"My students" is such a wonderful phrase. Rob's students find it amusing that he's having difficulty telling them apart because they predominantly have black hair. A few years ago, Kathy (my sister-in-law) was laughing at herself because she only knew one way to do something, "just like my [her] students!" (which really got to me at the time, because I'd just lost my own students). It's funny how teachers use the phrase "my students;" the words imply a very particular and special relationship. I think we come to know ourselves and our subject better through our students; at least, that's the aspect of the phrase (and the relationship) that's resonating with me these days.

This semester, my students are going to teach me about reading. In the course of the past week or so, I've heard a few refrains on the subject of reading. One guy said, "If I get to something I don't understand, I just stop." He got nods all around from his classmates. And today a young woman said, while trying to analyze an article, "He's [the author is] just saying the same thing over and over."

I know that in the first instance, the propensity to stop reading is a characteristic of poor readers. Good readers keep going, and they check their understanding in a bunch of different ways. The same is true of the second case; that person, for some reason or reasons, is missing the subtleties of the arguments, only picking up on the main point. Sometimes when students don't understand, they can pick out examples but can't find the connecting thread.

So the question is: How to help them? I know that buried in our attic is a coursepack from a grad class of mine that contains an article that will help me understand, and maybe give me some strategies to try with my students. I've also checked out a bunch of books from the MSU library (residents get a library card for free!!! - unlike UM, where you have to pay $250 a year for the privilege - and their collection of literacy stuff isn't as good, anyhow), which I'm hoping will help. And I'm going to ask on one of my discussion lists, too . . .

I'm really looking forward to the challenge of helping people break down the task of reading complicated material into chunks they can handle. I remember back when I realized that I (along with practically everyone else I knew) wasn't teaching people to do research, I was only slamming them for not doing it. The resulting journey led me to develop some of the best learning activities I've ever used. I'm hoping for the same result here . . .

Well, I better pack it in. I came home tonight instead of spending the night at Louise's, which means I'll have to get up awfully darned early to make it to my 8:00 class . . .