1st Blog 9/1/14
Chapter 2 and 3 Richard Allington
Jared Weisberg

 After having read Chapter 2 and 3 of Richard Allington's book, I was extremely intrigued with what he explained.  For instance, in Chapter 2 Richard stated, "Almost any one of my professors requires more reading and writing for a single course than was required by all of my high school teachers together during my senior year" (Allington 19).  As soon as I read this quote I immediately thought back to my Senior year of high school and couldn't help but agree with Allington.  Being a current college student I understand where Allington is coming from because I can't even begin to count how many papers as well as pages I have read or written thus far.  It makes me understand how different the curriculum for college is compared to high school and how it should be changed so their isn't such a dramatic gap.  As a result, students like myself shouldn't come into college with the little preparation of reading and writing received in high school.  Instead, we should take the advice given in Chapter 2 that schools need to develop standards for expected volumes of reading and writing and make sure that they're met.  If every school K-12 had a very detailed and organized plan that allowed sufficient time during the day to allow students to read or write on their own, I strongly believe we would see a dramatic change for the better.  We would observe students becoming stronger readers as well as writers and even acknowledge an increase in knowledge because they're soaking in everything they read or write.  On the other hand, Chapter 3 emphasizes that in order to have successful readers and writers we need to visually see schools implementing these plans into their classrooms.  Such as, having a quiet space to read or write or having multiple bookshelves in your classroom so that books are at the fingertips of the students.  I can personally relate to this because in my Elementary schools I can vividly remember how comfortable and quiet the reading sections were in the classrooms and also the library.  Having these quiet, secluded, and comfortable reading sections in the library and classrooms allowed the students like myself to engage in reading and writing in a fun way.  I will always remember looking forward to reading or writing because I would always go to the same beanie bag and engage in my book in a comfortable way.  If all schools dedicated 20-30 minutes a day to quiet reading or writing then I believe we would be meeting our goal of having students become stronger and better readers as well as writers.  It's the little things like having posters, beanie bags, bookshelves, and rocking chairs that influence children to participate in reading and writing in a positive manner.  All we need to do is make sure we implement these few little things into our classroom so that we can create the best environment for our students to succeed in reading and writing.