Celebrate Love of Reading During National Library Week

As a Bookhead, this week is one of my favorite weeks. It is National Library week. Since my early experiences with Summer library reading programs in my hometown of Barberton, Ohio libraries have been important to me. It was the library that opened up a love of learning in their Summer reading program. One reason I improved as a student in my early years I owe to my mother pushing me to be involved in reading throughout the year, books from the library. We were on the lower income spectrum so the library was a great place to gets books since I could not buy them.
The local library was also my first job as well throughout my time in high school. As I later moved to college my work through college jobs bounced back between working at the campus library or janitorial work. So I am thankful for that aspect of the library in my life.
I am looking forward to finishing my PhD dissertation so I can be more involved in reading a variety of books from my local library. Right now the Capella University online library has been my rich source of journal articles for my dissertation preparation.

At the American Library Association website there is a link for Library week: http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek there they state the Library week began in 1958. That was a good year as that was when I was born. Each year they have a theme and this year it is “Libraries Transform”. If you click on the preceding link you can go to their website and learn more information about the week.

As I reflect on the theme “Libraries Transform” I can truly see that in my own life. I am thankful I had positive teachers in my foundational years in elementary school. Yet I can see how the Summer reading programs at Barberton Public library transformed me in broadening my love of reading. That then had a spiraling effect over the years in my critical and creative thinking to propel me to improve my academics over the years. My belief in the importance of lifelong learning stems from the transformation in growing a love of reading which started with my mother introducing me to the library.

The Capella university library has been a helpful resource in finding journal articles on my dissertation research. The librarians there have been helpful during my coursework providing ideas on expanding my research topics in gathering the hundreds of articles needed. On the Capella Library website they show how they transform students: “The Capella University Library helps Capella learners transform by:
• Answering more than 8,800 questions from learners each year.
• Providing access to 56,000 journals and 193,000 books in our library.
• Performing 1,400 individual consultations with learners about their dissertation research each year.”
I know I have asked them questions over my years of study there. An attribute found in librarians is that they are helpful. Some of the best customer service I have seen over the years has been found in those who work in libraries.

When I looked at the website for my local New Braunfels Library I noticed their mission statement: “To provide the community with equal access to physical and virtual environments that support and encourage lifelong learning and enrichment.” That statement is a year round commitment to the National Library week theme of “Libraries Transform”. Helping people to think about living the best life possible; which is one basic thought behind my blog and my book, Living More Than OK; is seen in the desire to encourage lifelong learning. A person who is involved in their local library will never live a dull life as they are continually being enriched by the knowledge and the power of story that can be found in opening up the mind and spirit found from reading books.

Do you feel like you need some transforming in your life? Stop by your local library and search for a fiction or nonfiction book to start the transformation.

Reflection: What does the library mean to you? What
thoughts or memories come to mind in thinking over the theme “Libraries Transform”? Check out this website www.ilovelibraries.org/librariestransform/get-involved to see how you can be more involved with your local library.

Encouraging Readers to Seek Flow

This being National Library Week I thought I would continue on discussing reading and Flow. At our New Braunfels Public Library I came across a book, Going with the Flow: How to Engage Boys (and girls in Their Literacy Learning.) It was written by Dr. Michael W. Smith an education Professor at Temple University and Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm an English professor at Boise State University. Although the book was written in 2006 to this day both authors still show a passion for encouraging reading and literacy. I am thankful when I read about people such as these men who encourage reading.

This book is based off of research that came out of a previous work they did, Reading Don’t Fix No Chevy’s. Their work revolved around trying to encourage young boys in reading which talking to teachers is a struggle more these days. I know in counseling clients when working with children I have found girls are more often open to reading than boys. At the college level I see the same phenomenon that it is the girls that tend to enjoy reading more. Smith and Wilhelm point out how in education studies that girls tend to outperform boys in reading. That seemed to be one driving passion in their research.

What I found interesting in the book was in their interactions with the boys they found a connection to Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory. As mentioned last week, Flow is the experience in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does with a sense of enjoyment. The authors found that the boys outside of the “prison of school” (some of the boys perceptions of school), had flow activities they enjoyed. Some of these activities were rapping, sports, video games and art.

