Almost all parents Today they complain that children have stopped reading books; they prefer computer games, the Internet and television. A child reading a book is not respected among his peers and only causes surprise in them. Meanwhile, reading books for a child should be a necessity and a pleasure, because children who love to read books know how to think, analyze, they are more literate than their peers and therefore grow up to be more successful people in life.
Famous teacher V.A. Sukhomlinsky I believed that the worst thing in raising a child is when he doesn’t want to read. In his opinion, “without a book, mental life becomes wretched, and this leads to lack of spirituality.” To cultivate kindness and breadth of soul in children, you need to read the works of classics, for example, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Lermontov, Pushkin and other authors, whose works are called the school of life. Few parents themselves can boast that during their school years they completely read Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” or Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.”
Even if someone smog to master these books, most likely I did not understand anything about what that very “school of life” contained in them. Modern schoolchildren are familiar with the works of the classics to the extent provided for in the school curriculum. To say that schoolchildren today read less than 20 years ago would be wrong. Indeed, there used to be many libraries and children who regularly visited them. But then there were no computers and no opportunity for parents to buy interesting books, so children received information mainly in libraries.
Today the majority modern Schoolchildren have computers at home, which makes it possible to read texts from the Internet. It’s not surprising if your child has already read “Harry Potter” or “The Davinci Code” from the computer screen. Therefore, you should not prohibit sitting at the computer and demand that your child read books. Reading for a child should be a pleasure and a natural desire, only then can we talk about the benefits of books.
However, the computer can bring useful in raising a child only if the child does not use it as a means of entertainment. Computer games cannot replace reading for a child. Another famous computer genius, Bill Gates, has repeatedly reminded schoolchildren that all computers mean nothing if there are no enthusiastic and knowledgeable students, dedicated teachers and caring parents. Without knowledge about everything, an educated and intelligent person is unthinkable, but demanding from a child that he read all the classics and those books that you read yourself at school age is also wrong. Modern schoolchildren have a different consciousness and perception of the world; they are accustomed to receiving information in fragments, from which they form an overall picture.
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1. Introduction
Reading for children and adolescents in all civilized countries is a concern of society and the state. Reading is one of the ways to transmit and assimilate knowledge and spiritual values developed by humanity, a means of education and upbringing of the individual.
The intellectual and moral development of children and adolescents is directly related to the information they receive. Mass media and books play a huge role in the formation of personality. At the present time, the status of reading, its role, and attitudes towards it are changing greatly.
To ensure that a teenager’s interest in reading does not fade, the reading process must be supported. Therefore, books should be accessible to the child, and the reading repertoire should be wide and varied. In addition, the priority goal of the Federal State Educational Standard is the formation of reading competence, which is based on reading activity. According to the Standard, the development of the READER involves the formation of such reading activity when he is “able to perceive the text of the work; understand what you read not only at the level of facts, but also meaning (have your own judgments, express emotional relationships); recreate in your imagination what you read (imagine characters, events in your mind) and, finally, reproduce the text, that is, be able to tell it in different versions - in detail, selectively, concisely, creatively.”
Relevance of the research topic This work is that it depends on modern schoolchildren (and this is the future of Russia!) and it is on them which moral values will prevail in our country. The 21st century for humanity is considered informational. A “virtual” world was born, which has universal access to information.
The desire for quick, specific information and an insufficient level of knowledge leads to a decrease in interest in the book, which interferes with the formation of active civic behavior in children and youth. The modern generation reads little. The decline in interest in reading worries the entire progressive society. Teenagers are influenced by television and the Internet; they have neither time nor desire to read fiction. But classical literature has a huge educational influence on the soul of the younger generation, as well as on their speech.
Purpose of the study: draw attention to reading as an important factor in the socialization of the individual.
Object of study are teenagers aged 11-17 years; subject - the level of reading activity of students.
Hypothesis: Studying the factors that reduce the reading activity of children and adolescents will help to attract the attention of peers and their parents to the problem of developing reading interests.
Expected results: The materials provided will help you realize that active and productive reading, especially fiction books, is an integral part of the life of a civilized person, developing his imaginative thinking and creative capabilities in any field of activity.
Research objectives:
1.based on an analysis of modern scientific literature, consider the role of reading as an important factor in the socialization of the individual.
2.conduct a survey based on the research to identify indicators of reading preferences of modern schoolchildren.
a) study the forms of the school library in order to analyze the reading activity of students;
c) identify how often schoolchildren read books other than works of school literature;
d) determine: what do schoolchildren prefer in acquiring knowledge about modern life.
4.introduce into the school’s work plan events and competitions that will increase interest in reading fiction.
In the process of work I used the following methods:
Theoretical(analysis of the development of the topic in the literature and other sources)
Practical(questionnaire, comparison, modeling)
The study sample consists of 112 schoolchildren aged 11 to 17 years.
2. Main content.
The role of reading in the development of personality.
Russian national culture developed at the intersection of several cultures, as Russia was formed and developed as a multinational, multi-ethnic power, on whose territory numerous peoples of different linguistic groups, religions, and cultural traditions lived. And the historical originality of Russia was clearly manifested in its culture, especially in spiritual culture, in the holiness of the image of the Motherland, in the spiritual wealth of a person, in the predominance of spiritual and moral motives of life behavior over material interests, in the absence of the cult of wealth. And it is the book that can and should become a conductor of the ideas of the great Russian people; works of literature and art are the source of children’s knowledge about the moral principles of building society.
Only an adult bears the responsibility of choosing the “right” works, the actions of the heroes of which help children understand the causes and consequences of their behavior. It is advisable to discuss, and not condemn the actions of the heroes, to listen to the opinion of children before an adult speaks out, not to advise, but to consult, not to put a “stigma”, but to give children the opportunity to think
N.I. Novikov played a significant role in the development of children's reading pedagogy. He had great hopes for the book, believing that reading contributed to the development of morality and love for the fatherland. His magazine “Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind” published literary works designed to have a targeted and systematic beneficial effect on the spiritual and moral education of children.
In the 19th century, children's reading was rightfully considered the most important means of educating the soul of the younger generation. Thus, V. G. Belinsky noted the great role of reading in the formation of moral qualities, patriotic feelings, aesthetic ideas in preparing young citizens for work and practical life, for selfless service to the common good.
In 1878, the editors of “Children's Reading” formulated 5 main tasks of education through works of art published on the pages of the magazine: - to arouse in children a love for goodness, for noble, selfless deeds, for nature, science and art; - to teach children to respect everyone honest work, talent, genius; - to contribute to the ennoblement of the young soul and the education of a moral, lofty ideal; - to instill in children the consciousness of the solidarity of each individual person with their homeland, humanity and the desire to be useful to them; - to give strength to children to fight evil, i.e. moral support in life.
However, D.I. Pisarev, considering the issue of reading culture, noted that a child must be taught to read books, since reading is a huge work, which a child can master with the help of an adult: between the child and the book there must be a person who will help him connect book knowledge with life, will help you understand and feel the content of what you read. Books by K. D. Ushinsky, V. G. Belinsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov, A. I. Herzen, N. G. Chernyshevsky teach children kindness, justice, and the ability to understand themselves and other people. However, L.N. Tolstoy warned against meaningless reading: it is important to learn to understand what you read, empathize, independently comprehend it and connect it with life.
