Have Mamaroneck Teachers Done Their Summer Reading?

Teachers are great for making reading lists — but ever wonder if they follow their own advice and spend the sunny weeks of summer curled up with a good book?

You bet they do!

These teachers got into education for a reason—they love to read. For educators, summer is not a vacation from reading, but rather a vacation for reading—for challenging literature, recommendations from family and friends, new genres, and escapist reads.

"I love for a book to take me somewhere else," said Diane Nelson, who teaches home and career skills at the middle school and fashion design at the high school.

One book that transported Nelson this summer was a biography of John Adams, which immersed her in the daily life of the American Revolution.

"I like a challenge," Nelson said of her summer reading. "I'll read the proverbial beach book, but there are some very challenging books that are page turners, too."

Nelson noted that her summer vacation gives her "probably two or three more hours a day" to read.

Middle school Spanish teacher Anne Kimball didn't only let her books take her somewhere else—she took them with her, on her new Kindle e-reader.

"I didn't want to get a Kindle because I love books and support bookstores, particularly independent bookstores," said Kimball. "But this summer my husband and I went hiking in Western Canada, staying at back country lodges, and when we do that I'm usually lugging three or four books…the Kindle is just lighter."

Margaret Van Cott-Groninger, an English teacher at Mamaroneck High School, believes the expanded time for reading allows a teacher "to dabble in books and genres you have put aside all year."

Although Van Cott-Groninger's reading tends to get interrupted by her three young sons, she managed to explore some different genres.

"I like to read short stories, so the summer is also the time that I pore over the Best American Short Stories collections and my backlog of The New Yorker magazines," Van Cott-Groninger said.

Diane Nelson explored revolutionary America, as did MHS Social Studies teacher Caroline Scudder, who read John Adams by David McCullough and My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams. Van Cott-Groninger also got into the Revolution, initially through television.

"Somewhere in July I got hooked on the HBO mini series 'John Adams' and started reading Benjamin Franklin's biography, The First American by H.W. Brands.

Van Cott-Groninger also took time in the summer to explore the recommendations of others.

"My father also made me read the first chapter of Joseph Conrad's novella Typhoon which is his favorite first chapter of any work of literature."

Recommendations are also important for Kimball.

"I do pick my friends' brains quite a lot," she said.

Kimball is a member of two book clubs, which she says "allows me to read things I wouldn't have read otherwise." Diane Nelson and Margaret Van Cott-Groninger are also members of book clubs.  

Book clubs enrich the reading experience by inviting discussion and debate.

The Mamaroneck school district, too, is encouraging discussion and debate of shared reading with its "Theme-Read Program," which allows students to choose to read one of five books on a common topic. Through this six-year-old program, developed by MHS librarian Tina Pantginis and planned each year by a committee of teachers, teachers, administrators, and parents are also encouraged to read the books. When the school year begins, forums and events are planned based around the books.

This summer's topic, decided upon by a committee of teachers, was "discovery through dissent." The books were: City of Thieves, Hunger Games, The Laramie Project, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Persepolis.

When school begins, Caroline Scudder said, students will be broken into small groups for discussion based on which book they've read, and will also hear a lecture, "Voices of Rwanda," whose subject of Rwandan genocide is related to the reading.

A letter from the former MHS principal Mark Orfinger that went out in May 2010 explained: "The larger purpose of this Shared-Read program is to encourage all people in our community to take part in one of the greatest pleasures in life: reading!"

There's certainly no need to tell the teachers twice. Below are some staff recommendations from their own summer reading:

Superintendent Dr. Robert Shaps' picks: 

• Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
• The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch
• Teaching Talent: a Visionary Framework for Human Capital in Education edited by Rachel E. Curtis and Judy Wurtzel

Teacher Diane Nelson's picks:

• Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that put Students on the Path to College by Doug Lemov
• Having Our Say: the Delany Sisters' First 100 Years by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany. [Ed note: The Delany sisters both lived in Mount Vernon at the time of their deaths, in 1999 and 1995 respectively.]
• What is the What by Dave Eggers and Dion Graham— "about the boys of Sudan."
• Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann—"little vignettes about things happening in New York City—fascinating!"

Teacher Margaret Van Cott-Groninger's picks:

• Summer House by Nancy Thayer—"an easy beach read, sweet and indulgent like an ice cream sundae." 
• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
• The First American: the Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands

Teacher Anne Kimball's picks:

• Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell—"kind of an escapist read for me, because I'm re-reading."
• Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok —"amazing."
• The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat—"a Haitian author."
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery and Alison Anderson
• The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama by David Remnick
• Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
• Things I've Been Silent About: Memories of a Prodigal Daughter by Azar Nafisi

Teacher Caroline Scudder's picks:

• My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams by Abigail Adams, John Adams, Margaret A. Hogan, and C. James Taylor
• John Adams by David McCullough
• South of Broad by Pat Conroy
• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver