Subjects Matter
(Page 40) “They (textbooks) are intentionally ‘content-overloaded’ with facts, dates, formulas and taxonomies. They introduce vocabulary and concepts at a blind rate. They are overly structured and highly orderly, packing information into labeled slots, as densely as possible.”
Amen! When we’re familiar with the content, the textbook doesn’t seem that difficult to read. But have you tried picking up a textbook lately from a content area that you’re not very familiar with? For the last two instructional moments I’ve done for the faculty, I’ve grabbed some textbooks from the bookroom so that that I could show how the strategy could be used in various contents. It was certainly no picnic! I had a very hard time reading some of them, and by most people’s definition, I’m a pretty good reader! There was vocabulary that probably would be considered basic to the content area, but I wasn’t completely sure what some of the words meant, so I had a difficult time making sense of what I was reading. Can you imagine what are students who aren’t such great readers go through when they’re assigned pages of the textbook to read???
When Kids Can’t Read
(Page 40) “They (textbooks) are intentionally ‘content-overloaded’ with facts, dates, formulas and taxonomies. They introduce vocabulary and concepts at a blind rate. They are overly structured and highly orderly, packing information into labeled slots, as densely as possible.”
Amen! When we’re familiar with the content, the textbook doesn’t seem that difficult to read. But have you tried picking up a textbook lately from a content area that you’re not very familiar with? For the last two instructional moments I’ve done for the faculty, I’ve grabbed some textbooks from the bookroom so that that I could show how the strategy could be used in various contents. It was certainly no picnic! I had a very hard time reading some of them, and by most people’s definition, I’m a pretty good reader! There was vocabulary that probably would be considered basic to the content area, but I wasn’t completely sure what some of the words meant, so I had a difficult time making sense of what I was reading. Can you imagine what are students who aren’t such great readers go through when they’re assigned pages of the textbook to read???
When Kids Can’t Read
(Page 36) “…we can’t fix the reading problem by buying a particular program; instead, as teachers, we must learn how to teach students to comprehend texts.”
It certainly would make things easy if there was a magic program that we could administer to all of our students to make them great readers, but that just isn’t going to happen! Or, how about if we could just hand students a worksheet and they could do it?!? I think the operative word in Beers’ statement is how. Students can do the work if they understand how to do it. I just met with a middle school administrator the other day who wanted to know if I knew a reading series that one of his self-contained teachers could use with her class. I told him that there really isn’t anything effective where the teacher will just be able to give it to the students and be done with it, but what will work is putting some authentic literature in the students’ hands and have the teacher use best practices with it. Good teaching is hard work! If we want our students to become successful readers and writers, we’re going to have to look at the individual students to see what we need to work on. (Hmmmm…this sounds a little like differentiated instruction!)
It certainly would make things easy if there was a magic program that we could administer to all of our students to make them great readers, but that just isn’t going to happen! Or, how about if we could just hand students a worksheet and they could do it?!? I think the operative word in Beers’ statement is how. Students can do the work if they understand how to do it. I just met with a middle school administrator the other day who wanted to know if I knew a reading series that one of his self-contained teachers could use with her class. I told him that there really isn’t anything effective where the teacher will just be able to give it to the students and be done with it, but what will work is putting some authentic literature in the students’ hands and have the teacher use best practices with it. Good teaching is hard work! If we want our students to become successful readers and writers, we’re going to have to look at the individual students to see what we need to work on. (Hmmmm…this sounds a little like differentiated instruction!)
10 comments:
Andrea Baker; Media Specialist
Ch. 3 When Kids Can’t Read
Reading Blog due Oct. 9, 2006
I LOVED the If-Then chart on p. 28. WOW! I think this book and accompanying chart would make a great ready reference tool for all teachers at Airport High School, not just the venturesome souls taking this class. I definitely picked up the vibe from the author that helping kids COMPREHEND what they read is not for the fainthearted, and that every teacher has to have a wide variety of strategies ready to utilize because there are multiple reasons why some students struggle with reading.