The great Russian teacher K.D. Ushinsky assigned an important role in the formation of a person’s personality to reading, but advised not to rush to teach children to read, since he believed that reading itself is not the main thing. It’s much more important WHAT to read and how to understand what you read - that’s the main thing.” It is important to prepare a child for reading and make it interesting. Books by K.D. Ushinsky to this day are real moral and ethical lessons for children.
N.A. Dobrolyubov, recognizing the invaluable role of reading in the formation of a child’s personality, noted that one must learn to “withstand the fight against evil,” “to defend one’s spiritual purity and defend social truth from lies, violence and self-interest.” Modern works for children's reading can be divided into: - works created specifically for children - adapted works of classics for children's reading, as well as: - native and - foreign literature.
In addition, we can distinguish: - works of art (prose, poetry, drama) - popular science publications - reference and information publications.
At the end of the 20th century, such a type of children's reading as “electronic children's reading” appeared. Not a ban on the electronic version of children's books, which is refuted by many, but a skillful combination of various types and forms of reading with the direct participation of an adult will serve to form a harmonious personality of the child.
According to M. M. Bezrukikh, first of all, it is necessary to teach teachers and parents the culture of reading. V.P. Chudinova (2004, 2007) notes that today the role of children’s reading in the spiritual development of society is not yet fully recognized as a national problem. The main thing is WHAT will be read, how the process of perception, understanding and discussion of what has been read will proceed.
Family and its role in the development of children's reading
The family is a social institution whose core is love and acceptance. Therefore, in the first stages of a child’s development, reading helps to fulfill the baby’s need for physical and emotional closeness with his parents (more often with his mother). A little later, reading together introduces the child to the world of culture, helps to learn patterns of reading behavior, and a love for books. The opportunity to be close to mom (dad, grandmother) while reading brings the adult and child closer, helps to feel the attitude of a loved one to what they read (even if for now it is just empathy for the grandparents from whom Kolobok rolled away).
The child learns to empathize with the characters of a fairy tale, accumulates the experience of such an experience, even if he himself is not yet able to perceive the meaning of the text. The participation of an adult is a mandatory educational element of reading with young children (from one to three years old) and with preschoolers (from three to seven years old). The role of shared reading does not decrease during the child’s education in primary school. Therefore, it is so important to form and preserve the tradition of family reading.
Family reading, as a process of introducing modern children and adolescents to reading, should solve the following main tasks: to develop the ability to communicate with books, to independently discover the meaning of works; · enrich the vocabulary of knowledge about literature; · move from the habit of reading to the need for reading; · create spiritual intimacy with parents; · form views and worldview · introduce to universal and family values
Russians' attitude towards reading
The AIF newspaper held an action for reading Russia. Famous people expressed their opinions on the pages of this newspaper.
Director Stanislav Govorukhin in No. 39 of AIF in the article “A generation without a soul will grow up in Russia if they don’t read,” these are the thoughts he expressed: “We have recently perceived the reading process only as a process of obtaining information. But this is not entirely true!
Information can be obtained from the Internet or textbooks. And books give us spiritual food and educate our feelings. A person who did not accustom himself to reading in childhood, did not make it a habit without which he cannot live, a person who travels through life without a book is a vain person. This is my deep conviction."
Recent studies by sociologists from the Levada Center indicate that processes of a “reading crisis” are developing in Russia.
The results of the international pedagogical study PISA indicate a relatively low level of reading literacy among schoolchildren, as well as a gradual decrease in this level in the country.
Russia has lost its status as “the most reading country in the world”, and, according to statistics, half of the adult population of Russia does not read fiction. A nation that has lost interest in reading finds itself on the verge of cultural degradation, becoming weak and vulnerable. VTsIOM studies devoted to the reading interests of Russians have been conducted regularly for 13 years. According to the data received, during this period the residents of our country no longer began to read. Thus, the share of those who try to read daily has decreased by 9% over the past 10 years (from 31% to 22%). Most often these are women (27%), citizens 25-44 years old (48-50%) and people with higher education (45%)43% of respondents read books sometimes (in 1996 there were 49%). 35% of respondents never or very rarely read, compared to 20% 13 years ago.
The largest number of reading citizens live in the Northwestern Federal District (29%), but among residents of the Volga region most often there are those who read books extremely rarely or never (41%).
Every fifth Russian is a regular reader of magazines. Magazine lovers are, as a rule, residents of the Northwestern District (29%) and respondents with higher education (26%). Magazines are least popular among southerners and residents of the Volga region (41%), as well as among elderly (53%) and poorly educated (62%) citizens.
Key indicators
22% of Russians read books every day, 42% occasionally, 35% very rarely or never.
The number of citizens reading books has decreased over 13 years from 80% to 65%
79% of Russians read newspapers at least sometimes and 64% read magazines
The most read genres of fiction in Russia are classic historical adventure novels (26%), Russian and foreign classics (25%) and “women’s” detective stories (24%)
44% of surveyed citizens have a home library of less than 100 books; 16% of fellow citizens have no books at all
The attitude of the younger generation towards reading
The modern period of development of society is characterized by the strong influence of computer technology on it. In recent years, there has been debate that the new generation has stopped reading and spends their leisure time entertaining themselves with computer games, television, and “walking” through the wide “fields” of the Internet. “Can a computer replace a book?”, “Children have no desire to read works” - such statements, which have objective grounds, concern the public concerned with the problem of readability.
In the 80s of the 20th century there was a decline in the publishing industry. A “black book market” is developing, and a “reader’s fashion” is emerging.
In the 90s, a sharp decline in reading activity was observed. Society is less interested in highly moral works, and television is replacing bookish leisure.
Currently, one of the main motives for turning to a book remains an educational task, a school curriculum.
Part of the time previously spent on reading has been replaced by television viewing and computer games, as well as social networks.
Schoolchildren are not even interested in the works of the school curriculum. And this is a cause for concern, because it is at school age that not only a love for books is formed, but also genre preferences. I conducted a survey among students in grades 9-11: “You need to write an essay on a work that you have not read, what will you do?”
The answers were similar to each other.
Here are some of them:
“I don’t know what I’ll do. Most likely, I will use Internet sources"
“I’ll find a similar essay and remake it in my own way”
“I’ll read the summary and find an analysis of the work on the Internet.”
All the children I interviewed answered this way. Only one student answered that he would read the assigned work.
The result of the interview proved that it is easier for a modern student to use Internet sources than to turn to the book itself. This is due to technological progress and easy accessibility of information. The student does not want to waste time reading, because there is a PC at hand that will find the necessary information in a minute.
Thus, the teenager deprives himself of not only pleasant leisure time with a book, but also the development of non-standard thinking.
Interesting facts about reading:
The book reduces stress.
The richness and rhythm of language has the ability to calm the psyche and relieve the body of stress.
Reading protects against Alzheimer's disease.
When you read, brain activity increases, and this has a beneficial effect on its condition.
Reading gives you confidence.