They found that the boys were not totally against reading as a number of them read outside of school but often on subjects that they enjoyed such as the sports and video gaming activities. Part of the thinking on encouraging reading in boys was to keep encouraging them to read things they enjoy. I thought as I read the book it was that encouragement that could help the boys connect elements of flow to their reading. They point out near the end of the book that “We found that the five features of flow experience that we discuss in this book -- a sense of competence and control, an appropriate level of challenge, clear goals and feedback, a focus on the immediate, and the importance of the social – explained why our boys liked to do the things that they did. We found that these five features were equally explanatory of the boys’ literate engagement, both in school and out.” (page 171)

I haven’t crunched the numbers from my flow assignment with my college students but those seem to be the core elements of flow that my students felt would apply the best to college studies and flow. I have had students who were taking remedial reading at the college level and they made statements similar to the boys in the book. They would say they enjoy reading things they like but the struggle was reading material they did not like in classes. I would often reply that was hard for me to relate to, as being a Bookhead I enjoyed reading what I liked to read but in school I always enjoyed textbooks as well. I would often tell them I am crazy that way. I agree though that to build the habit of reading we need to encourage people to focus in on reading what they enjoy reading and branch out from there.

One other point I fully agree with is their thoughts on the emphasis on mandatory testing in schools. I have heard from stressed out teachers over the years how they hate teaching to the test. In counseling children many get very stressed out over the Texas state mandated tests. I have asked sometimes to an overly stressed child do the teachers appear nervous about the testing? Several times I have had the children reply in the positive that yes, they notice the teacher nervous about the testing. So if the teachers are stressed out how can we expect the children to perform well? The authors rightly point out how the emphasis on testing makes the emphasis on doing school, rather than learning to enjoy learning and mentally growing. “Our worry is that the more we overtly prepare students for tests, the less our assignments are for the enjoyment of doing them, or for the immediate power of application in the present. Increasingly, what students are asked to do in school is for the instrumental purpose of passing a test, often one in the distant future, instead of doing something for immediate purposes that provide intrinsic satisfaction.” (p. 160) Our test emphasis is counterproductive in building flow into students’ lives. No wonder so many drop out or lose their love of learning; which in the world we live in we should be building students who love learning.

So this National Library Week stop by your local library and support the work they do in encouraging reading. Continue to build the flow of reading in your own life and encourage it in others.

Reflection: Pick up a new book to read in an area of personal interest at your local public library.

Enjoying Reading as a Flow State

From foter

This semester in my College Success courses one assignment I gave students related to Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory. Flow is the experience in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does. I had the students consider their outside of class activities they enjoy and think through various elements that make up flow. They were to write a reflection of whether they actually experience flow in their favorite activities.
The elements of flow that I had them reflect over came from Dr. Csikszmentmihalyi’s book, Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention. The elements are as follows:

1. There are clear goals – In flow the individual knows what needs to be done. The musician knows what note to play next. The rock climber knows what move to take next up the mountain.
2. Immediate feedback to ones actions – In a flow experience we know how well we are doing. The musician knows if he is playing the right note. The rock climber knows if the next move is a correct one.
3. There is a balance between challenge and skill – A person in flow feels their abilities are well matched to the opportunities for action. If the challenge is too high to the skill level frustration sets in. If the challenge is too low boredom sets in. There is a continual growth in skill.
4. Action and awareness are merged – In flow our concentration is focused on the activity being done. One-pointedness of mind is required by the close match between challenge and skills, and it is made possible by the clarity of goals and constant availability of feedback.
5. Distractions are excluded from consciousness – In flow there is an awareness of what is relevant for the here and now. Flow is the result of intense concentration on the present, which relieves from fear.
6. There is no worry of failure – In flow the participant is too involved to worry about failure. There is a confident sense of control.
7. Self-consciousness disappears – There is a lack of sense of the self instead there is a oneness with the activity. The pianist is one with their piano. The skater is one with the ice A paradox occurs in that the self expands through this act of selflessness and oneness in their flow activity.
8. Sense of time is distorted – In flow hours may feel like minutes so there is a sense of time distortion.
9. The activity becomes autotelic -- The flow activity becomes more enjoyable for its sake. The activity is an end in itself. (pages 111-113)

I was amazed at their responses as none of them had ever heard of flow. A few had coaches who taught them about being “in the zone” which is a similar concept. Through a myriad of favorite activities such as various sports, writing poetry, drawing, video games, dancing and many others, most of them could see the elements of flow in their lives as they did their favorite activities.

