Taking a Book Break

Every morning at the beginning of chemistry class, Tammy Nabati buries herself in a thick Danielle Steel novel. At some schools, that might land Tammy in the dean’s office.

But not at Taft High School in Woodland Hills.

Tammy is supposed to be reading Danielle Steel--or any other novel during class. In fact, all 2,908 students and 128 staffers on campus are supposed to spend 15 minutes reading at the start of third period each day.

It’s all part of a program to get more students and teachers excited about recreational reading.

For Tammy, the daily dose of Danielle Steel has fueled a passion for a new leisure activity.

“It lets you relax a little,” Tammy said, taking a break from “The Ranch.” “Sometimes you can’t stop reading.”

The sustained silent reading program, which at Taft High begins promptly each day at 10:22 a.m., exists at many schools in one form or another. In this case, the program is part of a broad effort to boost literacy at Taft High and the six feeder schools that supply its students.

The campuses belong to the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project, a privately funded effort to reform schools in Los Angeles County. The so-called Taft family of schools has spent more than $800,000 during the last four years on a variety of reading initiatives.

Last summer, the five elementary schools in the network held an intensive six-week basic reading program for the lowest-performing first- and second-graders.

All of the schools hold an annual “Passport to Reading” program each October, bringing authors, poets and storytellers to read their works at Taft High.

New computers are being placed in school libraries with software that teaches reading.

And the funding has helped provide books for the silent reading time. All teachers in the Taft family of schools has been allotted $250 to buy books of their choice for their classrooms.

Taft High teachers chose a range of material, from Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” to Stephen King’s “Misery.”

The school also arranged to place bookracks in classrooms, in the dean’s office and the counseling office.

Students who are sent to the office for discipline during the 15-minute reading time are still expected to pick up a novel while they wait to be seen.

“The purpose is for the school to shut down and read,” said Lynda Markham, one of the school’s deans. “We’ve tried to get students to adopt the attitude that this is reading for pleasure.”

The reading time hooked senior Nimrod Shalom on learning more about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The 17-year-old read the entire Warren Report on the assassination during the 15-minute segments last year. Since then, he has read five more books on the subject during his own time, becoming an expert of sorts on the controversy surrounding Kennedy’s death.

“Books can actually take you places you’ve never been,” Nimrod said.

Students are supposed to read novels during the silent reading time. But some also read magazines or newspapers.

Others use the time to do homework, which they are

not supposed to do. And, yes, a few cannot resist sleeping.

On a recent day in Tammy Nabati’s chemistry class, one student read an SAT study guide. Another read about author Herman Melville in a literature anthology for English class.

Sarkis Arshakuny clowned around, holding his novel about a hockey player upside-down.

“I don’t like reading,” the 16-year-old said. “I just don’t enjoy it as much as doing other stuff.”

But most of the 40 students in the class took the activity seriously. Silence fell over the room as the 15 minutes began.

At his desk, teacher Ken Solovy stared into his own thick novel, “The Simple Truth” by David Baldacci.

Solovy has nearly finished the 470-page novel by reading it 15 minutes a day.

“I think it’s a good thing for kids,” Solovy said of the reading time. “This may be the only reading they do for enjoyment.”

Next door, teacher Bill Kidder read a book about the Korean War at his desk.

Kidder said he has spent about $1,000 of his own money to stock three wooden bookshelves with all kinds of books--including “The Military History of World War II” and “The Story of Baseball.” The bookshelves have little signs that say: “Free Books.”

Kidder also hangs magazines--from Newsweek to Sports Illustrated--on the back wall.

“I buy books I enjoy reading and bring them to school,” Kidder said. “I try to mix it up, to get them to read something.”