Reading books makes us more literate. When in a conversation we demonstrate deep knowledge of a particular subject, we involuntarily behave more collectedly. Recognition of your erudition by others has a positive effect on personal self-esteem.
Improves brain activity.
When reading, we imagine a lot of details: characters, objects surrounding them. Therefore, it is necessary to memorize many things that are necessary to understand the book. This is why reading trains memory and logic.
Modern children and reading.
Today's world is different. The computer and television have robbed children of their time and desire to read.
I decided to research the situation in our school and find out what our students like to read and what their reading interests are. To do this, I compiled a questionnaire consisting of 10 questions.
Our most reading classes turned out to be grades 5, 9 and 11, 80% of students answered that they like to read, grade 6 - 76%. Although 5th grade prefers to read magazines rather than books. But 11th and 9th graders are interested in fiction. As you can see from the diagram: our students read little newspapers, the highest percentage is 32% in the 7th grade. When asked whether you read books outside of the school curriculum, the positive percentage is higher in each class. Although the students of our school read fiction no more than once a week and reading for them means simply finding the information they are interested in - 65%. As an opportunity to relax - 55%, and to complete a task - 38%. To the question “What do you prefer in acquiring knowledge about modern life and modern man?” Most students answered that they would turn to the Internet, television came in second place, and only then books. And radio in our time has lost its popularity as a mass media. Most children listen to him rarely or not at all.
The preferred literary genres of our schoolchildren are science fiction - 60%, detective stories 40%, comedies 25% and something else 60%. Almost all students love to read literature not according to the school curriculum and name their favorite literary characters in the middle level: Dunno, Alice, Harry Potter; in high school, Evgeny Onegin, Tatyana Larina, Pechorin, Chatsky, Bazarov from the works of Russian classics, studied according to school curriculum. And when asked “favorite writers,” all high school students name classic writers whose works are studied as part of the school curriculum. (Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Griboyedov, Turgenev)
I compared the percentage of quality in humanitarian subjects with the results of reading interests and it turned out that the most reading classes mentioned above - grades 5, 6, 9, 11 - have the best percentage of quality of education in humanitarian subjects - Literature, Russian language and history and social studies.
3. Conclusion.
As a result of the surveys conducted and information processing, it is possible to identify ways to solve problems associated with a decrease in the reading activity of schoolchildren:
Help your child keep a reading diary
Develop a creative reader
To form in the reader an attitude towards the book as a source of human experience, a constant partner in communication,
To cultivate an attitude towards the library as an information center, as a center of spiritual culture,
Book presentations, thematic book exhibitions:
book exhibitions should be located and designed in such a way as to attract the reader’s attention, interest him, satisfy the reader’s interest or information need.
Book exhibitions:
anniversary books;
writers - heroes of the day.
Organize exhibitions in the school library to help the educational process:
“New teaching aids”,
“Behind the pages of the textbook”,
For primary and secondary students, bookshelves should be designed:
“Here is a world of fantasy and fairy tales,”
“Children, hurry to the library...”.
To introduce students to active reading, use forms such as:
Library lessons;
Activities in the form of games;
Commented reading;
Reading aloud.
Individual information
Literary games,
Book Reviews.
The family is considered the primary institution of human socialization; I am sure that the love of reading must be instilled in the family from childhood. Therefore, I have developed memos and recommendations for parents, which talk about the benefits of family reading, as well as memos for schoolchildren, which talk about the need to read literature as a spiritual and moral development of the individual.
4. List of references.
Baidan E. What children read // Library. 2004. No. 1. P. 21-23.
Golubeva E.I. What happens in children's reading? // Book business. 2004.
Samokhina M.M. Mirror of social change // Reading Russia: myths and reality. M.: Liberea, 1997. P. 56.
Chudinova V.P. Reading of children and adolescents in Russia at the turn of the century: changing the “reading model” // www.teacher.fio.ru.
PISA is an international educational study of student assessment.
APPLICATION
Questionnaire: Determining reader interests:
2.What does reading mean to you?
3. Do you read books outside of the school curriculum?
4. How often do you read?
5. What does reading mean to you?
6. What do you prefer in acquiring knowledge about modern life and modern man?
7. What genres of literature do you prefer?
8. Name your favorite book.
9. Who is your favorite literary character?
10. Who are your favorite writers?
Family reading has truly unique properties that can create a warm and successful soil for the development of a child’s personality.
1. If you are able to give your children attention and time for family reading, then they are sure that you love them.
2. Reading to children makes them readers in the future.
3. Children's books are so well written that they will be interesting even for adults.
4. Illustrations in books enrich children and contribute to their creative development.
5. Books will help your children learn to think and imagine.
7. Reading aloud helps develop your child's attention.
8. You create amazing memories of wonderful family evenings and warm communication with your child.
9. Books can instill in children values that they will carry throughout their lives.
10. Sooner or later, they will definitely thank you for an intelligent and well-mannered child.
Memo for parents
Do you want your child to read? Take our good advice into account, and your wishes will come true!
1. Instill in children an interest in reading from early childhood.
2. When buying books, choose bright ones in design and interesting content. Buy books by your child’s favorite authors and create a personal library for your son or daughter.
3. Read systematically for yourself. This forms the child’s habit of always seeing a book in the house.
4. Discuss the book you read with your family, even if you didn’t like the book. This promotes the development of your speech and the speech of your child.
Do you read books outside of the school curriculum?
How often do you read?
What does reading mean to you?
What do you prefer in acquiring knowledge about modern society and man?
What genres of literature do you read?
Favorite books.
Favorite hero.
Favorite writers.
Percentage of quality in humanities subjects.
Fiction is a powerful factor of socialization, through which a person becomes familiar with the experience of human history, experiences the peculiarities of relationships between people, and learns cultural norms, patterns and values. The state of reading of children and adolescents is part of the general problems of reading and literacy in modern Russia as a whole. Traditional statements by teachers such as: “children don’t read,” “the computer has completely replaced the book,” “children only read Harry Potter” are not without foundation. In this regard, two problems can be identified: firstly, leisure reading today is being replaced by television and computers, and secondly, if teenagers read, they do not read what, in the opinion of the older generation, deserves attention. It is obvious that the state of reading of modern schoolchildren deserves close attention from scientists, psychologists and school teachers, who simply need to be aware of the reading interests of adolescents.
Let's start with an analysis of the self-conceptions of a reading teenager, which is described in the work of V.Ya. Askarova, N.K. Safonova. “A reading teenager in the world of adults: the search for harmony.” The picture of teenage reading with its priorities, assessments, and reading preferences sharply contrasts with the one that adult organizers of children’s and youth reading would like to see. The phenomena of the crisis in children's and youth's reading are not only not becoming less pronounced, but are definitely progressing. It turned out that among adolescents the situation of “sluggish reading” - reading-non-reading is widespread and from the category of spontaneous, unconscious phenomena is included in the category of obvious and accountable to consciousness. “Out of 630 respondents representing territorial entities of the region of different status, 98% confirmed that reading does not occupy any serious place in their lives. It is characteristic that teenagers operate with plural categories: “we”, “our class”, “our guys”, “our generation”, which indirectly indicates the typicality of this situation.”
