Dr. Danny Brassel talks about bringing joy back into education & the teaching of reading. An Interview with Dr. Sam Bommarito
.
Introduction
I first met Dr. Danny Brassel at the Write to Learn Conference several years ago. He is the kind of speaker teachers look for at such conferences- the kind that gives you things you can use on Monday when you get back from the conference. He was both entertaining and informative. I noticed on social media that he had just written a new book and has been championing the cause of bringing joy back into the teaching of reading. I was thrilled when he agreed to be interviewed about his newest endeavors in this area. Let’s take a quick look at his biography.
BIOGRAPHY
Here is the YouTube VIDEO of the interview:
Free gifts from Danny.Com LINK.
Link to Danny’s newest book, Bringing JOY Back into Education
My thoughts about this interview:
When I do my conference presentations, I often bill them as the “land of a thousand takeaways.” Teachers need ideas and the resources to carry out those ideas. Danny’s interview perfectly exemplifies the “land of a thousand takeaways.”
His core ideas are simple enough. If you want students to read, give them books (comic books, magazines, short stories) about things that are meaningful to them. Choose the things in which they have the most interest. Find the time to include those in your daily teaching routine. He has given us a treasure trove of such stories by giving us a free PDF copy of his book Read, Lead and Succeed. I can’t wait for his soon-to-be-released as yet unnamed book to come out. In it, he has promised to give us high-interest stories about a more diverse group of people. As a teacher who has worked with grades K-graduate school, I recognize that teachers of the youngest students may need different kinds of short passages. I would look to resources from folks like Tim Rasinski LINK. In the past few weeks, I’ve been exploring the value of songs, poems and nursery rhymes as sources for daily read-alouds. Included is the practice of using a daily read-aloud of materials with short, high-interest passages that pack a lot of bang for the buck. This practice can easily supplement any reading program.
I especially enjoyed Danny’s explaining the conditions necessary to create new habits. In point of fact it takes an average of 67 exposures to establish a new habit. He also wants teachers and students to establish reading habits daily. He also points out the major benefit of reading self-selected materials for at least 20 minutes daily. Such readings need not be consecutive minutes. All this leads to the possibility of implementing such time as “sponge activities,” meaning that teachers can fit such activities into time during the day that might otherwise be wasted. Last week, I gave the example of having passages ready to read aloud in case a class cuts in front of you at the lunch line. That can happen sometimes.
I would also urge readers to explore Danny’s five-day reading challenge for parents. It is full of easy-to-implement ideas that will help their children develop daily reading habits. One example of such an idea is to have parents turn on close captioning on their TV. He talks about how successful that idea has been in places like Finland.
Over the next few weeks, I will continue to explore the idea of bringing joy back into the teaching of reading. Next up will be an interview with Leah Mermelstein. I think she will provide another treasure trove of teaching ideas. I’ll leave you with this thought. Meaning matters. It is important that the content of materials we use to teach reading is meaningful. I urge teachers to ensure that this is the case for as many of your materials as possible and to take advantage of the practice of including supplemental high-interest materials. So, until next week:
Happy Reading and Writing.
Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle taking flak from all sides)
Copyright 2024 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely this author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.