The author also mentions in the If-Then chart that a certain type of dependent reader can be helped if the student learns how to navigate the library (last column). We see this everyday in our media center. We encounter students literally wandering around because they cannot navigate the OPAC interface. We (media center staff) need to collaborate with teachers to ensure all students know how to look up and retrieve a book in our media center.
Ch. 3 Subjects Matter
Reading Blog due Oct. 9, 2006
Two topics mentioned by the authors struck a chord. On pp. 42- 43, the authors make the case that textbooks are authoritarian. My thought is that there is no way we would assign a student a research paper and suggest the student use only one source. We would suggest the student use an array of sources (a variety of print and nonprint materials) in order to get a balanced view. The authors hit the nail on the head when they state “this (using one text) is not the way smart and free people read.”
On p. 47 the authors speak about a colleague (HS English teacher) who uses the risograph to make packets of poems tailored to his students reading interests, age, and ability. This sounds wonderful, but (do not groan, I have to say it!) what about copyright law and adhering to Fair Use guidelines? As educators we have some leeway because of Fair Use Guidelines, but we have got to be aware of the law and follow it.
For example, here is the portion of Fair Use that specifically addresses poetry: “An entire poem of less than 250 words may be used, but no more than three poems by one poet or five poems by different authors in an anthology. For poems exceeding 250 words, 250 words should be used but no more than three excerpts from one poet or five excerpts from different poets in the same work.”
‘Nuf said from your friendly media specialist!
From chapter three in Subjects Matter I just wanted to know about these communities where parents have to pay for textbooks in addition to paying their taxes. Where are these communities? Textbooks do cost too much especially when you can't understand them. I found the section that talked about the inaccuracies of textbooks to be of particular interest. It's one thing to have to change a textbook because a planet is no longer considered a planet (Uranus, right? Or is it Pluto?), but to print information that's just WRONG! Wow!
Having read most of chapter three in When Kids Can't Read, I have to say I experienced another indicator of a lack of reading ability in students. I am reading Finn: A Novel with my one CP class and my two regular classes. It is so obvious that the CP students are comprehending more because they laugh when there's something funny. I believe one's ability to recognize humor is key to the comprehension, and especially the enjoyment, of what's being read. The If-Then chart was really neat. I wonder if students would be able to identify themselves as readers according to the chart.
Rita
Chapter 3, Subjects Matter
I remember as a student, the only time I looked at the textbooks in math were to complete the homework assignments. I never read or studied the text for explanations. I relied totally on the teachers for that information. I had to make some major adjustments when I was in college. Wouldn’t students be much better off it they were encouraged to use their textbooks as a reference tool? In fact, it would save them from taking so many notes and actually give them more opportunities for practice.
I totally agree with saving money by having class sets of textbooks. I love the consumable workbooks. The words and problems on the transparencies that come with the math textbooks are not typed large enough for the students in the back of the class to read. What a waste of money buying those extras. Textbooks are essential. We need to help the students learn how to use them.
Chapter 3 When Kids Can’t Read
There’s not a lot I can say about Chapter 3, except I was amazed at the variety of ways to describe someone that can’t read. I’m so curious to know, if reading teachers actually use any of the instructional plans that were mentioned. Are students in elementary grades helped on individual bases to improve their reading skills? The one thing that really sticks with me is knowing that students do become better readers by reading. There’s no way I can teach anyone to read, but I can provide opportunities to help them improve their reading skills.
Subjects Matter
I remember when I had to read textbooks in high school and college and didn’t really know how to read it. I just read the main text and maybe looked at the charts, graphs, or pictures. I never really read the read the “extra” text boxes because it just too much time. Looking back, it was probably because I didn’t “know” how to read a textbook.
I was very surprised about how forwardly, almost bluntly, the authors spoke about how textbooks are used too much within classrooms and that they are used as the sole source of information. Many students don’t work well when given a textbook; it may be too hard for them to read, they need more hands on work, or it may just be overwhelming. Our students need many strategies to learn and using many different things out a textbook is not the way to do it!
When Kids Can’t Read
Page 34 “ ‘Do you mean you think they are good because they are doin’ somethin’?’ You mean there’s somethin’ you do to be a good reader? [Laughter from class] I just thought they were good readers because they just are. You know. Just good readers. Man, they don’t do nothin’ other than maybe suck up to the teacher.”
