Have you read anything interesting lately?

My friend Helen always asks me when I see her what I've been reading. It is such a great question. Last week I had a delightful conversation about books with someone with whom I thought I had nothing in common. I now see her very differently. We began talking about the Special Olympics, which she is in charge of in my state, and we ended up sharing book titles.

Today, I celebrated not having to go to our school's staff development day by going to a bookstore. I had to buy thank you cards for two interviews a classmate and I had with professors about quality teaching. Randi Stanilus' research, for example, produced three main "indicators": classroom management that produces engaged learning; worthwhile content; and scaffolding/motivating--a teacher's ability to use her content knowledge in different ways. It was amazing to learn about the challenges of research and that so many urban students have a beginning teacher every year. One huge elementary school in Atlanta had 86 new teachers in one year! Imagine that mentoring challenge!

As I checked out from the bookstore, I asked the clerk (right word?) if he had read anything interesting lately. He was happy to talk about J.C. Ramo's book The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It. He said that it is about how we often reject ideas that are not from "our side." We'll see: http://www.ageoftheunthinkable.com

I talked with two high school boys over the weekend: one is a very good student, another is homebound with a tether. Neither of them read anything unless they "have to." I'm not sure whether that includes text messages on their phones or video game "literacies." I learned at last summer's NCTE New Literacies Institute that the best ways to improve reading is if kids read at their level and if they can find a series they like so they can get comfortable with the genre patterns. Anyone know any interesting series for boys?

So--have you read anything interesting lately?