Sometimes I wonder if we should have a “learn to read” community where we post an article or short stories or excerpts of longer works with some comprehension questions and discuss in the comments. Where discussing what you think about a headline or article is forbidden and only discussion about what it actually says is allowed.
Some sort of online community for people to practice reading, especially critically so they practice skills like recognizing subtext, irony, themes, etc, could probably be cool
Unfortunately, the people on a text based platform like Lemmy probably have better than average reading skills. The people who need more help probably stick to video.
Also there’s a surprising amount of anti-intellectualism, sometimes, where people say things like “it’s just a story it doesn’t have any deeper meaning!”. Fundamental misunderstanding of how meaning works. (You don’t find the correct answer. You make up an answer and justify it with the text.)
Just speaking for myself, but even though I don’t “need” help I still feel my literacy becoming more siloed and my patience for reading reducing over time, so a community for collaborative/social reading would be motivating for me. Plus I have friends and family who could use the same encouragement or examples of what to read, so I’d participate for the inspo.
Have you considered a book club? Locally or on Lemmy. That might be nice, though I’m not sure how to level it up from “we’re reading this” to include “and we did some critical analysis”. Also online is more vulnerable to slop, even though I don’t understand why someone would use AI to think for them in an exercise that’s entirely about thinking.
A friend of mine had a book club and was reading a book a month, but then the ring leader had a kid and it’s on hiatus.
I just don’t have it in me to regularly participate in a book club. Short form practice when I can fit it in sounds so nice. I love reading and I read a book or two (sometimes 5) a month, but they’re always low effort fiction so I’m not really practicing any skills. My reading is far too interrupted (by life, toddler, chores, pregnancy) for me to read anything that requires critical thought. It’s hard enough to follow a plot when I’m getting only 2 pages (or less) at a time, sprinkled through out the day. I hope in a few years when my kid’s can finally read to themselves I can manage to get back to actually thoughtful reading.
Good suggestion, thanks. Honestly I haven’t looked very hard, I would probably enjoy a book club. In Lemmy form I like the idea of a rotating crew of participants with a few regulars, and that it’s not strictly books though I’m sure some book clubs probably feature short stories or articles too.
Sometimes I wonder if we should have a “learn to read” community where we post an article or short stories or excerpts of longer works with some comprehension questions and discuss in the comments. Where discussing what you think about a headline or article is forbidden and only discussion about what it actually says is allowed.
Some sort of online community for people to practice reading, especially critically so they practice skills like recognizing subtext, irony, themes, etc, could probably be cool
Unfortunately, the people on a text based platform like Lemmy probably have better than average reading skills. The people who need more help probably stick to video.
Also there’s a surprising amount of anti-intellectualism, sometimes, where people say things like “it’s just a story it doesn’t have any deeper meaning!”. Fundamental misunderstanding of how meaning works. (You don’t find the correct answer. You make up an answer and justify it with the text.)
Just speaking for myself, but even though I don’t “need” help I still feel my literacy becoming more siloed and my patience for reading reducing over time, so a community for collaborative/social reading would be motivating for me. Plus I have friends and family who could use the same encouragement or examples of what to read, so I’d participate for the inspo.
Have you considered a book club? Locally or on Lemmy. That might be nice, though I’m not sure how to level it up from “we’re reading this” to include “and we did some critical analysis”. Also online is more vulnerable to slop, even though I don’t understand why someone would use AI to think for them in an exercise that’s entirely about thinking.
A friend of mine had a book club and was reading a book a month, but then the ring leader had a kid and it’s on hiatus.
I just don’t have it in me to regularly participate in a book club. Short form practice when I can fit it in sounds so nice. I love reading and I read a book or two (sometimes 5) a month, but they’re always low effort fiction so I’m not really practicing any skills. My reading is far too interrupted (by life, toddler, chores, pregnancy) for me to read anything that requires critical thought. It’s hard enough to follow a plot when I’m getting only 2 pages (or less) at a time, sprinkled through out the day. I hope in a few years when my kid’s can finally read to themselves I can manage to get back to actually thoughtful reading.
Good suggestion, thanks. Honestly I haven’t looked very hard, I would probably enjoy a book club. In Lemmy form I like the idea of a rotating crew of participants with a few regulars, and that it’s not strictly books though I’m sure some book clubs probably feature short stories or articles too.
Only if there are no paywalls or surveillance crap on the articles posted there
Paywalls are easy; avoiding surveillance would be extremely difficult.