Purcell & Creating a Classroom where Readers Flourish

The Purcell-Gates discusses reading and how literacy is experiential. 
The reading starts off by introducing us to a student, Donny, in Appalachia. Donny comes from an extremely low SES family. His parents are both products of this poverty stricken area, as illiterate seventh grade drop outs. They were passed along from grade to grade without ever learning to read or write and the cycle is being repeated with Donny. His mother contacted the school and expressed her concern with Donny because he seemed to be struggling quite a bit and did not seem to be learning to read or write. These educators saw Donny's mother as ignorant and dismissed her concerns, passing Donny through the grades without ever truly teaching him anything. 
Donny did not get the attention he needed until a professional interceded on his behalf and the teachers put him in an appropriate grade level, upon his request. With extra help and instruction Donny is now on his way to being a fully literate member of society. 
One of Donny's teachers expressed in regards to Donny's mother, "I could tell she was ignorant as soon as she opened her mouth." This in reference to her Appalachian accent, which is often referred to as "white trash" or "hillbilly" slang. The author explains that just because this is the way she was taught to speak does not mean she is ignorant. He compares this to driving a stick shift car. If you have never been taught to, you would not know how to drive stick shift, this does not make you stupid, it just means you lack experience. This chapter discusses the idea of "linguicism" which is defined as the prejudice blaming speakers oral dialects for their academic failure. Our job as teachers is to adapt to the area we are in and the dialect they speak to differentiate our lessons. 
The reading states, “first and most obvious, teachers and schools must accept, believe, and act upon the belief that children of poverty are learners, have been learning since birth, are ready to learn at any time, and will learn.” (Purcell-Gates,) 

Creating a Classroom Where Readers Flourish
This reading discussed the importance of providing students with time allotted for reading, availability of an array of book genres and authors, and providing positive feedback for any reading done by students. By doing these things, we can encourage and motivate students to become avid readers. 
They discussed the fact that celebrating students book choices is extremely important because it will increase their confidence and enjoyment of reading. The author stated that even if a girl only read the Twilight series, that would be over 1,000 pages of reading experience, which is extremely beneficial to other more intellectual reading endeavors. 

The readings both discussed the importance of reading experience. The first reading explained how experience is crucial in learning, while the second one discussed how practice in any form even if it is only an hours worth of reading is crucial to the reading process. I think these readings were assigned at the end of the quarter to culminate everything we have learned about teaching reading. Motivating kids to practice is one of the most crucial aspects in creating avid readers of our students.