry seems\u2026
\nDismal
\nEmpty
\nFlat\u2014
\nNot much.<\/p>\n

So each day in my classroom I read\u2026
\nSonnets
\nHaikus
\nFree verse\u2014
\nAnd such.<\/p>\n

An observer sat in my room one day\u2026
\nNoted poem\u2019s title
\nEvaluated delivery
\nRecorded \u201clesson\u201d sequence\u2014
\nSaid dryly: \u201cIt seems<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no connection curricular-wise\u2026
\nNo anticipatory set
\nNo vocabulary drill
\nNo comprehension query\u2014
\nDo they know what it means?\u201d<\/p>\n

I could have contrived a defense or two, but\u2026
\nSpirits flowed with peaceful joy
\nHonesty prevailed
\nSimple truth explained\u2014
\n\u201cI read it because it\u2019s beautiful,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t quite frown but recalled all the same, \u201cWe\u2019ve\u2026
\nStandards to meet
\nTimelines to keep
\nPages to cover\u2014
\nImportant content to be read.\u201d<\/p>\n

I looked from her to my students\u2019 gaze; they\u2026
\nHad relished the words
\nDanced with the rhythm
\nMused with the meaning\u2014
\nWere richer in spirit than when we began.<\/p>\n

I read it because it was beautiful. And beauty is\u2026
\nNever superfluous
\nNever irrelevant
\nAlways needed\u2014
\nAlways in my \u201clesson\u201d plan.<\/p>\n

I would love to hear your responses to this poem.\u00a0 Why do you read?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the sessions I attended at the IRA (International Reading Association) Conference a couple of weeks ago was called “The Art of Teaching Reading”.\u00a0 It was presented by Tim Rasinksi, a professor of literacy education at Kent State University.\u00a0 He shared the importance of ensuring our students enjoy reading through song, poetry and more. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “I read because it’s beautiful”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[49,50,44],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1455,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1454\/revisions\/1455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.sd41.bc.ca\/southslope-library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}