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 It's part of a teacher's job to help students learn to read--books from the English canon, historical documents, scientific articles, mathematics word problems-- and to opt out by saying "well, that's not my area" is at once very very lazy and very very cowardly.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!
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea of spicing up the materials in the classroom. As college students we may be able to handle just reading, I sometimes feel like I do not have the stamina to continue, so I would imagine high schoolers feel it even worse! Your youtube videos are great! I feel like there are so many outlets to teach history and the presidents video would definitely be a good intro. This is video a history teacher of mine used to introduce propaganda for WWII. Check it out, it could eb useful in your classroom!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn20oXFrxxg
Hi Emily,
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see how closely you pondered Chapter Eleven, this is an excellent analysis. I agree that music and videos can be a great (and humorous) memorization tool. In my discipline, I would love for students to grasp poetry through song, to ultimately transition them to reading and interpreting written poetry.
Your final paragraph hits the right note and I can see that you will make an excellent teacher: "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." Short, sweet, and to the point, we cannot spoon feed the answers to students. I really, really want my students to be able to make inferences out of the literature. The videos you provided will be a great tool at providing prior knowledge ("I remember hearing about Cleopatra on that video we were shown").
Much like Amanda your post had me thinking of (I'm sure you've heard of it) but the Crash Course History Channel on Youtube. The title says it all, not only is it animated, but narrated by John Green. I know people have a love/hate relationship with John Green but you can't deny his intelligence, personally I find the videos to be useful and fun. Of course, they may have some mistakes, but I would imagine most history videos do as well. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9
I agree very much with what you said about needing to have students able to think for themselves and to give them what they need to search for answers on their own. The Internet has made searching for ideas and spreading ideas so much easier. However some students are going to be better at it than others due to their access to technology. So by giving them a place to practice we can help them to be more motivated so that they want to get themselves to the libraries and learn new things. Then to have their eyes opened to all the different ideas that are across the Internet, they can form opinions on so many more topics than they may have been aware of in their community.
ReplyDeleteI agree very much with what you said about needing to have students able to think for themselves and to give them what they need to search for answers on their own. The Internet has made searching for ideas and spreading ideas so much easier. However some students are going to be better at it than others due to their access to technology. So by giving them a place to practice we can help them to be more motivated so that they want to get themselves to the libraries and learn new things. Then to have their eyes opened to all the different ideas that are across the Internet, they can form opinions on so many more topics than they may have been aware of in their community.
ReplyDeleteHi Emily,
ReplyDeleteI love the Pinky and the Brain video: I actually have a good portion of that song memorized. I love, though, that you already have some of the tools that you can use in your class to solve some of the potential problems you could be facing. I think I agree with you that college students CAN do only reading, but I still think it's valuable in any learning environment to have a variety of types of texts. Imagine sitting through a conference speech where someone just talked at you for 45 minutes, with no visual and no handouts: you'd have a very hard time remembering what happened. I think the passage that you picked out is an important one, too: I've seen this often in practice. Students are told what to look for, and so reading becomes a chore and a word search.
As always, a great blog post.