Students' reading practice is the most important course in American primary and secondary schools.
If you want to do well in the language test, you must have strong reading ability. American education experts generally believe that if you can't keep up with reading, the language test will be difficult. Therefore, American primary and secondary schools pay special attention to reading training for students.
Language reading classes in the United States generally do not talk about grammar and language theory, but mainly focus on reading, which is divided into intensive reading and extensive reading. Intensive reading class is a bit like Chinese class in our school. Students have a unified teaching material, which is explained by the teacher, but it is not mainly about words and expressions, but focuses on understanding the content of the article, requiring students to analyze and comment on the articles they have learned, and summarize and repeat them. Students in extensive reading classes have greater freedom and there is no unified teaching material. Usually, teachers will put forward a list of books for students to choose from, and sometimes they will designate several books as required reading.
The Chinese textbook for the second grade of American primary schools has six or seven pages in one class. Texts are mostly stories about children, stories about celebrities' childhood and poems. I have been reading novellas since the fourth grade. New York State stipulates that primary school students must read 25 books every year. You can read picture books in the lower grades, and the books you read will deepen with the increase of grades. American students' reading is often associated with writing. Generally speaking, every time a student finishes reading a book, he must write a book report.
American students read a wide range of books. Although most of them are literature books, they also dabble in politics, society, culture, history, science and technology. American scholars engaged in educational research believe that reading class can cultivate students from at least three aspects: first, vocabulary; The second is the ability to understand and summarize; The third is writing ability.
Reading in American primary and secondary schools is often closely related to writing.
In fact, American students have mastered a comprehensive ability through a lot of reading, which is very helpful for their future work. Americans are generally good at speaking, writing articles and public relations, all of which are related to reading a lot. Reading in American primary and secondary schools is often closely related to writing. For example, in the Chinese class in the sixth grade of primary school, the teacher gave the students an assignment "Talking about the Second World War", leaving a series of thinking questions: What do you think is the reason for the failure of Nazi Germany? Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor successfully? If you are a senior adviser to President Truman, what's your attitude towards the United States dropping atomic bombs on Japan?
After the teacher finished the homework, the students collected pictures, videos, books, newspapers, micro-movies, CDs and other materials about World War II, eagerly read, jotted down and made cards, and visited veterans and witnesses who had participated in World War II. Students not only discuss it by themselves, but also invite parents and neighbors to discuss it together. Finally, write a personal reading report with detailed and vivid materials. Many children's reports are tens of thousands of words, divided into chapters, pictures and bibliographies, and become a book. Similar homework topics include my views on human culture, American basketball, space travel and so on. At the same time, you can choose your own research topic.
American schools rarely require students to do rote homework.
Teachers don't have to divide students into three or six grades according to ready-made answers, but are committed to teaching students to observe, experiment and operate, so that students can learn to think independently, learn to collect and screen information in unfamiliar areas, and seek answers by themselves. This practice is a major reform in the form of homework, aiming at developing students' personality and improving their creativity in independent research. This is a valuable quality, which is very useful for future children.
Why can reading promote physical and mental health and even cure diseases?
This is because reading is an activity involving the whole body, involving not only vision and other sensory organs, but also reflex and intentional activities, which can make people refreshed, open-minded, energetic and positive, eliminate negative emotions that are harmful to health, thus always being in a good psychological state and enhancing the body's disease resistance. And cadence reading requires abdomen sinking and attention to * * *, which can unconsciously exercise the vital capacity function of oral cavity, teeth, lips, tongue, throat and other related organs and prevent the occurrence and development of diseases.
In fact, the eyes and brain get the most exercise in reading activities. Biological research has proved that frequently used organs are healthy and developed; Organs that are often not used will degenerate and shrink. This is what people often say, "use it in and discard it."
I don't know if my friends have noticed that no matter whether it is spring, summer, autumn and winter, under the lamp in front of the desk, rain or shine, behind the trees in the flowers, the concepts of space and time will disappear when you study hard and recite poems, making people feel comfortable in the world and open and free to the maximum extent. The comfort of writing, the ecstasy of seeking knowledge, and the soul of the author or protagonist, etc. , is really a rare wonderful magical realm.