I am almost positive if I asked my students what good readers do and why they are good readers this would be very close to their answer. I know that I had no idea what it took to be a good reader when I was in high school; I just thought people were good readers or they were bad readers. I lived with the type of reader I was. I can’t remember trying to do things to improve my reading; if I didn’t understand something, I’d maybe reread it, but then I would go on and just figure I didn’t get it and it’s not worth trying to understand. I now know that there are many, many things that good readers do and fortunately I can help my students to do the same. Within the list of what skilled readers do one of the things is “They know the meaning of many words and, when they don’t automatically recognize the meaning, know how to use context as a clue or word parts such as root words and affixes to discern something”. This ties directly to the Unknown Words Strategy that I did with my students to help them learn to use context clues. Slowly, but surely, we can all help our students learn what to do to become good readers.
Chapter 3 – Subjects Matter – Blog
To this day the thought of having to sit down and read a textbook is stressful for me. Maybe that is why I chose the YA book club and not the professional book club. I feel like I just get so overwhelmed with so much information and struggle with keeping on task and my mind on what I should be reading. When I think about that, I think that if I am a "good" reader and still struggle with reading texts that our struggling or "poor" readers must struggle so much more and must be very intimidated by textbooks.
Throughout my years teaching, I have had the chance to teach out of quite a few textbooks. I have known some to be relatively user friendly, but most are not. It is important though that our students know how to "handle" the text and how to be able to read it for comprehension.
Finally, one statement that did stick out in the chapter was "When we rely upon a single source for all of a course’s content, we are teaching kids to accept one view, one authority; we are saying that it is right to depend upon a single voice, even on complicated, value driven questions." I think this was an amazingly bold and very true statement. If we are teaching students solely from textbooks, we are not teaching them to "think" but are teaching them to just accept one view and not to dig deeper.
Chapter 3- When Kids Can’t Read - Blog
What is the difference between a good reader and a poor reader? In the past if I had asked myself that question, I would probably just say it is the difference between someone who is smart and likes to read and someone who is not very smart and probably does not like to read. I am sure that sounds ridiculous, but growing up, my sister loved to read and was the smart kid and I hated reading and was the “C” kid. I just thought it had to do with ability and achievement. Well, as I look at it now, I understand that it probably was because my sister was a better reader for the fact that she knew how to read better than I did. She had either been taught or had developed on her own, strategies about how to understand what she was reading. I had not. It has been as I have gotten older and have started to actually teach reading and reading strategies, that I have learned a few of them myself and have been able to read more for enjoyment.
The If-Then Chart on page 28 was quite interesting to me. It was interesting to kind of get an idea about how to help these students understand their text better and how to decipher exactly what their problem area in reading is. It was also interesting to see the list of dependent reading behaviors and when we say a kid can’t read, what that might mean. Being able to break that information down to know exactly what the specific problem is, is by far the best way to determine how to build an instructional plan that will help the student to become a better reader.
Subjects Matter - Chapter 3
From page 46 - "The problem is that buying these $70 textbooks for every kid gobbles up the whole instructional materials budget, and squeezes out the possibility of buying anything else. How can we pay for Fast Food Nation, subscribe to the newspaper, sign up for Science News, or build classroom libraries, when all the dough goes for textbooks?"
I love this quote. Too much reliance is placed on textbooks that don't promote reading much less a deep knowledge of the particular content being taught. I really think every teacher should have a class set of textbooks, and we should use the rest of the textbook budget to buy more authentic, student-friendly resources. Every teacher needs to have a classroom library of some type.
When Kids Can't Read - Chapter 3
Pages 24-26, "When we say a student can't read, that might mean he or she ..." There's a whole list of specific reading skills list on those three pages. I think we should share and explain these with our entire faculty. Most high school kids can read if you are talking about pronouncing or calling out the words on a page. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Most of our students struggle with skills related to making meaning out of those words on the page. We all need to be more specific when we say a student can't read, and I think this list is a great place to start.
