Published: December 5, 2007

Teacher Talk: What To Do About Reading?

Is the printed word falling out of favor with today’s students? Will text-based learning soon give way to multimedia approaches that more closely match the Net Generation’s daily experiences with interactive technology? A recent Newsweek cover feature, “The Future of Reading,” and a November story from Education Week , “Young People Seen Losing Love of Reading,” raise those possibilities.

In her Education Week article, Kathleen Kennedy Manzo also reported on a recent study by the National Endowment of the Arts that found “American youths are reading less in their free time than a generation ago, a statistic that bodes poorly for their academic performance, job prospects, civic participation, and even social well-being.”

These articles sparked a thoughtful conversation among members of the national Teacher Leaders Network, who shared a variety of perspectives from their diverse teaching positions across the K-12 spectrum....