Claiming that “reading is outdated”, “reading is not fashionable”, “reading has become uninteresting”, teenagers see the main reason for this in the rapid invasion of new information technologies into all spheres of life - school, home, leisure life outside the home; they claim that they stopped reading “because the computer, mobile communications and other technology appeared, “they take information on the Internet,” “many more interesting means of obtaining information and knowledge have appeared.” The result of the statements is a categorical conclusion: “it’s the 21st century, books are already hopelessly outdated,” “computers will fill everything,” “the generation of computers is coming!”
Teenagers' attitude towards the use of new information technologies is pragmatic: they “get” and “download” information. Information here is perceived as a draw; it is kaleidoscopic, torn; it is easy to manipulate - pulling, cutting, gluing. From this perspective, the book is perceived as too clumsy, voluminous, and requires immeasurably more time and labor. It is no coincidence that teenagers themselves, when characterizing the shortcomings of traditional reading, talk about exactly this: “it takes a long time to read and is too lazy,” “they are reluctant to sweat over books.” In reading, adolescents recognize a mainly instrumental function, using it as a means of training and honing the necessary intellectual properties and qualities: “you develop your thinking and memory,” “you develop speech, you write better,” “reading develops spelling and thinking.”
In addition to the “useful” properties, teenagers also note the “pleasant” properties of reading - it can be a source of entertainment: “it’s captivating and interesting,” “a book can lift your spirits,” “reading helps you relax and have fun,” “it’s a way to kill time when you’re bored.” “,” “reading relieves fatigue and overload from a person,” etc. The entertaining effect of reading is seen by teenagers in a fairly wide range: from the elementary “fun” produced by an “interesting plot” to very complex sensations associated with the holistic impact of the book, involving the reader in its artistic space: “it’s great when you experience it with the characters,” “You are drawn into the world of fantasies and fairy tales.”
In the context of the indicated reading preferences, teenagers’ judgments about a “good” and “bad” book are of interest. When determining the qualities of a “good” book, teenagers ranked “smart” and “simple” in first place. A “smart” book is, first of all, informative, it “carries a lot of useful information”, here you “get useful information”, “you find useful thoughts”. “Simple” is accessible in content, language and style of presentation; it is written “without boring descriptions”, here “everything is clear”, there is “simple ordinary speech”. The teenager categorically does not accept the complexity of the book, classifying it as one of the qualities that characterizes a “bad” book.
“What kind of book do teenagers consider “interesting”? First of all, this is a book that has a “fascinating plot”, “fascinating situations”, “captivates with situations”, Askarova V.Ya., Safonova N.K. claim in their work. - Moreover, “positions” and “situations” must certainly be within the life experience of a teenager: books should be “about us”, “about our modern life”, “where we read to ourselves”. Librarians note that teenagers are reluctant to take books where peer heroes represent past eras. The social upheavals of recent decades have led to a weakening of intergenerational ties and a break in cultural tradition. For a modern teenager, there is not an axis of time, but its specific segment - a discrete worldview and a narrowed identity have emerged as characteristic features of a modern young person. Perhaps this discreteness of perception becomes the reason that teenagers are not inclined to plan and think through their reading life at least one step forward? The most common reading situation, indicated by teenagers, is “I read according to my mood”, “I read whatever comes to hand.”
Especially for this work, we conducted a survey of high school students in order to determine the detailed reading range of high school students. The survey was conducted using electronic resources - through social networks, and through the Pskov Regional Library for Children and Youth. V.A. Kaverina. 46 people were interviewed, including 29 girls and 17 boys aged 14 to 17 years.
High school students were asked the following questions:
What fiction books have you read in full in the past year? Write down everything you remember?
What books have you enjoyed the most over the past few years? Why? (It was interesting, exciting, informative, I learned a lot of new things, etc.)
What books have you read over the past few years that you didn't like at all? Why?
What influences your choice of book (teachers, friends, parents, television, Internet, etc.)?
What are your hobbies, interests, hobbies? Does your choice of books have anything to do with this?
Information for statistics: indicate your gender, age, class, city
Based on the results of the survey, it was possible to find out that 24 people prefer fiction, 17 people read scientific or educational (only for study), 5 people give the same preference to both fiction and popular science literature. To the second question, students gave detailed answers, which helped us identify the main reading range of modern high school students. Among the books read over the past year, novels from the Twilight series by S. Mayer (15), novels by S. Lukyanenko (13), books by Paolo Coelho (10), books by M. Mitchell “Gone with the Wind” (8) received the most votes. . Young readers mainly prefer books by modern foreign authors who write mainly in the fantasy and detective genres: “The Silver Pieces of Judas” by S. McBain (author of “The Da Vinci Code”), “The Sapphire Tablet” by S. Gilbert, “The Chronicles of Narnia” by K. Lewis, "The Mystery of the Sick Shoes" by E. Quinn, "The Lord of Storms", "The Lord of Swords", "The Silver Hand" by M. Moorcock, "The Prince of Light" by R. Zelazny, "The Phoenix and the Mirror" by E. Davidson, "The Broken Sword" , "Children of the Sea King" by P. Anderson, "The Dragon's Wanderings" by E. McCaffrey, "The Miners" by M. Norton, "The Angel of the West Window" by G. Meyrink, "This Mad Universe" by E. Russell, "Hogbens, Dwarves, Demons" G. Kuttner, "Fight Club", "Pygmy" by Ch. Palahniuk, "The Stranger", "The Book of Complaints" by M. Fry, "The Sicilian" by M. Puzo (author of "The Godfather"), "Anatomy of Fear" by J. Santlaufer, "Ecumene" G.L. Oldie, “The Story of Doctor Dolittle” by H. Lofting.
Also in the questionnaires there are names of works by foreign authors, which can already be classified as classics of world literature: the collection of short stories “Ghosts of Lexington”, “Norwegian Wood” by H. Murakami, “Sherlock Holmes” by A. Conan Doyle, “The Three Musketeers”, “The Two Diana" by A. Dumas, fairy tales "A Thousand and One Nights"; “The Invisible Man”, “The Time Machine”, “The Island of Doctor Moreau” by H. Wells, fairy tales of different nations, fairy tales by V. Gauff, “The Lionheart Brothers”, “Roni, the Robber’s Daughter”, “Mio, My Mio” by A. Lindgren, "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" by E. Raspe, "The Mischievous Jester and the Clever Trickster Till Eulenspiegel", "Tartarin of Tarascon" by A. Daudet, "The Legend of Doctor Faustus" by I. Shpis, "Pilgrimage to Earth" by R. Sheckley, " Jean-Christophe" by R. Rolland, "Perfumer" by P. Suskind, a collection of stories by O. Henry, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", stories by O. Wilde, plays and stories by B. Shaw, books by E.T.A. Hoffmann, E. Poe.
