Category: Reading

Curious DavidReadingVoice ThreadWorld Read Aloud Day

Yes, David: Reading Aloud

 

I rediscovered the joys of reading aloud over the Christmas holidays when one of my Grandnieces, Annie, excitedly brought me her “No, David!” book and we giggled and squealed together at David’s “naughtiness.”

Annie

I have fond memories of smuggling (oops: snuggling) and reading aloud with my parents and with the children who have entered my life, such as lovely Abbie pictured below.

Abby

In preparation for the forthcoming February 24, 2016 World Read Aloud Day, I invited my student assistants to choose a reading, record it, and share it via VoiceThread. Here is a production by two of them, Lizzy and Alison. I enjoyed the giggling in the next room as they prepared their surprise for me.

Here is some more Shel Silverstein. And, of course, we could have read from Dr. Seuss! Click here for a link to additional Children’s Literature.

Here is their VoiceThread production. And here is Johnny Cash’s rendition (of which they were unaware.)

Here are three readings I have done. I’m trying to decide which to submit:

I hope that you will consider making the time to read aloud.



Curious DavidJane Hart's Top 100 Learning ToolsReadingSkypetechnology tools

Rediscovering VoiceThread

 

Headshot4blogs

 

I continue to be alerted to so many good ideas via my the personal learning resources on my twitter feed. Today I was reminded of the valuable potential of a learning tool I abandoned  and  hadn’t used for several years, Voice Thread. Here is a VoiceThread that I made in 2012 with my student research team precious memories of an early S-TEAM.

I am particularly intrigued by VoiceThread’s call for participation in “World Read Aloud Day.” THE reading event described reminds me of the wonderful work that Eric Whitacre has done with virtual global choirs. Skype provides a similar opportunity with a chance to interact with authors. Ann Morgan provides a cosmopolitan view of potential readings both for adults and for children.

 

Annie (1)I plan to participate and would be delighted if you did, too, and sent me a link to your shared reading. Books (reading) can indeed change the world. This I believe.


BooksCurious DavidLiteratureReading

Preparing for Bloomsday: Reasons for Reading James Joyce

Abloom with Ideas of What to Read

Abloom with Ideas of What to Read

I recently purchased a five-year journal and I’m using it, as a planning tool for things I want to accomplish in the next five years. Inspired by my sister-in-law who a year ago told me that she might attempt to read my late father-in-law’s copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses, I’ve begun identifying “great books” which I’d like to have read in the next few years. Ulysses is on my short-list at the moment, though I vacillate on whether I should invest the time in READING it. If so, I want to finish reading it by next Bloomsday.

I just finished reading Kevin Birmingham’s excellent The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses and gained a fuller understanding of the importance of the book. I learned a lot from listening to James A. W. Heffernan’s  Great Courses lectures on Ulysses.  I have explored the James Joyce resources on Openculture.com including a recording of his reading from the book. I’ve read The Odyssey (but almost 50 years ago—perhaps I should read the critically acclaimed Fagles translation). My interest has been piqued by the virtual reality project to create an educational video game of Ulysses, and I have discovered Frank Delaney’s audio podcasts reading of the work.  I passed by the twitter edition! Perhaps I’ll attend Milwaukee’s Irishfest. I’ll definitely add in my five-year journal Ireland as one of the countries I wish to visit.

The question, now, is should I commit myself to reading Ulysses—or instead curl up with Robin the Newf and study my dog-eared copy of  Berke Breathed‘s Classics of Western Literature: Bloom County 1986-1989.

 

Curious DavidHigher EducationLiteratureReadingUniversity teaching

It’s about Time…

enjoypic

It is about time to discard my invisibility cloak and return to campus. TIME is the campus -wide theme 2014-2015 for Carroll University (Waukesha, WI, USA) where I teach. Across the course of my 36 years of teaching, I have enjoyed creating special courses (‘Why War?” “Happiness” “Pioneering Web 2.0 Technology Tools”) when I have been allowed total control over the course. Were I to offer a course on this year’s theme, I would include the following required reading and videos:

BooksReading

Booked for the Summer!

Home Study Book Shelf # 1

 

Christine Smallwood has a thoughtful review in the June 9 & 16 2014 New Yorker “Ghosts in the Stacks” of Phyllis Rose’s The Shelf: From LEQ to LES.

Smallwood raises some issues about reading of considerable interest to me:

  • how we choose books today has been dramatically changed by technology (our preferences and reading habits are monitored and curated
  • what scholars read and how they read has changed (a distinction is made between close reading and surface reading)

I was appropriately admonished by her last paragraph:

And what about the books right in front of you that were published, even purchased, but, for all you know, might as well not have existed? My own bookshelves are filled with books I haven’t read, and books I read so long ago that they look at me like strangers. Can you have FOMO about your own life?…The alphabet is great, but there is nothing quite as arbitrary as one’s own past choices. Reading more books begins at home.”

Timeout on buying new books to read until I review what is filling my home office bookshelves. This is also a wonderful opportunity to use my LibrarianPro app.

Hmm—32 books in shelf # 1 beginning with father-in-law’s 1927 copy of the Best Known Works of Edgar Allan Poe and ending with Philip Tetlock’s Expert Political Judgment. How delightful!