[Teacher Zhang talks about education]Extracurricular reading is a magic wand with magical power! Is it still true in the AI era?

Chinese Herald columnist Teacher Zhang (Zhang Yunteng)

2022Year11moonOpenAInew conversational styleAIModelChatGPTOfficially released, showing amazing and excellent language generation capabilities,2023Year is known as“GenerativeAIfirst year”whose rapid development has strongly impacted learning and work in various fields.

In the past, when we talked about reading, we mainly meant“absorb knowledge from books”. But inAIIn this era, acquiring knowledge is no longer difficult. Children only need to input questions,AIYou can give answers to questions, including describing the connotation of a book, organizing key points, generating reports, and even writing a seemingly smooth book review article.

Therefore, a new question arises, ifAIIf you can organize knowledge for your children, why do children still need to read? The answer is actually very clear:“AIIt can provide answers, but it cannot build the child’s thoughts.”

real reading, not just“get information”but to establish world view, language structure, depth of thinking, cultural understanding and emotional resonance in the process of reading.AICan output text, but cannot complete these core tasks for children“internal construction”. Therefore, inAIIn this era, the value of reading has not declined, but has become more important.

This articleOriginalPosted in2023Year5Moon, it is undeniable,AIis changing greatly“reading and writing”meaning. View original research“read→Thinking→Writing”The core argument ofAIThe times still apply. What needs further thinking is how to makeAIIntervene the right way“reading and writing”and playAIofcollaboration features,AIReading strategies in the environment must keep pace with the times!

19This class will bring Yi Dong’s heart closer to literature!

《How to Read Literature Like a Professor: For Kids》authorThomas C. FosterHe is a New York Times best-selling author who has taught literature and writing at the University of Michigan for more than twenty years. The Chinese translation of this book is titled “Teaching Children to Read Literature”19“Class”, the main text is19Each unit introduces literary classics, and a series of recommended book lists are carefully presented at the end of the book. Parent-child education expert and senior Chinese teacher Chen Meiru wrote a wonderful recommendation preface──《19This class brings Yi Dong’s heart closer to literature.”

The literary masterpieces introduced in this book include many well-known contemporary works such as “Harry Potter”, “Twilight”, “The Adventures of Urchin”, “Percy Jackson”, “Star Wars”, and of course “The Lord of the Rings”. Due to differences in culture, interests, personalities or reading abilities, not every child may like every book introduced by the author. Children’s inner world and cognition may be very different from adults. Since it is extracurricular reading, children should be allowed to decide for themselves which book they like to read.

Teacher Chen Meiru pointed out in the recommendation preface that literature is the crystallization of human souls, thoughts, emotions, and dreams. She hopes that the author will target this group of people who are in a state of excitement and indulge in music all day long.3CComputer games can lead young people into the wonderful world of literature. A literary writer said:“In the world of literature, everything has two meanings, one is literal and the other is sub-literal. As long as you learn to see the meaning below the literal, it will no longer be difficult to understand literature!”

Sukhomlinskiiis a long-term explorer“teen reading”Mr. Chen, a Russian educational psychologist, cited his research and pointed out that many children were smart and understanding in childhood, but their intelligence declined in adolescence. The pursuit of knowledge felt boring and boring, and their brains appeared rigid and inflexible.“Don’t like extracurricular reading”is causing the child“Big may not be better”one of the important reasons.SukhomlinskiiClearly means:“The intellectual development of teenagers depends on good reading ability.”

Teacher Chen told us that a Swiss psychologistJean Piagetand american educational psychologistJerome Seymour BrunerThe research confirmed the following two key points“study”: First, the development of human thinking is absolutely closely related to the development of the language system. Second, learning new knowledge must rely on existing intellectual background. because“read”It can promote the development of the language system and enrich a person’s intellectual background, thus improving a person’s thinking ability and ability to learn new knowledge. The conclusion is that children who do a lot of extracurricular reading since childhood will have better intellectual status and learning ability, and their lives will be richer and happier.

Over the years, I have often discussed how children pass through parent consultations and child learning diagnostic assessments.“English reading and writing courses”changes that have occurred. Let me borrow a metaphor from teacher Chen Meiru:“extracurricular reading”It’s a branch with magical powers“magic wand”! It is worth reviewing that New Zealand’s primary and secondary education provides students with high-quality time, space and environment for extracurricular reading and extensive reading. Have children missed it?

“Teaching Children to Read Literature”19The first lesson of “Class” is“Every journey is a pursuit”the author takes famous works such as “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Devil” as examples to illustrate the“search”the real reason is always for“know yourself”. This book teaches us how to appreciate stories and guides us how to enter the palace of reading literature.