Of course, the reading range of high school students is influenced by the school literature curriculum; they read a lot of Russian classics. The questionnaires included such works as “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, “The Master and Margarita”, “Heart of a Dog”, “Morphine”, “Theatrical Novel” by M. Bulgakov, “The Fate of a Man” by M. Sholokhov, “Crime and punishment", "The Idiot" by F. Dostoevsky, "Hero of Our Time" by M. Lermontov, "Oblomov" by I. Goncharov, "Fathers and Sons" by I. Turgenev, a collection of stories by A. Chekhov, "The Golden Knight" by N. Gumilyov, " Portrait", "Nevsky Prospekt" by N. Gogol, "Doctor Zhivago" by B. Pasternak, stories by I. Bunin, "The Pit" by A. Platonov, plays by Ostrovsky, novels and short stories by V. Shukshin, "Cavalry" by I. Babel, "History Russian State" by N. Karamzin.
High school students also pay attention to modern Russian literature; the following works were named in the questionnaires: “Step into Immortality” (about the sixth company of Pskov paratroopers) by O. Dementiev (18 people), “Life and Fate” by V. Grossman, a collection of stories “Laugh better than torment" by E. Asadov, "Poltergeists" by I. Vinokurov, "The Fourth Height" by E. Ilyina, "Conquerors", "The Sword and the Rainbow" by E. Khaetskaya, "One Hundred Years Ahead" by K. Bulychev, "Duhless" S. Minaeva, "Metro 2033" by D. Glukhovsky, "The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Soldier Ivan Chonkin" by V. Voinovich, "Steep Route" by E. Ginzburg, "The Day of the Oprichnik" by V. Sorokin", "Asphalt", "Traces on Me ", "Planka" by E. Grishkovets, "The Witcher" by A. Sapkowski, "Inhabited Island", "Beetle in an Anthill", "Waves extinguish the wind" by the Strugatsky brothers.
In the answer to the third question, it was necessary to write which books high school students started reading and did not finish. They were named: “Eugene Onegin” by A. Pushkin, “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, “Harry Potter” by J.K. Rowling (“didn’t finish it”), “Oblomov” by I. Goncharov (“I didn’t have time, but I’ll definitely read it in full”), “End of the Chapter” by J. Galsworthy (“left for later”), “The Adventures of Gulliver” by J. Swift ( “I can’t handle this nonsense in my life”), “The Brothers Karamazov”, “Poor People” by F. Dostoevsky, “Anna Karenina” by L. Tolstoy, “Germinal” by E. Zola, “The Pit” by A. Platonov (“if not for program - I wouldn’t read it”), “The Gulag Archipelago” by A. Solzhenitsyn, “Hearts of Four” by V. Sorokin, “Azazel” by B. Akunin, “Notre Dame Cathedral” by V. Hugo, Hoffmann, “volumes of Pushkin” (“I don’t finish reading due to lack of time"), "several subsequent books by Sapkowski from the Witcher series" ("in comparison with the 1st and 2nd books, it was as if another person wrote - gray, tedious, drawn out"), "Behold, I am creating" V. Rybakova.
Among the books that were most liked by young readers were (answer to the fourth question of the questionnaire): the series “Keeper of Swords” by N. Perumov, “2012. Chronicle of the Apocalypse” by A. Medvedev, “Full Route” by A. Chubanyan; “Labyrinth of Reflections” by S. Lukyanenko; "There and Back Again" by J.R. Tolkien (“it was interesting, exciting”), “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C. Lewis, “Eragon. Return" by C. Paolini, "Iceberg" by J. Rollins, "Harry Potter" by J.K. Rowling (all books), works by M. Bulgakov (“I love the depth of thought and writing style”), N. Gumilyov (“hidden subtext”), A. Chekhov (“accuracy, realism, true description of reality”), collections “Blue Dragonflies Babylon”, “Blackberry, Holy Abode”, novels “Conquerors”, “Sword and Rainbow”, “Ulfila” by E. Khaetskaya (“I like Khaetskaya’s language, interesting narration and religious motifs”), “all the works of A. Belyaev” (“ It’s an entertaining and informative read, I like the mixture of hectic life with dry science”), “Ecumene” by G.L. Oldie (“an exciting book that you immerse yourself in”), “all Hugo”, “all the Strugatskys”, “The Master and Margarita”, “Fatal Eggs” by M. Bulgakov, “Fight Club” by Ch. Palahniuk, “Steppenwolf” G. Hesse, "Gilles Blass" by A. Lesage, "Stop the plane - I'll get off", "Legends of Invalid Street", "Monya Tsatskes - Standard Bearer" by E. Sevely, "Steep Route" by E. Ginzburg, "old, classic fantasy" , “Book of Complaints” by M. Fry (“fascinating and pleasant to read, with a philosophical meaning, unusual”), “The Idiot” by F. Dostoevsky (“strong, interesting to learn in such detail from the inside human characters and motives, an atmosphere of anguish”), “Chapaev and emptiness" by V. Pelevin (“interesting, allows you to look at the world in a completely different way, gives you a chance to hope that everything is possible”), “almost everything from Poe, Wilde, Shaw”, works by F. Pullman (“interesting for their extraordinary style , ideas"), M. Puzo "The Godfather" ("classic..."), "Roadside Picnic", "A Beetle in an Anthill" by the Strugatsky brothers ("an excellent cocktail - science fiction and detective"), works by E. Grishkovets (“I don’t single out specific books, I like his style and the theme of his work - a reflection of the life of ordinary modern people”), “The Gulag Archipelago” by A. Solzhenitsyn.
In response to the fifth question, readers named books that they did not like at all. Many students answered “there are none” or “if you don’t like it, I don’t read it,” “I don’t remember,” one student answered: “You cannot be critical of literature. It’s hard to pick at least one classic work to qualify as “didn’t like.” But still the following works were named: “Tanya Grotter” by D. Yemets (“just a terrible book, a complete stupidly altered plagiarism”), “Blue Lard” by V. Sorokin (“I didn’t like it”), “three books by Akunin, I don’t remember what specifically,” “Who can live well in Rus'” by N. Nekrasov (“boring, I don’t like poetry”), “The Thunderstorm” by A. Ostrovsky (“pretentious, naive, something outdated”), “Hearts of Four” by V. Sorokin ( “a lot of incomprehensible things have been piled together and at the same time a lot of things are disgusting”), “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy (“not enough time”), “Notes of a Hunter” by I. Turgenev, “Iliad” by Homer (“boring”).
The choice of books of reading high school students is influenced by teachers (school curriculum), friends (swap books, share impressions), parents, relatives (buy books, advise), the Internet (to a greater extent), cinema, some students answered that no one and nothing influences except their own desires and moods. Also, the choice of books is sometimes associated with the favorite hobbies of high school students, for example, watching films, playing a musical instrument (“the choice of books is sometimes associated with the mood determined by playing the piano”), their own literary activity (writing stories), and doing historical reconstruction ( the study of history), the study of ancient civilizations. Some hobbies of high school students require reading scientific and specialized literature, such as a passion for computers, information technology, psychology, philosophy, anime, clay pigeon shooting (the student has a desire to study psychological literature on this topic), cars. Several students indicated that their hobbies are not related to the choice of books, but mainly include sports (football, basketball, snowboarding, kickboxing, alpine skiing), embroidery, drawing, graffiti, love of animals, small children, and visiting clubs. 17 people noted that they have no hobbies.
