This is Jennifer Gonzalez, welcoming you to episode 254 of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast.

In this episode, we will be dusting off an old classroom practice to make reading fun again.

I have a question for you.

When was the last time you sat in a chair or on a couch and read a book?

Like actually read a book, not an article or a social media post, but a book.

And yes, in this case, Kindle and other e-books count.

For myself, those moments are getting farther and farther apart. It's not for lack of desire.

I have dozens of books I've bought fully intending to read them, and I've actually started most of these, but there are just too many other distractions that

pull me away. Even when I do manage to sit down and read, I often find myself coming across

something in the book that I want to look up. And even though I swear to myself that I will just

use my phone to look up this one thing, I almost always break that promise and end up going down

some sort of rabbit hole. And then I remember that I need to move a load of laundry into the

dryer, and then I decide to make a quick snack and answer a text real fast. And before you know it,

no more book. I used to be a pretty avid reader. I grew up in a family of readers. Books were always a major

consideration any time I moved. I was an English teacher for Pete's sake. But in the last

five to ten years, it has taken me longer and longer to finish a book than it ever did.

Do I think this is a bad thing?

I do.

Yes, I am still technically reading sentences all the time on the internet,

but very little of that reading is long-form content.

Honestly, I can't even remember the last time I read an entire article online,

so I can't pretend that the internet-based reading I do

...