Tuesday, November 21, 2006

What Really Matters: Kids Need to Read a Lot

(Page 36) “More recently we found the volume of reading students did during school to be one of the important differences between children’s experiences in more and less effective classrooms.”
I can’t imagine reading this chapter and not realizing the importance of having students read during school. I’m one who used to think that teachers who had students do independent reading in their classes were just wasting time because they didn’t want to teach, or the teacher had too much other stuff to do, so they had the kids read. (And I realize that is the reason some teachers do independent reading, but if done correctly, it is invaluable.) But the thing is if kids (especially the lower-level ones) don’t read at school, chances are they aren’t going to do it at home either. Some of them just rather do something else at home while others really are too busy to read. (How many of us know kids that work every night to help pay the bills at home? How about the kids who are pretty much in charge of taking care of their siblings?) Many of y’all know that’s one of the things that I miss most about being in the classroom—getting to read for 90 minutes every day with my students. I love to read, and I still have a hard time finding the time once I leave school. By giving students the time to read at school, they can learn the joy of reading while improving their skills simultaneously.

A handful of y’all attended Tim Rasinski’s seminar last week on “Effective Teaching of Reading: From Phonics to Fluency.” On the first page of his handout he had a list of factors that discriminate the highly effective schools and less effective schools in literacy achievement. This was an international study involving over 30 countries. From over fifty factors, numbers two and three on the list were amount of reading done at home and amount of reading done in school. (Number one was parent involvement.) How ‘bout that? It doesn’t matter where in the world you live—reading is the primary thing that will increase a person’s literary achievement. I wonder if that would work in sports? (Excuse the sarcasm.) Do you think if a person practices more they’ll actually improve their athletic skills? Did you know that Michael Jordan didn’t make his high school varsity team? But he went home and PRACTICED and he got better at basketball. (I put that in there just to aggravate you, Pam!) If we give students time to practice reading in school, they will get better at it.

Monday, November 06, 2006

NCTE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform

(Page 8) “…the academic achievement levels of students who are taught by good teachers increase at greater rates that the levels of those who are taught by other teachers…well-prepared teachers raise the achievement of all students, not just those who were already doing well.”
While I don’t necessarily agree with the No Child Left Behind definition of a highly qualified teacher, I do believe agree that it’s the teacher that makes the difference in student learning. Even though my daughter isn’t even close to being in school, I’m all concerned about how I’m going to make sure she has the best teachers once she does go. Sure, I’ll do my job at home, but I don’t know that that can make up for a poor teacher.

So what makes a good teacher a good teacher??? I have my thoughts, but I’d like to read yours first! In addition to the response you planned, please write a little more about what you think the qualities of a good teacher are.


(Page 8) “Without additional training, teachers at the secondary level remain largely unable to take up the task of enhancing adolescent literacy.”

I’m sure all of us took the one required reading course in college, but how many of us can say that that course prepared us for teaching students how to read our course content? Even as a special education teacher, I left school not really knowing how to teach students to read. For my ONE reading course for SpEd certification, it was a K-12 class, and the professor focused on reading at the elementary level because that is what she had taught. I can remember thinking, “If they can say the words, they can understand what they’re reading. How is that any different than listening to someone talk? And how can they get to high school if they can’t say the words?” Oh, my ignorance! It wasn’t until I started taking classes, going to workshops, and hearing the same thing over and over that I began to figure out how to teach my students how to read. I honestly used to think that teachers who did SSR in their classes just wanted to keep the students quiet and not have to do anything else. I can’t imagine teaching resource without SSR now. I thought I was doing a good job in the classroom because my students liked me and I was able to help them get through all of their classes and graduate. But were their skills really any better after they graduated than before? I wish I could get them all back and really teach them!