Smokey and the Bandit: Goodbye, So Long, auf Wiedersehen, Goodnight

Aww, it's over all right? But--but it can't be over! When's the next installment?! You can't leave me on a cliffhanger like this, it isn't fair! You two can't pull a George R.R. Martin and disappear for ten years! I need you!

(Half)-Joking aside, I am sort of sad to reach that last page. I'll have to look into their other works as well.

One thing I did learn, though, was always be researching! Look at how many studies these two reference just in one chapter! Education is an always-shifting field, and we need to stay on top of studies and information if we want to stay on top of our game.

Regarding the reading skills: cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural, and critical. Smokey and the Bandit make it sound as though the different styles are mutually exclusive. But why not use a combination of all four? Make it stepping stones! You can't be critical of you read until you learn the cognitive maneuvers of reading and the linguistics of both readers and writers, after all. You don't wake up one morning and start arguing with authors. It takes time to learn those skills--and they are skills that I, a professed skilled reader and questioner of everything under the sun, am still learning myself.

The main gist I took away from this chapter is that reading is like any other skill--it takes practice and commitment and desire to improve. As one research noted, "you can't learn to read from a text you cannot read" and it's true! We need to step away from the idea that reading is an inherent ability (were any of us born knowing how to read? I don't think so, baby Einstein) and focus more on the idea that reading is a fluid skill that takes constant practice and refreshing to improve. There is no such thing as a "dumb" student and I won't have my kids think that way, especially not about themselves.

"EW EW EW EW EW"...was actually the note I wrote when Smokey and the Bandit referred Fifty Shades of Grey as part of the Amazon bestsellers. Disgusting. Although, it did serve the purpose of proving that 'adult readers' are not always 'sophisticated readers'. Seriously, though, I can't believe I just saw that horrifying trainwreck referenced in a textbook I admired. I trusted you two.

So, we teach our students better. We give them the stepping stones to learn so stuff like that doesn't end up on the bestseller list anymore. We give them more credit for what they chose to read and investigate.

Empathy and modeling come up again! Once (and by once I mean "actually an hour ago") I joked about being the "Ian Malcolm of history teachers" but cynicism and bitterness has never actually been my thing. So when Smokey and the Bandit say that we need to engage our kids and that we need to connect with them--model strategies, foster reading communities in the classroom--I believe them and agree with them wholeheartedly. No one wants to be the hum-drum teacher who lectures for fifty minutes and then sends students packing. Why would you want to be?  It can't be any fun, and you're doing a disservice to your students--both those who want to learn and those who need just a little more push. But with empathy and positivity. I think the task of engaging students becomes much easier! So I will not be the Ian Malcolm of History. (Well. Maybe a little. Eccentricity has to count for something).

One final note--I do my very best to stay on the optimistic side of things (that's part of the reason why I'd never make a good Ian Malcolm), but reading over this chapter and really getting the idea that you are responsible for the futures of scores of kids...this is daunting stuff. And I am, quite honestly, nervous. Really, really nervous. Can I do it, day in and day out? Can I fight for my kids when no one else will, find the strength in them that they can't find themselves? Will I be the teacher I want to be? It's easy to sit here and type the words "I can do this", but reality is a harsh mistress...

At any rate, the least I can offer my kids is my best, and hope that it works.

All right, emotional spiel out of the way. Let's end this on a positive note.

It's Alexander HAMilton. Get it? GET IT?

Also, someone buy me this mug:

I need it. For eccentric teacher reasons. 

Smokey and the Bandit 11: The Eyeteeth of the Tiger

Eyeteeth: noun, pl.: "To give something  one considers very precious, usually in exchange for an object or situation one desires".

Look at that, Smokey and the Bandit are making me use reading strategies in my reading--in this case, context clues and looking up the definition. Clever authors. 

Finally! For a while now I've been wondering when we would address the issue of our struggling readers. How do we get those frustrated readers on board with what we're teaching? This is an especially critical issue, given that lot of us teachers never had trouble with reading and writing in school--for a lot of us, I'm sure, reading was a matter of 'clicking', not clunking along. We can empathize with our students a lot of fronts, but there is a definite disconnect between teachers and students when it comes to reading.

When teachers say "I'm a physics teacher, not a reading teacher!" they fail to realize that they are, in fact, both! True, the English teachers may have the bulk of the task when it comes to fostering reading skills, but teachers in any content area have failed if they haven't helped students develop a literacy in their content area. It's part of a teacher's job to help students learn to read--books from the English canon, historical documents, scientific articles, mathematics word problems-- and to opt out by saying "well, that's not my area" is at once very very lazy and very very cowardly.

A number of bits from this chapter stood out to me. First and foremost was to keep a positive tone! If you want to alienate your students and make them dread coming to class, not smiling until December is a good way to do it. If you want to establish a sense of trust and empathy, especially for those struggling students, patience and empathy are the best ways to do so. Students can't learn if they don't receive support and guidance from a teacher. So, put your students at ease: ask them about their day. Make jokes, pay each student a little personal attention. It make take a few minutes away from classtime, but the end results are well worth it.  

I really think spicing up the classroom materials is a vital component of teaching. No one is going to enjoy the class if it's nothing but nonstop reading--as college students, we can do it, but high schoolers don't have the skills or stamina to do what we can. They simply haven't developed those skills to be a critical reader yet, and we can't force their noses to the grindstone--well, we could, but no one would benefit from it.

Struggling readers benefit from different materials--videos, tapes, even songs!--as it helps them connect their stronger visual or auditory skills to their reading skills. Changing up the materials benefits the stronger readers too--I love to read and I devour most historical texts, but there's no way I'd be able to remember the order of the presidents without a little help from Yacko, Wacko, and Dot:

Is it silly? Yes. Does it gloss over a lot of important facts? Yes. But it serves as a neat little introduction, and its certainly more entertaining than being presented with a list of names of dead white men. (And if you're wondering, yes, I still sing this under my breath if I have to remember where a specific president is in line--1850, nifty, Millard Fillmore's in!/Then young and fierce came Franklin Pierce, the man without a chin!)

Without critical reading skills, "...teenagers mindlessly search for answers mechanically, rather than really thinking about what they are reading" (286)--- and that's why I will do whatever it takes to help my students become strong readers. History scholars know better than anyone how easy it is to manipulate a population that doesn't think for itself, that won't or can't search for answers aside from the ones they are spoon-fed. There is a danger inherent in not being able to question what you read, to make inferences about the world around you, to letting someone else give you an answer rather than searching for answers yourself. If we let our students fail, we aren't just failing them--we're failing the future.

And on that grim note, I have one more video for the road:

Through meticulous analysis of history/I will find a way to make the people worship me!