Good writing skills start with a lot of reading!

exist2016old system years agoSATDuring the exam, a parent held his child’sSATtake an examWritingFind me for graded papers. The teacher’s grades are based on6It was given full marks. Parents thought the writing was smooth. Why did the teacher only give1point? I asked this teacher, who is known for her strictness, and her answer was clear:“oh! My rating is based on the content (Content) and language (Language) For consideration, this writing is not only poor in content, but also does not address the topic. If the lowest score is0points, I should give0It’s right to divide.”

I further asked the teacher, why is my writing ability so low? She said that the child had too little extracurricular reading, lacked writing materials, and had poor reading skills, so he could not understand this article.Writingprompt (Prompt), the writing content deviates from the topic.

Professor Li Jiatong, a widely respected professor in Taiwan, once served as the president of three universities. After retirement, he turned his attention to the basic education of children from an early age. He believes that reading is the starting point of basic education. Without reading ability, other abilities cannot be improved.

2010In 2008, Professor Li wrote a book “The Importance of Reading a Lot”, pointing out that“read a lot”It can train a person’s four language abilities: 1. One can quickly understand the article and grasp the key points of the article; 2. One can express one’s own ideas correctly and clearly; 3. The article written must be logical and not contradictory; 4. The ideas in the article are unconventional and have unique thinking.

Reading and writing skills are a child’s most important assets, and they are abilities that children can use throughout their lives. british philosopherFrancis Bacon(Bacon) besides raising“knowledge is power”In addition to famous quotes, he also wrote in “On the Pursuit of Knowledge”Of Studies)” explains the benefits of reading:“Reading history makes people wise, reading poetry makes people smart, studying mathematics makes people precise, studying philosophy makes people profound, ethics makes people cultivated, and logic and rhetoric make people eloquent. In short, knowledge can shape a person’s character.”

A parent once asked me:“Teacher Zhang, my son doesn’t like reading. Is there any way to change it?”“How old are you?”“Last year of secondary school.”I said:“It’s too late! Develop your other potentials!”Of course, I still tell parents that if their children understand and consciously start reading, they should start reading now. The future life will always be better than not reading or studying.

Reading and writing are inputs from brain science (Input) and output (Output) process, it is indeed difficult for children who don’t like reading to develop good writing skills. Moreover, reading must become a habit before it can be deepened into an ability. Since it is a habit, it must be cultivated from an early age.

Do children who read a lot necessarily have excellent writing skills?

thisThe answer to the question is“uncertain”. Children who read a lot will be more effective in improving or enhancing their writing skills with correct guidance. Some children are indeed gifted, with high sensitivity to words and strong comprehension. They can naturally develop extraordinary writing skills through extensive reading. This article only explores basic, traditional reading literacy, and will be discussed in a dedicated article later.AIReading strategies for the times.

“If the child’s first language is English, the child’s eloquence is very good, the child has read a lot of extracurricular books, and attended writing instruction classes from famous teachers, the child’s English writing ability should be good.”This is a myth that many parents have. Most children need guidance to develop well in their reading and writing skills. The reasons for children who read a lot but have poor writing skills are very complicated. I often discuss this issue with several senior teachers. The most worrying one is the quality of English teachers. Are New Zealand’s primary school teachers who teach English reading and writing a mixed bag? We cannot see relevant evaluations from the education authorities, so parents and children can only hope for themselves.

How does extensive reading experience translate into age-appropriate or age-appropriate writing skills? An English teacher pointed out that the teacher’s critical guidance is very important; read a lot, what books have you read? Is there an opportunity for discussion after reading? Do you write notes or experience reports? Is the reading method skimming, intensive reading or selective reading? Is your reading habit silent or aloud? Do you read quickly or slowly? The above factors can all affect the development of writing skills.

Another English teacher said that if children have rich powers of observation and imagination, and can regularly practice integrating life experiences, cultural experiences, media reports, characters, events, environmental factors, etc. and reading experiences into writing materials, and then have the teacher guide the presentation of language logic, they will naturally produce excellent works one after another. Of course, the attitude towards reading is even more important. If you lack the enthusiasm for reading and flip through it casually with a dispensable and irrelevant attitude, of course you will not be able to read the book, let alone write a good article.

In order to have children“well written”a large number of searches (Inquiry) materials are enough to exercise reading skills,“well read”It further enriches the connotation of writing. The cultivation of reading ability and writing ability are inseparable, and the two have a complementary relationship. If reading can become a child’s life attitude, a value, a taste, and a habit, cultivating excellent writing skills will be a matter of course.

existAIIn an era where you can generate articles, organize data, and even write homework for students, the importance of reading has become even more prominent.AIIt is impossible to build up thoughts and cultivate a rich emotional world for children. Moreover, the important ability of independent judgment must be exercised through high-quality and large-scale reading.

Extracurricular reading is still a magic wand with magical power. Just arrivedAIIn this era, we should remind our children:“The wand is still in your hand, but the real magic can only be done by you.”