Chapter 3: When Kids Can’t Read
P. 28, If – Then Chart is awesome! Every teacher needs a copy of this chart to assess needs and adapt to those assessments. It reminds me to slow down and think about what the student needs, not trying to finish the unit because I have to. I also liked the section on what good readers do (p. 34-35). I always have thought of myself as a good reader and forget that not everyone understand what they read. They can read the words, but they don’t necessarily understand or connect the words into a meaningful thought. This idea was brought home (literally) to me when my son began 1st grade. I think he should be a great reader because I am an English teacher, but he is truly struggling with the concept. This confuses and frustrates me sometimes. I have to stop, think, evaluate, and break it down to myself what he needs from me – not as Mommy – but as a teacher. He is not just struggling with new words, he is forgetting to connect the words into a complete thought, so we work on summarizing the sentence and making connections. I hope this will help him in the future, but right now he is completely frustrated and “angry” with reading.
Chapter 3: Subjects Matter
The best line in the chapter for me is “Perhaps now it is clearer than ever why we must change not just how we teach reading, but what we ask kids to read.” (p.47) Textbooks are ok to start with, but never to use as the only source of information. My experiences with textbooks have all been negative. I have never had problems reading them, but man were they boring! My idea of textbooks when I was in high school was that the information was obviously accurate and true – wow! Was I wrong! I agree with everything Daniels and Zemelman say in this chapter: they are hard to read, badly designed, etc. Students who can barely read are frustrated and just give up when they have to read from the textbook. They get frustrated because they don’t understand and that negative mentality moves with them through all the grade levels and all their classes. Textbooks have to change. They have to adapt to society and what is important now and use that information in the books: interesting, true facts, and relevant information that teenagers will be able to connect with and understand.
Subject Matters
Chap. 3
When I began reading this chapter, I was drawn to the comments in the second paragraph concerning the weight of textbooks. Both my son and daughter carry book bags that are way too heavy for them. Half of the time, my children don’t even open their textbooks. In fact, I haven’t seen my daughter open her algebra book at all this year; instead she is constantly using a workbook. My question, why does she have the textbook in the first place?
I have had the pleasure/misfortune (call it what you will) to be on a textbook adoption committee in another district. This is a MAJOR job for anyone who has the opportunity to do this. On page 36, it says that the “content-area textbooks are treasured asset”. But I have watched books be purchased in all curriculum areas and then sit them on the shelf unused for the remainder of the year. I agree with the text that there are certain subjects that are a spiral and others that are a pyramid. As a special area teacher who has taught from K4-12, I know for a fact that my curriculum is based on what previous grade level teachers have taught them.
On page 46, the author discusses the cost of textbooks. My son has spent around $500 on his freshman college textbooks and that is only for 1 semester. Why do colleges require students to pay such high prices for books on top of their high tuition prices? Our districts spend thousands of dollars for books each year and yet some books remain in our bookrooms or on the shelves. I agree with the text on page 46, that in order to free up money for other materials, a class set should be bought for each teacher.
In my opinion all classroom teachers need to have the availability to use the state adopted series for their district, as well as, supplemental materials from other resources. By using other materials in the classroom, maybe our non-readers will be more interested in their everyday academics.
Why Kids Can’t Read
Chap. 3
As a special area teacher who uses reading everyday in my classroom, I have been frustrated over the years as to why many students can’t read. While working on my master’s degree, I had the opportunity to work with LD resource students and later with LD self-contained students. I have never had difficulty reading and neither has my children, so I was amazed at how hard reading was for these students. Like the students in the examples, the LD students had various disabilities---decoding, comprehension, etc. I had the good fortune of working with 2 wonderful LD teachers who set up instructional plans like the one on page 27 and who were able to share with me some of the strategies like the ones on page 28. This has enabled me to work with my students through the years and help all of my students from SET to AP understand and read the text of music, as well as, the musical score.
Chapter3
When Kids Can't Read
When I was fresh out of college and was put in a classroom full of the lowest level students I relied on my textbook as a lifeline...until I realized that the kids could not read and there were so many errors in the books. As I grew as a professional I much like Christy, thought the English teachers were teaching the kids the reading skills and I had absolutely no training in how to do this. As many classes as I took I never saw a list like Beers put in chapter 3 of what specific things ALL teachers could work into their curriculum to help the students read the materials we put before them.