Therefore, it can be said that reading is a subtle psychological induction, and the aesthetic enjoyment of sound and emotion can truly achieve the fitness effect of soothing the liver and regulating qi, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, and regulating emotions. Many people may not realize that this kind of mentality and artistic conception can only be realized and appreciated if they are immersed in the comfort of reading, and it is also an important symbol of physical and mental health. Therefore, Ouyang Xiu, a writer in the Song Dynasty, once lamented: "It is the happiest thing in the world. I have been writing books."
Lu You, a great poet in the Song Dynasty, died at the age of 85. In the era of "seventy years old is rare", it is a very rare birthday girl. He was diligent and talented all his life. His works include poems, words and essays, and there are as many as 9,300 poems alone.
The reason why Lu You can live a long life and maintain his creative energy in his later years is one of his ways to preserve his health. Not only that, he even uses it to treat people. There is a poem written by Lu You, which reads: "My son is holding an old man and waiting by the stream, telling him that I don't need Yu Shu's medicine to help me. After reading my poem, I woke up. " This is really an experience.
In addition, there has been a legend that Du Fu's poems can cure diseases since ancient times. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Hu Zai's "Tiaoxi Fishing Hidden" said that Du Fu's poems were passed down from generation to generation and could cure diseases. "The words are elegant, the readers are happy, and they don't feel ruined." In the Qing Dynasty's "Old Different Continuation", there is also a record of reading Du Fu's poems to treat diseases: "Bai Yan and Zhu Gong suffer from gas pain. Anyone who has an emergency will recite a few Du Fu's poems and become accustomed to it."
There is also a folk story that says:
In order to write a good article, a poor scholar studied hard at his desk all day and fell ill. After seeing the cause, the doctor didn't prescribe a prescription, but picked up the scholar's manuscript and read it aloud, deliberately mispronouncing it (there was no punctuation in ancient writing). The bedridden scholar heard that his painstaking "splendid article" was actually read to pieces, and the donkey's lips were not right. He couldn't bear it, turned over with anger, grabbed the manuscript and read it aloud several times to show the doctor's fault. Unexpectedly, after reading it, I felt refreshed and comfortable, and the pain was gone. From then on, the scholar listened to the doctor's instructions, insisted on reading aloud every day, and gradually recovered without taking medicine.
This is the reading therapy in ancient China. In many similar records, it is not only pointed out which poems can cure what diseases, but also put forward that different reciting methods should be adopted for different diseases. For example, patients with hypertension can often read poems or essays describing the beauty of nature in a low voice; Patients with speech disorder caused by sequelae of mild stroke can often recite their favorite poems aloud, 3~4 times a day for about 30 minutes each time, and good results can be achieved after 3 months; Long tone, full breath, can cure cough, and so on.
In modern times, the combination of reading therapy and modern science and technology has become a unique branch of many fitness therapies. Medical scientists have found that mental stimulation can regulate the immune function of human body. Therefore, some people advocate and implement reading therapy.
Swedish neuropathologist Yabro? Bill streeter is the founder of modern reading therapy. The guiding ideology of this therapy initiated by him is to eliminate the negative emotions such as listlessness, worry and anxiety through reading guidance for patients, establish the spirit of optimism, create good psychological conditions, summon up the courage to overcome diseases, cheer up, and raise the sail of life optimistically and happily. Obviously, this is a kind of psychotherapy.
Germany was the first country to promote reading therapy. They set up a library for patients in the hospital, and doctors prescribe reading prescriptions for patients according to their illness, that is, reading plans, which include not only bibliographies, but also details such as reading progress and requirements. Many patients with chronic diseases, especially those with nervous system and mental illness, are addicted to books and recover faster. Reading some good books is like talking to many noble people. It can not only cultivate people's sentiment, enlighten people's hearts, cure ignorance and inspire people to make progress. It can also regulate mood and improve mentality. As the saying goes, "forget the bitterness, forget the happiness, and I don't know how to grow old." Therefore, reading makes people feel comfortable, happy, optimistic and free, which can eliminate the fatigue and pain of the body better than medicine.
The most common way to promote reading therapy is the Soviet Union. They divided the books into three categories, which are beneficial to the "medicine" of symptomatic treatment. One is a book that affects reason and thinking, the other is a book that affects mood, and the other is a book that helps to understand the meaning of life. Ask patients to read books for two hours in the morning and afternoon, and persevere.
American psychologist Lerner is the founder of modern poetry therapy. He believes that reciting poems can improve psychological and emotional state and is beneficial to physical and mental health.
