Generous amounts of close, purposeful reading, rereading, writing, and talking are the essence of authentic literacy.
I have recently started to pay close attention to the buds beginning blossom around Newberry High. Its spring and though the late freeze might have gotten some of them, others are filling out nicely. There's an interesting metaphor here, because what has truly caught my eye is the blossoming literacy practices around NHS. There are pockets of greatness that I'm starting to pay attention to. Sometimes accountability (the freeze) can get them, but most of the time they are strong enough to endure.
There are several teachers that are experimenting with supplemental texts in their content area classes. The human growth teachers are a great example of this--they have truly taken the concept of literature circles and made them their own. Some of the social studies teachers are beginning to dip their toes and experiment with the possibilities that YA lit can bring into a classroom. English I and II teachers have incorporated the Janet Allen curriculum which uses YA lit to teach the universal literary themes that used to be taught through classics that didn't reach a single student.
This is what gives me hope. We are showing promise. We just have to get it to spread. "Literacy liberates." We have to teach our students the value of reading in order to help them leave their current world behind. Schmoker points out that 40% of those born into the bottom economic fifth stay there as adults. Literacy liberates. It is what our students need to break the cycle.
Of course we can't do this alone and it is easy to use the lack of parental support and lack of time as a crutch. As a reason for not trying as hard as we can. But what can we do?
How can we take our pockets of literacy excellence and spread them into other classrooms across the school? What can you do differently?
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Well, I had typed my comment once and it didn't post so I'll try to do this again. I think the most important thing that I or any teacher can do is TRY. We often get "set in our ways." But, every teacher should know the value of reading. We have to plan and brainstorm ways to incoporate YA literature in our classes. How we actually do that is still a question and I don't know that I have an answer. But, I think teachers are the best thiefs, so to speak. We need to steal or take ideas from other teachers who have had success. So, I think teachers who have had successes need to share their stories. Maybe teachers can talk about how they incorporate reading in their classes at the faculty meetings. Maybe we can have teachers talk in small groups during early release days. But, we have to get the word out to other teachers and show them how YA lit can and does work in the classroom. But, as teachers, we have to take this knowledge and TRY to use it in the classroom. We have to do as we always do and that is monitor and adjust.
I thought that Chapter 5 was extremely powerful. I plan to share it and do some viewpoint discussion with my senior advisory.I want them to discuss the topic of dominant discourse for success. If they haven't developed this, I still believe they can through technical school or college and self confidence for life-long learning.
I believe most teachers know that we have to make our subject matter authentically connected to the students and their lives to help them learn to think and form opinions. We also know that they need choices in assignments. Although we know this, the challenge is often providing the initiative for such types of engagement and opening this door for students, helping to pry them from the sleepwalk state that many have been in for years as they coast through their formal schooling. I just read the professional book, Reading Don’t Fix No Chevy’s, and truly enjoyed the study which showcased literacy education as it exist from the male adolescent perspective (from a very diverse sample). The authors of this study concluded the same as stated in this chapter under "Habits of Mind" bullets: examining evidence, multiple viewpoints, making connections, detecting patterns, imagine alternatives, and understanding relevance. In the study this was done through inquiry units where the boys were given choices and used the literary (broadly defined) to explore the possibilities.
I believe, however, as we move to these type of curriculum units, we will have to awaken many or our students first, as they have been allowed to not think for quite some time. As our text states, we have to teach them the dominant discourses for liberatory purposes. Let’s awaken the sleeping lion.
How can we take our pockets of literacy out of the pocket? I wish I knew! I am really kind of frustrated by all of this. I was involved in the SCRI initiative for three years (I took a break this year because of family health issues), and I know the district has been involved in the SCRI initiative since my younger son was in third grade six years ago. What is frustrating me is that many really good teachers have been involved with this program for YEARS, but I am not seeing the results. We are still getting children who read and write well below grade level. We are getting students who do not want to read or like to read or write. What has happened to our teaching that takes away the joy that reading can bring? What has happened to our teaching that has taken away students desire to learn new things and tackle hard tasks?
I agree whole-heartedly that literacy is key to achievement, not only in school, but in life as well. I'm just frustrated that "something," the buffer, keeps students from achieving the levels of literacy that we desire for them.
Like all the others who have commented, I, too, recognize that literacy is the key to advancing in any area of life. I cannot imagine my own life without books! I try to set examples by sharing what I'm reading, including educational reading, with students. I found chapter 5 powerful enough that I read part of it to my advisory group last week. I guess I won't get to do that again! Anyway, I think all of us have to find ways to incorporate reading into our curriculum. I always found it easy in Teacher Cadet class - through educational articles, etc. I enjoyed having them read one of the Sharon Draper books this year. However, I've found it much harder in math classes and now that I run the content recovery labs, it is even more difficult. Getting them to read the study sections on the computer is a battle in itself - but I don't give up. One thing I have found is that if I discuss what is being read, the student is more apt to actually do the reading and try to comprehend what is there. I guess the main thing is that we continue to look for meaningful material in our content areas and encourage our students (especially through example) to get involved in reading.