I loved the list of dependent reading behaviors and the "What George Can't Do" and the solution "What I Will Do" because unfortunately I too could relate to the letter the author wrote in chapter three to George. I also found very helpful the question posed from the list of things good readers do as an answer to one student's question, "I need to know what I am doing that's good." For good readers it does seem to come naturally but as the author points out reading is an active process (p. 35) and therefore it is imparative that the specific problem of the poor reader be identified and improved upon.
Chapter 3
Subjects Matter
As an experienced teacher I agree with the author that textbooks should be a resource among many texts used in your classrooms. In history our textbooks are notorious for being long and boring and often lack relevance to the students' lives when they sit down to read them on occasion. I agree with Zemelman that the textbooks cover too many topics and don't develop any of them very well (p.39). In order to combat the author's contention that textbooks contain inconsiderate or unfriendly text we as teachers must use text books as a supplemental material and create our own curriculum using many primary documents and alternate forms of assessment.
I do fear that the strain of teaching to the standards gets teachers away from teaching their students important content while teaching them to think about what they read/write. Then the students actually learning to think and therefore testing well becomes lost in the notion of covering the standards through the handy-dandy state adopted textbook. In that case where is the joy in teaching or learning?
Chapter 3 Subjects Matter
I’m sitting here a week before our portfolios are due, and I cannot believe that I passed up a chance to criticize textbooks. When the English department adopted McDougal Littell’s Elements of Literature, I was impressed that they supplied class sets so students could take their books home and leave them there until the end of the semester. The first year I taught from the text, I relied heavily on their peripherals, especially the CDs. Their professional readers don’t struggle with pronunciation, they don’t skip words or lines of text, and they don’t stop to complain. On the downside, some of the readers are so monotonous that I find myself struggling to stay awake. I enjoyed using the “packets” supplied for each selection, and I still use selection tests occasionally, but this year I have used texts less and novels more—obviously because of the SCRI course.
McDougall Littell tried to make up for the 25 pound text by supplying Interactive Readers, workbooks designed to guide students with annotations, questions, and graphic organizers. This is the right idea, but I would like to see a workbook for each time period or genre, and I would like to have a few pictures.
Chapter 3 When Kids Can’t Read
Beers writes on page 38 that the goal of reading is comprehension, and she adds that comprehension is a complex abstract activity. Every day I see confirmation of these statements, and I wish I could help each student find his or her comfort zone. I have seen “miracles” this year, though. I’ve used read alouds more often, and I’ve had students draw more often, too. This morning Ms. McNair asked me to take Ms. Johnson’s students to the commons to read “Speak.” Ms. Webb’s student aide passed out books, and she accompanied us to the commons. Students were supposed to read silently, but this would have been impossible considering all of the distractions there. I asked students to work in groups and to take turns reading aloud. I sat with a group of three female students. One said she enjoyed reading aloud, and the other two said they hated reading aloud. I didn’t press at first, and the other student and I took turns reading. I asked one of the other students to read, and of course, she objected. I asked her to talk about why she didn’t like to read aloud. She said, “I hate to mess up words.” I said that no one could read perfectly all the time. She said, “I’m afraid people will laugh at me.” I asked her to look around and see if anyone else was listening to us. I told her that I wouldn’t laugh, and I asked her teammates if they would laugh. I pressed, “If you read one sentence, I won’t ask you to read again.” She read one sentence, and she stopped. No one else read, and she looked up. She shrugged and read the next sentence. Of course, that meant the other female had to try, too. We talked about the images the author created, and I asked them to picture the characters.
I left them and joined another group. In this group of six students, only one female student read. I noticed one young man didn’t have a book, and I handed him my book. He said, “I don’t need the book, I’m listening.” I didn’t object. The student across from him said, “I don’t like this book.” I asked why. He said that he thought the book was boring. I asked him what boring meant. He said that he just couldn’t get into it. I told him that he needed to give the book a chance. I asked him to read the first twenty-five pages before he gave up on the book. He agreed reluctantly. Now I have to check with them all week to see how they’re doing. Success.
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