SOLSC: Day 3

I'm reading the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers. Before you judge me, for good or for ill, understand that I started it because so many of my sixth grade students (mostly girls, but one or two boys, who are comfortable enough with their masculinity, such as it is at twelve) were in love with all 2,444 pages of it. My experience started disasterously; I listened to a recording of the first one while driving 16 hours from Virginia to Buffalo and back, through snowstorms both ways. It's hard to say which was worse, the weather, the PA Turnpike, or the excruciating pace of the audiobook.

After a couple of weeks, I had recovered sufficiently to begin New Moon, this time the old-fashioned way, just a girl and her paperback. My students were excited everytime they saw the book in my hands: eagerly asking me what part I was on, happy to proclaim that this was their least favorite of the series, shocked when I told them that I much preferred Jacob to Edward. These conversations kept me reading, and it was interesting how our roles were reversed. They were the experts on this text, encouraging a reluctant reader and defending the book from my (gentle) criticism. Today, I am exactly half-way through Eclipse, but I'm not reading nearly as quickly as the kids think I should be.

These events have made my class more of the reading-writing community that I want it to be. Allowing myself to switch places with the students has convinced them, in a way that my words alone cannot, that we really are fellow learners. I just happen to have age and experience on my side-- most of the time.