Friday, April 7, 2017

What is this? A couple examples of internet-enhanced reading



(What is this? Obviously a hat. No, it's a snake that ate up an elephant. No, it's an ugly dress for a ballerina. No, it's Ditto. No, they're some siblings in their blanket fort. No, it's a Manta Ray. No, it's a piece of designer furniture. No, it's something evil coming out of the wall. No, it's a roller coaster. No, it's a pizza melting. No, it's whatever you can imagine. Seventy four years of The Little Prince.)

In a general way, though they say writing by hand helps people remember what they write, isn't the whole point of writing that you don't have to remember it? and so, the more media to enhance the books, the better, I say. The book itself, after all, remains; only around and around it a richer culture of impressions and allusions, associations and memories, interconnections and interpretations is formed, and we might need strong fingers to dig down through all that dirt and sweat a bit to turn that compost--but what a joy it is to play in that garden!

And as much as reading, it becomes part of the fun to make our own contributions and appreciations, even occasionally sprinkling in a few new seeds to add to the loam. So I hope that part of the Hobbit Camp involves inviting the kids to make their own podcasts about what they've learned from reading together, their own stories they've been inspired to write, drawings they've drawn, and even some words of poems in ancient languages of their own.

No comments:

Post a Comment