Ready or Not, Here Life Comes, by Dr. Mel Levine, M.D.

Ready or Not, Here Life Comes, by Dr. Mel Levine, M.D.

Join us in our collegial conversation around the book that leads us to understand "how startup adults get unready for their careers." Do you ever look around and wonder what will happen to the students going through your middle and high school hallways? Since I began studying the work of Dr. Mel Levine 6 years ago, I have taken a closer look at kids. Who are these kids with the language that makes me cringe and the purple hair? Who are these kids who have phones ringing, ipods on their ears, and talking with peers - all at the same time!?

In this book, Dr. Levine guides us through some very solid arguments about inner direction, interpretation, instrumentation and interaction. Throughout the book, Dr. Levine shares countless anecdotes about his work with kids, and so many of them remind me of my family and even my high school and college friends. Whatever happened to my high school boyfriend? Why did it take him well over 4 years to get a degree and well over 8 years to land himself a solid job that he is passionate about? He was valedictorian of his school, the all-star quarterback for his high school football team, and a very well-rounded individual. Dr. Levine shows how today's society makes it hard for kids to grow into productive adults - and what we can do about it!

Join us as we preview some video clips that will begun our discussion about struggling students. I also recommend a great article - "The Unsuccessful Adolescent." And finally, if you are still determining whether or not you want to read this book, here is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Ready or Not, Here Life Comes.

Sustained Silent Reading

Chapter 3 discusses the first of two direct strategies recommended by Marzano, sustained silent reading programs. Marzano cites eight factors that make up a successful reading program (Pilgreen, 2000):

Access: convenient access to a wide variety of reading materials
Appeal: students free and encouraged to read information that they find highly interesting
Conducive Environment: relaxed, comfortable, free from noise and interruption
Encouragement: teachers demonstrate interest, provide encouragement, model excitement about reading
Staff Training: provides information about SSR to all staff in the school
Nonaccountability: no testing
Follow-up activities: activities that allow and encourage students to interact about what they have read.
Distributed time to read: systematically and frequently providing students with SSR time.

Based on the information in this chapter, how do the sustained silent reading programs in place in your district compare? At what grade levels are they implemented? For how long do students read?

If you were to share this list with your teachers, what might surprise them?

Tags:

• marzano
• reading

Welcome and Join In!

Welcome to the blog for our professional book study!! We are excited to begin this collaborative experience and our hope is to continue our discussions via this blog. Our first book, seen above, is Robert Marzano's Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on What Works in Schools. The first chapter is available online for those who might not yet have the book.

Some thoughts to ponder before we meet:

Why is background knowledge important?

How do we know when a student is lacking background knowledge?

Marzano writes:

"The most straightforward way to enhance students' academic background knowledge is to provide academically enriching experiences, particularly for students whose home environments do not do so naturally. I refer to such efforts as “direct approaches” to enhancing academic background knowledge."

What "direct approaches" are we using?