The answers to the questions in the questionnaires of some students were detailed, it was noticeable that the person was interested in literature, reading, answered questions with interest, and was intellectually developed. Several questionnaires (5) were completely uninformative; the student answered “no such thing” to almost all questions; the answers were monosyllabic and dry. But in general, the guys were interested in filling out the questionnaires.
Based on the results of this survey, we can conclude that the reading range of high school students is quite diverse - the children read both foreign authors and Russian (Soviet) ones, and give preference to the fantasy genre (S. Mayer, S. Lukyanenko, N. Perumov, S. McBain, K Lewis, R. Zelazny, J.K. Rowling, J. Tolkien, C. Palahniuk, M. Fry), science fiction (A. Belyaev, the Strugatsky brothers, G. Wells), detective (E. Quinn, J. Santlaufer, E. Poe, A. Conan-Doyle), many high school students prefer the classics (in some questionnaires there were no other works except classical literature) - M. Bulgakov, O. Wilde, B. Shaw, V. Hugo, A. Chekhov, G Hesse, F. Dostoevsky, N. Gumilyov, B. Pasternak, etc. Many students like modern Russian prose - the works of E. Ginzburg, A. Solzhenitsyn, E. Khaetskaya, E. Grishkovets, V. Pelevin, K. Bulychev, O. Dementieva, E. Ilina. They also do not forget about fairy tales (fairy tales of the peoples of the world, stories by A. Lindgren, fairy tales by V. Gauf, fairy tales “A Thousand and One Nights”), because some of the high school students still feel like children.
If we talk about the reasons for choosing such literature, then most often students choose reading for entertainment, to escape into a fairy-tale world (fantasy, detective stories, fairy tales), reading to solve their ideological problems, solve important existential issues, for self-development, broadening their horizons (works of classical literature), high school students especially like to read works about modern man who are close and understandable to them, which reflect events close in time to young readers (E. Khaetskaya, E. Grishkovets, V. Pelevin), while classical literature is more difficult for them to perceive , since to master it you need a fairly high reading culture. Some students in grades 10-11 do not know literary trends and have a poor understanding of the chronology of events, the peculiarities of composition, language and style of the writer.
And some high school students do not like to read at all, which is reflected in their questionnaires. In a study organized in 2007-2008. One of the tasks of the National Library of the Udmurt Republic was to identify factors influencing the lack of interest in reading among high school students. Three focus groups were held, the participants of which were schoolchildren from the city of Sarapul, the village of Uva and the village of Alnashi. (It is emphasized that these young people practically did not read fiction; that is, we are talking about an audience that comes to the attention of researchers quite rarely). It turned out that respondents perceive reading, on the one hand, as something natural that they use without thinking, and on the other hand, as something that causes difficulty, tension, and boredom. In many ways, the relationship between these two aspects of perception depends on the topic, content and, importantly, the volume of a particular text. Books often meet with sharp rejection among schoolchildren who read little. In particular, the majority of respondents expressed their reluctance to read any thick book (this even applied to romance novels preferred by girls). Typically, they also do not want to read books that have already been made into a movie (even if such books would be given away for free). Magazines for teenagers evoked a more positive attitude among focus group participants: light texts and bright pictures are perceived more easily and are similar to the television picture they are used to. Research data indicate that young people tend to satisfy their needs for entertainment and leisure activities to a lesser extent with the help of books. Videos, music, TV, hobbies, friends are cited as reasons for lack of time for reading by schoolchildren who do not like to read
In 2005, employees of Omsk municipal libraries conducted a study “Reading. The view of youth”, which covered more than 1000 young people aged 15-24. One of the methods was a street express survey. More than 25% of respondents in response to the question “What book are you reading now?” answered that they did not have time to read; 19% said they don't read anything and 2% said they don't like to read.
Work to identify the reading range of adolescents has also been carried out by other researchers. The journal “Homo legens” published a study by N.G. Malakhova “I read because I like to read a little.” About the motives of reading among teenagers,” which showed that respondents aged 15-16 years (58 people) named works included in the school curriculum as their favorite books. The researcher believes that this is most likely due to a slight narrowing of the range of reading (compared to the sample of 8-9 grades), caused by the greater workload of teenagers, the increase in the volume of works studied in literature lessons, what they read and love, mainly what they ask (Griboyedov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Shakespeare, Bulgakov, Dumas, Turgenev, Bronte). “Adventure teenage literature and the classic detective story are losing their positions somewhat, although they are still mentioned quite often (“The Moonstone”, “The Headless Horseman”, “Captain Blood’s Odyssey”, “Ivanhoe”, etc.). The classic (Brontë, Mitchell) and modern romance novels, represented by a variety of names mentioned once, as well as the modern - translated and domestic - detective story are strengthening their positions. And although the individual range of preferences is very large (from “The Seagull Called Jonathan Livingston” by R. Bach to “Simply Maria” without an author), the general trend is already visible: works of the school curriculum are read for school (they also turn out to be the most favorite, and for relaxation - what can be bought in underground passages (modern domestic and translated detective stories, horror films, romance novels).”
Also, research to determine the reading range of adolescents was carried out by the Pskov Regional Library for Children and Youth. V.A. Kaverina. 67 people took part in the study, of which 41 were girls, 25 boys - students of grades 8-9 of educational secondary schools and a technical lyceum in Pskov. When asked what students read, 7 people named works of Russian classical literature, 27 people named works of modern Russian literature, and 27 people named works of foreign literature from the 19th-20th centuries. - 30 people, popular science books - 3 people. The most read authors were: D. Dontsova, V. Ivanova, D. Emets (“Tanya Grotter”), J. Rowling (“Harry Potter”), D.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), A. Dumas (Queen Margot, The Count of Monte Cristo), D. Defoe (The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe), A. Pushkin (The Captain's Daughter). Among other works of Russian classics are mentioned: A. Ostrovsky “The Thunderstorm”, V. Korolenko “The Blind Musician”, I.S. Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”, A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”, M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time". Popular science books include “Encyclopedia of the Circus”, “Lawyer at Home”, “The Uninhibited Manager”. When asked about their motives for reading, the students answered that they read these books because they like an exciting, interesting plot, in which there are many adventures, unexpected turns of events, described cheerfully, with humor and from which “it is impossible to put down”
As for the fantasy genre, the staff of the Pskov Regional Youth Library named after. V.A. Kaverina conducted a study, “The Phenomenon of Children’s Bestsellers,” in which they analyzed why children are so interested in books of this genre, and especially books about Harry Potter, and why the characters in this book are so close to them. It turns out that the point is not at all in the “promotion” of this author and not in advertising, and not in the fact that the guys are “escaping” reality into a fairy-tale world. “Children do not escape reality by immersing themselves in the magical world of Harry Potter,” write the staff of the youth library. “They comprehend the complexities of the real world by projecting the magical world onto it. Readers clearly separate the world of the author’s fantasy from the world of reality and are aware that the real world is much more complex than the world of the book.”