With the coming National Library Week still on my mind, my favorite flow activity came to mind. That flow activity is reading. I was glad to see a number of my current students listed reading as one of their flow activities. I should have given those students extra points for enjoying reading. How does flow relate to the habit and enjoyment of reading? Allow me to walk through my personal thoughts on how I see flow in my reading. With each book I read there is the goal to understand the story or glean helpful information for my personal or professional growth. The feedback I receive in reading is that relaxed enjoyment of the story that grows my creativity or the information I glean to improve myself. Depending on the book the level of challenge to my skill of reading varies. In reading for me the challenge relates more to the more academic texts I study. Increased ability to concentrate I have seen in my reading. When I read on a plane or in my home office being in the flow of reading, I focus in on the story or the information I am reading. Time seems like it flies by when I read so I often need to keep track of time if I only have a set time to read between appointments. Reading is definitely autotelic for me in that I enjoy reading whether it is for my Ph.D. assignments or leisure reading.

from foter

In living a Living More Than OK life, engaging in flow activities adds to the overall fulfillment of our daily lives. Flow activities in our free time helps in overcoming burnout or the angst of boredom. Of course I highly recommend that all people add the flow activity of reading into a portion of their free time. Reading builds up the creativity and the critical thinking aspects of our minds. As I stated near the beginning there are a wide variety of flow activities. Active is the key part. What are you active in? Just living ok keeps us stuck in the mundane mode of okness and passivity. It leads to flat lining in our life journey. Take some time to think through ways you can add to your life through flow activities you may enjoy.

Reflection: When you read do you feel any of the elements of being in flow? What are some of your favorite free time activities? Do you see the elements of flow in your activities?

Grateful for Libraries During National Library Week

Just the other day in my Facebook account I saw a notice from the American Library Association: Celebrate National Library Week 2015 (April 12-18, 2015) with the theme "Unlimited possibilities @ your library®." The notice reminded me of my gratefulness towards libraries to this day. As I have mentioned in the past I have had many connections to libraries over the years. In elementary school my mother promoted to me, the local public library in my hometown of Barberton, Ohio by making sure I was involved in their Summer reading program. It was those early summers that encouraged my interest in reading which has grown to my present time, where my daughter calls me a Bookhead.

My first part-time job through my high school years was at the Barberton Public Library. Then in my college years at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, I worked at the campus library several semesters. With that experience I am a believer in the importance of libraries on the local level and the academic level. With my PhD work with Capella University the online Capella library has been helpful in gathering research articles. In trying to obtain hard to find articles the Capella University librarians have been an important resource to turn to for help.

ALA’s theme for the week "Unlimited possibilities @ your library®.", impresses me. The thought is so true in the unlimited possibilities that can open in our minds by reading and other resources available at libraries. Going back to memories in my life it was the variety of stories I read that opened my mind to the diversity in the world. The diverse ideas and peoples I read about in those Summer reading programs prepared my mind for thoroughly enjoying the diversity I found when I moved to Chicago for my college years. Reading strengthens the mind, as in my case since my father died when I was a young child, I was very inward and the school system thought I was slow educationally. I truly think it was the reading that helped build me up mentally to improve academically in school so that I was focused on College Prep in my final years of High School.

The importance of reading and libraries is what I have always liked about Dr. Ben Carson’s life story. He is a perfect example of their theme in that unlimited possibilities came true in his life due to his mother having him read two books a week from his local library. What positives could happen in our country if more parents followed that idea with their children in getting them involved in their local libraries? We could have a renewed renaissance in our country of critical and creative thinkers if more people took advantage of reading and their local libraries. That is so needed as presently, I usually just see mentally lifeless zombies staring at the screens on their phones wherever I go. Reading can bring mental life back to people as they learn the joy of reading.

Make it a point to stop by your local library next week, April 12-18, 2015 and check out a book or see what other resources they have for you. Take the time to let the librarians there know you are grateful for the work they do in providing unlimited possibilities to those who come through the door of the library.

Reflection: Here is the ALA link to National Library Week: http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek The National Library Workers day is April 14th. Make it a point to thank any library workers you know. As I stated make it a point to stop by your local library during the week.
Think over their theme – “Unlimited possibilities @ your library®." Meditate on some of the new possibilities you may want to read about from books at the library.