By Matt Kurnick
"I believe there are a lot of opportunities here. If you aren't doing something, it's because you don't want to. You have a ton of opportunities to choose from. I do like working with a variety of different colleagues. Everybody seems very positive and friendly here." — Pamela Farris, associate professor, Curriculum and Instruction, Illinois State University
(October 30, 2009) What do Brett Favre, Larry Bird, Batman, Tim Jankovich, Robin Pingeton, and Pamela Farris all have in common? Plenty actually.
After spending over 15 years as a Distinguished Teaching Professor at Northern Illinois University, Pamela Farris stopped working following her husband's retirement after the 2006 school year. Farris wasn't ready to leave the game (a la Favre) and in 2008 joined the Illinois State University team as an associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction. Farris brought with her loads of valuable experience and an excellent record for production.
"What I bring to the table is I have wide experiences throughout this state and the Midwest with literacy," said Farris. "I do have a national reputation because of my books, articles, and research."
In 2006, Farris was inducted into the Illinois Reading Hall of Fame. To date, Farris has published six books, three of which are textbooks on their second, fourth, and fifth editions respectively, and over 170 journal articles.
Since she's come to ISU her research has taken something of an unexpected turn. Since her senior year in high school Farris has been interested in teaching reading and getting kids, specifically elementary school aged kids, interested in reading. Lately Farris has focused on getting fifth and sixth grade boys to read more. Her findings have led her straight to the movies.
"Right now the hot thing is graphic novels," Farris said. "If you look at pop culture, all the current movies that are blockbusters tend to be from graphic novels. Boys really get into that. The Dark Knight, which was a blockbuster, came from the cartoon series of Batman and comic books. That's kind of a different venue for us to look at for boys."
Farris has also gone to the kids to find out what it is more specifically that draws them to certain books and away from others. She's found things like the cover, author familiarity, and sources of recommendations can all influence boys' interest levels in books. As an educator and an author of a novel intended for middle-level boys, this information is doubly important to Farris.
"Major publishers don't like to publish books solely for boys, they say by sixth grade boys stop reading. That's not true. You have to find something they're interested in reading, the teachers need to know how to capitalize on what boys like to do," Farris said.
Farris has also traveled throughout the state to help schools develop their English Language Learning programs and writing programs. Farris has been involved with one elementary school in Bloomingdale, Ill. for 19 years. When she first visited, the school did not have a writing program. Now they have one of the best in the state.
"That school scores third in the state in writing for fifth graders and is consistently in the top five schools. It's because the teachers are dedicated," she said. "They all come with a pad and pencil and their sleeves rolled up eager to learn things they can apply in the classroom."
At Illinois State, Farris currently teaches five classes: Reading and Language Arts Methods, Theoretical Foundations of Reading, Recent Research in Literacy, Language Arts Strategies, and a reading response course. Farris describes the work load she gives her students as heavy, but because of the way it's broken up throughout the semester, and the way she presents the work, she's also convinced her students appreciate it.
Her style of teaching is something she's developed over time. It's also something she's tweaked after learning from her students.
"I think I'm learning more and more that students need structure and modeling," Farris explained. "The most important thing we do that first week of class is we show students how to organize for that class. Students enjoy coming to my class. They go away with something they've learned, but they've learned it in a palatable way.
"I think that's what teaching should be all about. We should present reading to children as a gift and something for them to enjoy and take pleasure from."
Farris earned each of her degrees from Indiana State University, and was a Sycamore at the same time that basketball great Larry Bird was. Her appreciation for sports and more specifically basketball has certainly helped her in writing her first children's novel Crossover Dribble, which she published in 2007.
Her appreciation for basketball also helped Illinois State bring her to Bloomington-Normal.
"They promised me some good basketball which kind of lured me down; I'm a big basketball fan," Farris admitted. "From the men's and women's standpoint, they are two terrific teams with two terrific coaches. I enjoy the sports here. The athletics here are very positive. I follow pretty much all the sports.
"I believe there are a lot of opportunities here. If you aren't doing something, it's because you don't want to. You have a ton of opportunities to choose from. I do like working with a variety of different colleagues. Everybody seems very positive and friendly here."
Maybe someone in ISU's College of Education should thank Pingeton and Jankovich for helping recruit Farris, a hall-of-famer who's back in the game.
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