| The new George Saunders novel Vigil was one of the most highly anticipated releases this winter. Saunders wrote the super popular Lincoln in the Bardo several years ago. This new book hits on themes Saunders is known for – mainly death and mortality. Book critic Maureen Corrigan calls it “good, but not great.” Read the full review. |
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| If you’re still interested in another perspective on death, mortality, the end of the road and all that, Booker-prize winning author Julian Barnes has a new novel out, titled Departure(s). It is, ostensibly, a novel – but one that draws a lot from Barnes’ own life. Critic Heller McAlpin says the book is “slim but weighty, digressive yet incisive.” |
Last week I asked the educators among us for their take on paper vs. digital reading material in the classroom. Here’s some of what came back.
Katie Z. wrote: “I am a high school teacher in the Twin Cities metro. About 3 years post-COVID Distance Learning days, I started to become really fatigued of posting all of my readings and assignments on our digital classroom, even though we were back in the space physically, so I slowly began printing assignments here and there. There was very little pushback, and students grasped back on to forgotten skills like annotating and highlighting. Eventually, I had many days where they would sigh in relief as I announced it was a no-device day. Hiding behind their screens became a habit, and once they were instructed to put them away for writing and face to face interaction, there was a palpable feeling of gratitude from them for the release of screens for even a brief segment of their day.”
Matt B. wrote: “As a high school history teacher, I prefer hard copies, but I almost never use them with my students anymore. It’s not really a question of how it impacts student learning; it’s a question of cost and convenience. There is a push from administration not to use a lot of paper. All our students have school-issued devices. We only have one main copier for a school of about 450 students. I have about 100 students; to copy material for them takes a heck of a lot longer than posting a link.”
Kevin B. wrote: “I currently teach an AP Literature class, and I require students to have a print copy of the books we're reading, but I've also started printing out poetry and other supplemental works because most students don't annotate when they read them online. A side benefit of the print copy is that they're not on their laptops during class; even the best students can get distracted when messages and texts are popping up while we're trying to discuss the poem they read for that day. I don't know that it makes them better readers, but it certainly doesn't hurt.”
See you next week!
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