I wanted to add one thing to this discussion. I really like the idea of teaching students the "habits of mind." I looked up Ted Sizer's Habits of Mind on the Internet and found a good list of questions for each of the habits:
*the question of EVIDENCE: "How do we know what we know?"
*The question of VIEWPOINT: "Who is speaking?"
*The search for CONNECTIONS AND PATTERNS: "What causes what?"
*SUPPOSITION: "How might things have been different?"
*RELEVANCE, or why any of it matters: WHO CARES? WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?
I tried getting my English 3 studenst to use these habits yesterday by asking them to find connections and patterns among three short stories. They had some good "one-word" responses; when I asked them to elaborate by citing evidence, they could not go much beyond generalities. I realize this takes practice. I would like to use these habits more. Is it too late?
I believe this chapter is very important to teachers. We need to use this information and at least try it. I found in Human Growth that if we give them the book of their liking they will read. I believe the more you read the easier it will come. It just like practicing a sport the more you do it the easier it comes. In some cases, our kids are not put in the situation to read for fun. Theyu have not experienced any reading for fun. I really enjoyed the SSr we did here. I thought it was really working.This gave kids a chance to see that reading was not all bad. I think this was an experience some kids used and will help them down the road. I found that the kids enjoy our literacy circles in Human Growth. They read books that deal with health issues and they really enjoy it. It is different to me and them but we cover alot of social issues thru books. I believe many kids do not get the chance to read for enjoyment and maybe that is our job so the students can become interested in reading. It doesnt take a whole lot of time away from your daily routine and we are looking to start reading in the weight classes this 9 weeks.
As much as I love book and adore reading, I seem to have the hardest time getting my students to share those same feelings! To be completely honest, I wasn't much of a reader until college. During high school a rarely read for pleasure. And yes, I am guilty of using cliff's notes. (Yea, that's really bad, and I shouldn't admit to something so horrible!) But I can remember being so bored with some of the literature we were given to read. The other day, I picked up "A Farewell to Arms" by Hemingway. Now, in high school I despised any Hemingway, but I found myself really interested in the book this go-round. I think that a big part of gettin students interested in what they're reading is to make it relevant to them...I think that's where Dianne has done a really good job at gettin books out to students that are relevant to their lives. The problem is, how often can we find interesting reading for, say, a social studies classroom? Sometimes the subject is simply dull. I know that's when we need to dig deep and figure out how to make it apply to students' lives...it's just that sometimes that becomes a huge challenge!
We have to try new [and potentially out of character]things. This year, in both Sociology and Global Studies, I've read to my students. I've read children's books and novels. My GS kids have gotten to the point that they tell me when we don't get to that part of the lesson. If we don't try it at our level, how can we say "it won't work"?
Most important chapter so far. Make reading more fun or interesting to our students and you will see how much our kids enjoy reading. For many of my students History is not a interesting subject especially to read, so i have to try to relate how what we study has and will affect them. But still reading for many is not something they are will to do. That is why I liked SSR so much, my students loved ssr and I believe it's because they are allowed to read what they are interested in. Chad is right the author is right and most importantly the more you practice something the better you get at it. The students that read more in ssr do a much better you with their assigned read in my class.
This was a great chapter and it proves how important literacy is, however, it doesn't explain what to do for the students who refuse to read, period. The authors states that "reading, writing, and talking" are the heart of learning to think. He goes on to talk about various professionals who, until they were inspired by certain teachers, hated school, especially reading. Wouldn't it be great to be one of those teachers? How do I get my kids to read, though? We've done YA literature, and if it's more than a page, they're not buying it. We've done classical literature in modern ways (acting, comic books, etc.) and they still refuse to participate.
My answer for solving the literacy problem is that I honestly don't know what to do. Someone mentioned how important SSR was for their subject. I agree, however, I only had 3 students in my Advisory who would actually read. The rest sat there with books open, but staring off into space. These were books they had chosen themselves, and they still refused to read them.
How can I make reading more desirable when many students are taught from birth how unimportant reading and writing and discussion are? Where and when does that attitude change?
Focusing on next year, I know that I'm going to try to incoporate more time for reading and more strategies that get students involved in what they're reading, like "Say Something." However, unlike Schmoker, I don't think I can simply focus on student-character/narrator relationships because all of those "archaic literary terms" are tested on the EOC. How are the students going to pass that test if they don't know how to analyze texts for metaphors, similes, oxymorons, etc?
I'd be grateful for a little less idealism and a little more concrete realism from this book. Don't tell me how great it will be, tell me how to make it great!
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