The Bump

Miguel Guhlin recently blogged about the Nancy Atwell book The Reading Zone. One paragraph jumped out at him as it pertained to blogging:

In fact, a more useful lesson about the connections that story readers make, as we're reading, is one that helps students decide how to respond to them. I ask my kids, "When you're reading a story, do you ever bump yourself out of the zone because something in the book sparks a thought or memory?" and follow up with, "If so, how do you respond to the bump?". . .these occasions when we read like writers: we pay attention to the way a text is written, and we enjoy an efferent moment as we observe something in someone else's writing that we might choose to carry away, and put to use, in writing of our own.

Miguel's direction on this is one that poses the question of how we handle this in connection with blogging inspiration, but mine is how we handle it with our students when they hit the "bump." He leaves us with these parting comments paraphrasing a Scholastic article on the subject:

Every day, smart, well-meaning teachers erect instructional roadblocks between their students and the personal, digital communication tools.

So are we overlooking the teachable moment in the haste of curriculum delivery and test preparation? I know I have. Man, I hate it when I realize my shortcomings. Thanks, Miguel. Just thanks.

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