Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? (#1)
““It wasn’t their fault that they were making stupid connections. It was mine, because I hadn’t showed them how a meaningful connection could deepen their understanding of the text””
As a middle school Language Arts teacher, it is not lost on me that some of the texts we will read during the year will not be “interesting” to some of my learners. However, that does not necessarily mean that the texts cannot be meaningful.
Empathy is something that has been on my mind this entire year, mainly because I had the opportunity to listen to Christian Long talk about his design schools and the idea of empathy in education. You see, me asking my learners to not just give the answer they think I want to hear, but rather have them give an answer to uncover something about themselves is where empathy and understanding can begin. I realized that my learners were capable of giving such insights, but they needed to be given permission to do so. As if before this moment, they were only allowed to give superficial answers to literal questions. Or maybe they had these abilities of giving extraordinary awareness all along, but did not know it. Either way, asking my learners, and more importantly, showing my learners what meaningful connections to texts could do for their understandings has made all of the difference. Their confidence has grown within discussions, they are able to connect to texts regardless of the topic, and they can begin to empathize with others and their understandings of texts because we all are connected in some way.
In order for my learners to fully interact with the texts, this third and final trimester together they will be creating their own inferential, critical, and essential questions for the texts we will read. One important idea that I have learned this year is that learners do not know how to ask questions. We need to allow for our learners to be curious and empathize.
““Strategy instruction is an ongoing process of adapting lessons and activities to the needs of students and the specific content you want them to tackle””
Differentiation has been a big theme this year at my school. This idea that educators should be constantly evolving their practices and instructions is nothing new, but incredibly important. As the world continues to evolve and grow, so must we. The 21st century learner has a multitude of opportunities to learn, and a multitude of ways to learn. Keeping practices and instructions relevant to our learners, while being mindful of their needs and abilities is crucial to success.
Strategy instruction is more than just adapting to technological advancements in the classroom, or using the latest program. Relationships and understandings of your learners are key factors in how you will teach them. In meetings this year, my team and I have discussed the skills and strategies we teach to our learners, rather than just focus on the content. We have been able to see many cross-curricular opportunities because of this, which has made learning more relevant and authentic than ever to our learners. Next school year, we will hopefully be able to apply this idea more and more, in hopes that our learners can see that you do not only problem solve in math, or research in science. You see these skills everywhere, and you can use these strategies anywhere.
““It is important to give students models for ways of reading whenever we can. We see this a lot in athletics- coaches are great at this. They never tell a kid, “Just go hit a homer.” They show them where to stand in the box and how to hold the bat and when to choke up.
I’m a pretty good reader of literature, but just because I can read and understand poetry doesn’t mean I’m an expert math reader. Math teachers tell me all the time that they aren’t very good readers. Some even say that is one of the reasons they became math teachers- because they didn’t have to read very much. But math teachers are very good readers of math, better than any English teacher I’ve ever seen. They just have a different process for reading texts””
Working in a co-taught classroom with a special education teacher for the past two years has been a humbling, eye-opening experience. Having the opportunity to work with someone who can offer their lense of special education, giving me a new understanding of what these learners need during different pieces of instruction has been invaluable. I have become a better teacher because of it. As a fourth year teacher, I have come quite a ways from my first year.
In your undergraduate program, you are not always taught that learners may not all learn the same, and you cannot just put instructions on the board and expect for them to pick up what you are throwing at them. I have learned that modeling, thinking aloud, and being explicit is needed to all learners. Moreover, literacy is everywhere. We cannot continue to expect only English teachers to be the teachers of reading and writing. I appreciated Tovani (2004) pointing out that people can be good at different types of reading, and process these items differently. We need to begin saying this more and more in all content areas.
Tovani, C. (2004). Do I really have to teach reading? Content comprehension, Grades 6-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.