Many American scientists have conducted in-depth research on the relationship between reading and health by using modern scientific research methods. /kloc-in the autumn of 0/994, amazing news came from the other side of the Pacific Ocean. At the annual meeting of psychiatry, some people published papers to prove that Alzheimer's disease is closely related to the length of reading time: the longer a person studies, the lower the incidence of dementia when he enters old age; On the contrary, the more likely Alzheimer's disease will develop in the future. They analyzed the educational background of more than 600 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease by computer. The results show that 99% of these patients have not finished secondary school, and quite a few have only studied for a few years, of which only two or three have received higher education.
According to the analysis of American scientists, Alzheimer's disease is a chronic degenerative disease of the brain. Those who have completed many formal courses in school and have more brains when they are young may have produced one or several unknown substances in their brain tissues. It is these substances that can prevent degenerative diseases of the brain (dementia); People with less formal education and less reading will not have this advantage. It seems that this is a new modern interpretation of China's ancient "Reading can cure fools".
In Italy, known as the "Kingdom of Poetry", doctors and writers jointly established the "Poetry Medicine Company" to publish poems with different attending functions for different mental patients to choose from. The article "Talking about Poetry Therapy" published by Health Times on June 2 1998 (author Wang Haisheng) has a detailed introduction to this:
When it comes to reading aloud, people naturally think of campus. However, nowadays, in many hospitals in Italy, Lang Lang's reading voice can be heard from time to time. "Don't tell me in a sad tone that life is just a spring dream, because a tired soul means death, and things are not what they seem." This is a neurologist in a hospital in Milan, who is leading patients with mental depression to read "Praise for Life" by American poet Longfellow.
Reading and writing poems to treat physical and mental diseases has become very popular in Italy. Exquisite binding and printing can be seen everywhere in the window of bookstores and pharmacies. Drugs? Or? Health products? Sell poetry. Some people have labeled these poems with different curative effects. American poet Longfellow's Ode to the Night and British poet Keats' Sleep can cure insomnia. The Scottish poet Carlyle's Today and the German poet Heine's Hymn can cure depression. Ready-made poems can no longer meet people's needs. To this end, pharmaceutical companies and hospitals have joined hands to hire poets to create poems to treat diseases. First, psychologists and pathologists plan the attendance function and style of poems, then poets write poems as required, and finally they are published by publishers. A course of treatment needs to be gradual? Take it? A series of related poems with different contents.
Practice has proved that reading therapy is really effective, which can help patients to have thoughts, eliminate negative emotions, regulate immune function and create a good mood, especially for patients with diseases such as nervous system, circulatory system, respiratory system, psychology, spirit, tumor and tuberculosis.
Mao Zedong loved reading all his life, so he also had profound experience and unique views on reading. He once said to the health care doctor who advised him to read less and pay attention to rest: "You said that brain power for physical strength is rest. I'm tired of reading newspapers, books, comics, political books and literature books. This is also a kind of rest for me. "
Experts and scholars in some countries have also had interesting discussions on the relationship between reading and life span. Japanese longevity experts have analyzed it from a professional perspective, and think that philosophers are the oldest, followed by scientists and artists. Swiss longevity experts call learning a healthy understanding. When some scholars in the United States predict life expectancy, they think that people who get a doctorate should be three years older. These also show that diligent study is one of the best ways to promote health and longevity.
As we know, fast reading is a reading method and skill with high concentration, high memory and understanding efficiency, which requires high speed, frequency, angle and range of activities of eyes and brain, and requires a large amount of exercise. Then, its health benefits are obviously self-evident. As mentioned earlier, Miss Benyimei, a female employee of Nippon Co., Ltd. in Japan, inadvertently cured her hysteria through the study and training of speed reading.
Our whole brain fast reading memory method Many students report that after mastering the fast reading method, their eyesight has improved obviously, and the original glasses (including myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism) can no longer be worn. There are also some neurasthenia people who report that after speed reading training, their sleep state has also improved, their energy is more abundant, and their study and work efficiency has also been greatly improved.
Huang Peng, a student from Gannan Teachers College in Ganjiang City, Jiangxi Province, is a typical example. In his letter to us, he said:
I want to express my sincere thanks to you. It is your whole brain speed reading memory method that has restored my confidence in learning.
