Every now and then I’ll hear a bit of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon radio while running errands on a Saturday morning. While I don’t enjoy it as much as Car Talk I do appreciate its humor. I always chuckle at the opening line about Lake Wobegon.where “all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." That sentiment seems to be pervasive when we compare ourselves to other. I do, I’m guessing you do it and I think we do it with our school. Raise your hand if you were shocked when IH didn’t make AYP. We were oh so close, but close doesn’t cut it. Since then I’ve been doing some reading on reading instruction and have come across some interesting resources. I will continue to add them to this blog as I find them.
So why didn’t we make AYP? I don’t know all the answers but I think I have some clues. The students we teach today aren’t the ones we taught even five years ago. Almost fifteen years ago I was a 5th grade teacher and I took pride in my reading instruction. I did literature groups and facilitated some great higher level, thoughtful discussions. Knowing how to read wasn’t any issue for these kids…they were almost all avid readers. Those who weren’t were still very literate and never struggled with the above grade level texts I presented them with. I don’t think I could teach the same way today….I certainly couldn’t two years ago when I did a one year stint in 4th grade. It was first year teaching that I had students that struggled with more than just higher level questioning….rather than struggled with basic comprehension and making sense of text. I did my best, but still don’t know if I did all that I could to advance their reading skills. I did leveled books from our guided reading library but the work of keeping 4 or 5 different books moving forward and incorporating all the skills/indicators the state mandates was a bit of a strain and I honestly don’t know what help I was. I know that the students did enjoy the small group with each other and their teacher. If I were back in the classroom again I think I would take some special education classes to better prepare myself for the varied types of learners we face each day. I would need to learn new ways to teach to make myself as effective to all the learners as possible. The old ways aren’t bad…I would just need to be able to build upon the new ways as well. I came across a great quote this weekend (from the 4th grade slump article below) addressing the 4th grade slump seen across the nation. He talked about the transition that all students need to make from learning how to read to learning from our reading. He said we just can’t assume they get it. I just assumed they “got it”. I was so focused on the skills/indicators that I fear I was overlooking bigger issues. Don’t assume it, probe and find out about their reading. Reading is basically a foreign language…it is a made up system. We are wired to speak from birth, but we need to learn to read. We need to take the little squiggles on the page and make meaning from them. For many learners it will be the hardest learning they ever do in their life.
So why didn’t we make AYP? I don’t know all the answers but I think I have some clues. The students we teach today aren’t the ones we taught even five years ago. Almost fifteen years ago I was a 5th grade teacher and I took pride in my reading instruction. I did literature groups and facilitated some great higher level, thoughtful discussions. Knowing how to read wasn’t any issue for these kids…they were almost all avid readers. Those who weren’t were still very literate and never struggled with the above grade level texts I presented them with. I don’t think I could teach the same way today….I certainly couldn’t two years ago when I did a one year stint in 4th grade. It was first year teaching that I had students that struggled with more than just higher level questioning….rather than struggled with basic comprehension and making sense of text. I did my best, but still don’t know if I did all that I could to advance their reading skills. I did leveled books from our guided reading library but the work of keeping 4 or 5 different books moving forward and incorporating all the skills/indicators the state mandates was a bit of a strain and I honestly don’t know what help I was. I know that the students did enjoy the small group with each other and their teacher. If I were back in the classroom again I think I would take some special education classes to better prepare myself for the varied types of learners we face each day. I would need to learn new ways to teach to make myself as effective to all the learners as possible. The old ways aren’t bad…I would just need to be able to build upon the new ways as well. I came across a great quote this weekend (from the 4th grade slump article below) addressing the 4th grade slump seen across the nation. He talked about the transition that all students need to make from learning how to read to learning from our reading. He said we just can’t assume they get it. I just assumed they “got it”. I was so focused on the skills/indicators that I fear I was overlooking bigger issues. Don’t assume it, probe and find out about their reading. Reading is basically a foreign language…it is a made up system. We are wired to speak from birth, but we need to learn to read. We need to take the little squiggles on the page and make meaning from them. For many learners it will be the hardest learning they ever do in their life. image from: carlala0817 on flickr
No comments:
Post a Comment