Analyzing the reasons for the popularity of these literary genres, it should be noted the predominance of the narrative type of speech, according to which the plot is built according to the traditional scheme: beginning, climax and denouement, and the narration is based on the principle of “life-likeness”. Socially characteristic characters act in a typical setting, facing difficulties already familiar to most readers, therefore “mass literature” is emphatically social. “The problem of reading interests of schoolchildren can also be approached from the position of age-related socio-psychological characteristics of adolescents entering adolescence,” writes E.V. Sinotina. - In the process of reading, the teenager recognizes his own experiences in the hero’s life circumstances, identifying himself with the character, and appropriates someone else’s life experience. It is customary to distinguish between crises of a situation, which include worries about the death of loved ones, serious illness, career failure, loss of social status, and crises of personality development that arise during a change in internal psychological position. For a teenager, a way out of the current situation is always important. It is no coincidence that psychologists talk about the psychotherapeutic effect of fiction.”
It is worth paying attention to the fact that often the choice of literature for reading occurs under the influence of reader fashion, as a result of widespread advertising or in the wake of interest in video products, as in the case of Ch. Palahniuk, B. Akunin, whose works have been repeatedly filmed. Some researchers believe that familiarization with a book is, rather, illusory in nature: the reader is not concerned about the book itself and its comprehension, but about what impression the very fact of getting to know it will make on others.
Thus, mass literature as a component of the modern cultural process is socially and psychologically in demand among high school students. “Popular literature? part of the modern cultural process, and it must not only be taken for granted, but also known and studied with children. Under appropriate conditions (creation of a special learning situation in the classroom, availability of assignments related to personal reading experience), high school students willingly participate in discussions about what they read. It is important that the subject of discussion during the discussion is not only the texts of literary works, but also the responses they received in the press and on television. A literature teacher can cultivate the reading culture of teenagers by comparing works that are interesting to high school students with classics of world literature that have spiritual potential.”
Other researchers of this problem, for a number of reasons, are concerned about the decline in youth’s interest in free reading. “Firstly, the emotional and intellectual spheres of a student’s development are impoverished. Secondly, books about art are disappearing from reading topics, and mysticism, fantasy, detective stories and romance novels prevail. Such works cannot have a positive influence on the formation of aesthetic and moral standards among students, or on expanding their vocabulary.” As for schoolchildren’s love of reading, when analyzing the data presented in various publications, one can sometimes notice that objectively similar reading pictures are interpreted differently and even oppositely, because separate numerical indicators are given. Such paradoxes are probably due, first of all, to a certain instability of ideas about what can be considered the norm for a particular reader group and what is a deviation. But there is another important reason - of a methodological nature. A direct question about love of reading is hardly worth asking respondents over 9-10 years of age. Teenagers (and even more so young people) have already accumulated enough experience; they implement various reading practices, which are not always based on a love of reading (after all, even free, leisure reading is often associated not with a love of reading as such, but with an interest in the topic ). Therefore, 70-80% of positive answers to the question whether high school students like to read can only be regarded as answers from those who do not have a negative attitude towards reading (that is, those who have a “normal” attitude towards reading). Phrases like “I like to read”, “I don’t like to read” can be (and often are) present in questionnaires and questionnaires as answer options to questions about the reasons or motives for reading. Then the respondent’s choice of just such an answer (instead of or together with options such as “I read for school assignments”, “I read when I have time”, “I read on topics that interest me” - etc.) will be an indicator of his real attitude towards reading and the real place of reading in his life.
The predominance of business, functional motives in the reading of young people (in particular, those related to obtaining an education), the constant increase in the importance of such motives has been noted by researchers and practitioners for several decades. Purely entertaining motives are also playing an increasingly important role in the formation of reading circles. The development of media culture and the rapid growth of Internet technologies are “shifting” the traditional structure of reading - both mass and “elite”; This especially applies, of course, to young people. Here, for example, is how V.P. describes the current situation. Chudinova is the author of numerous publications on the problems of children's and adolescent reading: “Reading of the younger generation is becoming more and more functional and utilitarian. Teenagers are increasingly reading like adults: on the one hand, reading is getting information necessary for studying, on the other hand, it is “light reading” as entertainment (reading illustrated magazines, comics, books with lighter, simpler and shorter texts, as a rule, not of high artistic merit)".
The results of the studies are alarming about the unsystematic nature of reading: students often read everything they can get their hands on. This suggests that many do not yet have established reading interests. Of course, developing a reader is a difficult matter. Reading interests also depend on the attitude towards books in the family, on parents, on the reader’s age and level of development, on the books in the reading circle, on peers and comrades. But, despite all this, it seems to us that the leading place remains with the language teacher and the literature lesson.
Text: Natalya Lebedeva/RG, especially for the portal GodLiterature.RF
Photo: news.ngs.ru
Modern schoolchildren refuse to pick up a book because they have the Internet and a tablet. The school curriculum in literature seems artificial and uninteresting to them. But they obediently take notes in textbooks and memorize terms only in order to write the final essay and pass the exam. And after leaving school, many of them will never return to Pushkin, Tolstoy or Turgenev.
This is the usual set of “horror stories” on the topic of “literature in school.” But what really? This is our conversation with one of the authors of school textbooks “In the World of Literature” for grades 5–11, associate professor of the department of Russian literature at Moscow City Pedagogical University .
We are always scared that modern children have forgotten how to read. “Facebook”, “Twitter”, at best Wikipedia - the craving for reading ends with them...
Irina Murzak: No, we haven’t forgotten how. Children communicate well with literary texts and read a lot. But other literature. And practically no one reads the school curriculum. After all, now you can open a summary of the work on the Internet or watch a film. Recently, in one of the capital’s schools, in response to my question: “Have you read “?” At first they answered: “Of course!”
In their minds, familiarizing yourself with a text from a textbook and a brief retelling is already reading.
And when I asked what they could say about the text, most of the students honestly admitted: “We don’t remember anything.” But these are motivated children, and “Eugene Onegin” - unlike or - is much smaller in volume and easier to understand when reading.
But they read and discuss “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand with great pleasure and find there the answer to the question of how to build their life in order to gain freedom. They love the German writer Bernhard Schlink and his novel “The Reader.” And the most popular author among my philology students is Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. They re-read all his works. He gives such a rich palette of issues: from historical trauma to revealing the world of a child, describes the problem of heart transplantation and tells how people die from cancer - all this worries modern teenagers, because they live in this disturbing world, where there is war, death, but also love, life. They also read a lot of Russian authors: Ilichevsky, for example, listen to lectures and.
Irina Murzak: Modern children are pragmatic and excellent at using the Internet. Finding information, finding out who wrote what and why is not a problem for them. Moreover, you don’t even need to go to the library - all information is publicly available.
It seems to me that we, teachers, are to blame for schoolchildren’s dislike of classical works. Often, teachers, driven into strict limits when it is necessary to present the material in accordance with certain requirements, cannot, and do not want to find interesting things in the text, or come up with extraordinary tasks.
The school, unfortunately, has legalized plagiarism.
