"Teachers buy fish for them"

(Bean 134)

My favorite quote from Bean, so far.

Having just read Chapt. 8 of Bean, I'm feeling more hopeful about my own ability to improve my reading. Sometimes it's abundantly clear to me that I, myself, have a long way to go as a reader. Do I love reading more than maybe anything else? Yes, of course. But am I got at it? Probably not. So I found myself trying to internalize Bean’s top 10 contributing causes to poor reading preparation. I tried to remind myself to “read slowly and reread often”—something I have a hard time doing. I’m not good at seeing the structure of an argument, and my note-taking/response process is lackluster. So I appreciate that Bean’s chapter has multiple functions; maybe if I can improve as a reader I can somehow impart this narrative of successful progress to my students, hopefully without losing their respect (assuming I have their respect in the first place).

Bean casually suggests that we “make students responsible for texts not covered in class” (139) but doesn’t really say how. Does this just mean putting material from the readings on quizzes, tests, etc? I’m not a big fan of blackboard but am considering using it to encourage at least marginal engagement with material that’s not discussed in class.

I like Bean’s strategy of analyzing the “Far Side” cartoon; I’m not sure how substantive his discussion of cultural codes (as a whole) is, but I think it’s a great example. Finally, I really liked his “Marginal notes approach” and I think I’m going to try that myself to see how it goes. It’s weird: I’m trying to see myself as different from my students (in that the things I like are not necessarily the things they will like, my experiences are not their experiences) but the flip side of that is that I find myself “talking down” to these hypothetical students. Any one else having this problem?