In the sprint stage of college entrance examination, I often burn the midnight oil, give up physical exercise completely, and feel weak, so I have a strange neurasthenia symptom and a strange headache. I saw a lot of western medicine and Chinese medicine, ate a lot of western medicine and Chinese medicine supplements, and did acupuncture, but it didn't have much effect. This disease makes me nervous. It's especially painful when reading. I can't concentrate at all, and my memory is worse. I am afraid that I will almost lose my confidence in learning when I read a book, which will seriously affect my study and life. My poor academic performance and headache all day have led me to be impatient with others. It can be said that this disease has made me look a different person.
Since I learned the whole brain speed reading memory method, it is amazing that I can read calmly and intently, my headache is relieved or even disappeared, my attention is highly concentrated and my memory is improved. In daily life, as long as you are in a bad mood and have a bad headache, you can practice "Dantian Breathing" and be calm, which can be said to be immediate. "
As for healthy people, after a face-to-face lecture on whole-brain fast reading and recitation, they generally feel that their sleep time is decreasing every day, their mental state is better during the day, and they can do a lot more.
Recently, some people even put forward the view that reading can beautify, which is also justified. Let's take a look at the article published by Liao Zhongmao in China Education News. There is an article in Social Weekly entitled Reading and Beauty.
Everyone wants to leave a good impression on others, and beauty, as a way to make up for natural defects, has become a big fashion today. There are various methods of beauty, so there are many facial makeup and many teaching materials to guide people all over the world who want beauty and create a new industry. As a man who doesn't pay much attention to dressing up, I want to introduce another beauty method to learn.
Life is not always a happy journey, on the contrary, more often life is accompanied by defects. The moon is full of rain and shine, people have joys and sorrows, physical defects are big and small, they are healthy, and they also demand beauty and chic, which makes life a little helpless. And the natural appearance, can it be completely trimmed by manpower? When the phoenix eye is cut into scarred double eyelids, when the yellow-faced woman is smeared with red and white "braised pork" by chemicals, can the price of beauty be compensated by some compensation? Therefore, more and more smart men and women stay away and seek natural beauty, or cucumber sticks to their faces and lemon juice moistens their skin, or diligently cleans themselves, or beautifies themselves with exercise. All these are just skills of training appearance, and the improvement of spiritual temperament must be influenced by knowledge and extradition. This is a deeper sense of "beauty"!
Reading supplements the lack of perception, making people cross the long river of time and space and communicate with philosophers and wise men at all times and in all countries. They are inexhaustible and impetuous. Reading enables the weak to gain self-improvement confidence and courage; Reading makes her husband converge on rudeness and abandon vulgarity and become refined; Reading makes men more natural and unrestrained and makes women full of charm. With the help of books, Gao Yubao, a small laborer, wrote the life experiences of a generation and fulfilled the dreams that his contemporaries dared not expect. Zhuo Wenjun and Li Qingzhao, although they did not have beautiful faces, left behind eternal beauty, and every word touched future generations. Isn't it beautiful
Knowledge makes up for physical defects. The short Lu Xun and the disabled Zhang Haidi all found the coordinates of life in the literary sky and wrote earth-shattering chapters. Knowledge frees people from detention, from depression, from boldness, and seeks maturity from philosophical thinking. Su Dongpo, a romantic figure through the ages, sang the radical words of "the old man talks about juvenile madness" in the face of the barbarity of exiles. Isn't it beautiful?
When the prosperity of the world passed me by, when the power struggle was staged outside, knowledge made people get rid of the confusion of common ideas and stick to their own pursuits, without masks and giggle fatigue. A generous heart is as simple as it can be, and as easy as it can be. The author has worked in the mountainous area for several years, and also had a sigh of green hills. Facing the simplicity and monotony of material life, it is Cao Xueqin's dream of red mansions and Roman? John of Roland? Christophe and other great works accompanied me through the spiritual void, chewing out the tranquility of ordinary years, fishing in mountain streams, picking up snails in gullies, shaking blue lanterns in the breeze, and croaking with books. At that time, it was no exaggeration to describe it as carefree and selfless. Over the years, when I was tired of the tedious work and common sadness of the case, I suddenly remembered how thought-provoking and memorable that peaceful time was.
Reading is a great pleasure in life. Extensive knowledge comes from books, an open mind comes from books, and a healthy body benefits from books. The ancients said, "There are poems and books to flatter in the belly." . The essence of books is to nurture the cultural nutrition of human beings. Only by being there and experiencing it personally can we appreciate the beauty and magic of the maze of knowledge, the infinite scenery of the mountains and seas, and the essence of human thought constantly seeping into our minds and subliming our wisdom.