Copying of ready-made text formulas is encouraged. Students can easily prepare presentations based on published essays. I will give an example from the essays that we check every year at the university. Children are drilled into primitive things, often biased towards an established idea, like the always pregnant Lizaveta. Teachers often make a special tragedy out of this - it is one thing to kill a cruel old money-lender and accidentally Elizabeth, and quite another to kill a child. There is already a tear, and a “tear of a child”... But in Dostoevsky’s text there is no exact indication that Lizaveta was pregnant at the time of the murder, this is just a phrase heard by Raskolnikov in a tavern. This is all evidence of pedagogical neglect of the text, where will schoolchildren get it? But because of such inappropriate interpretations, children are discouraged from loving the classics.
So, first of all, we, teachers, need to change. Break stereotypes, come up with something new. As in his lectures, which are always a success. Or even Marusya Klimova with her shocking and controversial textbook on literature. After all, it calls for debate, debate, and thereby motivates re-reading of the classics.
How can one raise a literate reader if he does not know Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Leskov, Bulkagov... Without knowing these texts, can one consider oneself an educated person?
Irina Murzak: Do you remember the periodic table? Maybe you can derive Ohm's law? This is also a school program. Why then do we consider ourselves right to call a person uncultured if he has not read Leo Tolstoy?
The fact is that earlier, during the period of literary centrism, the classical was the model. She educated, gave knowledge, shaped the national outlook and was the basis of our existence. Now we live in a multimedia megaspace. And if earlier everyone quoted classical authors: “Beauty will save the world”, “We all look like Napoleons”, today young people quote the Internet, television and films.
There is nothing bad or scary about this. In the period of postmodernism there are no restrictions - some people like Lukyanov or Ulitskaya, others cry over Dontsova’s novels. And someone reads Tolstoy and Chekhov carefully and with interest. And that's okay.
Irina Murzak: I will answer as I usually answer my students. differs from that in her works there is no image. You will re-read all of Dontsova’s books and remember nothing. You will not be captivated by that artistic image, which is then transmitted from generation to generation and turns into quotes. But Tolstoy or Dostoevsky have images of such strength and depth that their works will never leave the field of culture, plays will be staged, films will be made, their books will always be read. Remember the globe covered with small droplets in “War and Peace” or the famous “child’s teardrop”…. And how many interesting conclusions my students make when discussing film adaptations of the novel! After all, only after re-reading the text can we talk about the details, about the reflection of Tolstoy’s images in culture.
Another example. There is a novel by Oleg Sivun “Brand”, where all modern successful brands are analyzed from the point of view of the semantics of the sign and code. My students not only read this text from cover to cover, but also analyzed it professionally. Because the topic is close and understandable to them. You may say this is not serious literature, but Oleg Sivun, by the way, is a laureate.
Can we say that we are moving towards some kind of simplified perception?
Irina Murzak: Not long ago, I came across a dissertation by an American scientist, which was completed, don’t be surprised, and was called “Simplification.” But I don’t consider this to be simplification or primitivism, it’s just a different view - the view of a person with visual consciousness. If you look at a painting by Perov or Surikov, you read the plot depicted in the painting, and it evokes certain feelings in you. And when a Kandinsky painting is before your eyes, there are no words and a situation of numbness sets in. To express your attitude, you need to decode this canvas. The same thing happens today with works or, for example. Someone shouts: “Amateur! Nonsense!" But that's not true. This is a postmodern text, a complex artistic structure. And we must work with it in the same way as with the poetics of Tolstoy or Dostoevsky.
What difficulties does a teacher still face when working with modern, “other” children?
Irina Murzak: The main problem is the catastrophic shortage of watches. Even brilliant teachers find it very difficult to turn literature into an interesting and fascinating subject in the allotted time.
And children, as I already said, are pragmatists. They won’t bother if they can just copy beautifully from the Internet and get an A for it. To motivate a teenager to read, you need to give him non-traditional tasks. Well, what kind of topic is “Biography”? The topic itself encourages cheating. And if you give the task: “What does the epigraph mean in “Garnet Bracelet?” There is simply a reference to Beethoven's sonata (L. van Beethoven. 2 Son. (op. 2, N 2). Largo Appassionatu). When you can’t find ready-made material, you have to think for yourself. Find out what a sonata is, how Beethoven created it, how it sounds, how it is related to the text. This is creative work and, of course, a close reading of the work. Only in this way will a student be able to experience the beauty of the classics.
But there are very few such tasks, because a creative approach is not encouraged.
Conclusion - a lot depends on the creative approach of the teacher. Anyone who loves and knows Russian literature will teach you to love and understand Tolstoy and Sorokin, Pushkin and Pelevin.
The statistics are disappointing. According to the latest research, every year the number of people reading in our country is decreasing. Children do not lag behind the sad statistics. Of the 21 thousand children and adolescents surveyed, only 30 percent read books every day. But if an adult is responsible for his own intellectual level, and decides the question “to read or not to read” independently, then the child still needs to join the ranks of those who read.
Many kids just don't understand the meaning of reading, and often parents have to force their child to sit down and read a book. However, the benefit of such thoughtless reading is minimal.
In attracting children to read regularly, let's use one of Dale Carnegie's commandments: “There is only one way to convince someone to do something. You have to convince the person to want to do it.”
The task is not simple, but nevertheless, there is a Arguments to help convince your child to read.
So, what are the benefits of reading:
- for studying at school:
Reading improves memory, and over time it becomes increasingly easier to do homework, as information from textbooks is remembered better. After some time of regular reading, you can find that your speech has become more developed, your vocabulary has expanded, and your writing has improved.
Books make you smarter, providing new knowledge. Children who read books often do much better in exams.
- for relationships with classmates and friends:
By reading a lot, learning new information, you can become a respected person in any company. Friends and classmates will often consult a well-read friend who knows the answers to many questions. This is how self-confidence is built.
- for the formation of personality, character
Books help you learn from other people's mistakes. By following the fate of the characters in the book, you can draw a conclusion about how you should and shouldn’t act in a specific situation, and then apply this in life.
Books teach us to love and empathize, allowing you to form character and a harmonious personality. It is especially interesting when the book reveals similarities between oneself and the character and lifestyle of the hero. It is in such a book that you can find answers to exciting questions, because real life very often coincides with the book plot.
- for everyday life
Reading is one of the the best ways to have fun. When you're sad, it's raining outside and there's nothing to do, it's great to sit down and read about adventures in some warm exotic country! And the mood improves, and the weather outside the window no longer worries.
While reading a book, imagination develops. No film will tell the story better than your own imagination. That’s why, when reading the book on which the film was based, the book seems more interesting than the film.
With the help of books and your imagination, you can travel around the whole world, become an astronaut, a sailor, a prince, a princess or someone else, trying on the role of the main character.
Reading books afterwards will help you find a good, well-paid job. All the most successful people read. An erudite person who knows how to carry on a conversation is highly valued by colleagues and employers.
Reading is fashionable these days
No matter what non-reading citizens say, an educated person who respects books will always arouse the interest and curiosity of others. When you see a person on public transport with a book in his hands, it’s always interesting to see what he’s reading. About 10-15 years ago it was fashionable to read a paper book in transport, but now it is fashionable to use various gadgets: e-books and smartphones.
The unfavorable statistics regarding the number of children who do not read can improve for the better if each parent takes personal control over the issue of involving their child in reading. But first, it would be a good idea for parents to show by example how useful and exciting reading books is.
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