Right now in my placement literacy is being integrated into many different parts of the curriculum because of the fact that the students are in the process of learning to read for information. During the day it is very easy to see all of the areas that literacy is being used. Every morning the students are given a worksheet or short book to read and answer questions about, during social studies they have to read their book either silently or as a group, they have silent reading after recess, and they are always working on some sort of report where they are required to look for information and then right a paper about their topic.
Although I think it is great that there is this much literacy being used throughout the day, after reading the articles for this week, I find some of these things problematic. For example, the Langer article describes how students only being asked to look for the right answer after reading can limit their thought process and not allow them to think deeper about the concepts. This is something that happens a lot in my placement. The students read and then they have to answer questions that either have a right or wrong answer, they are never given the chance to think deeper about what they just read. The Leland article described how when students are given easy books with no deeper meaning they then develop a dysfunctional view of what literacy is for and what it can do. Children should been given books that have controversial topics and questions that allow and encourage them to think outside of the box.
In order to keep literacy integrated into all of the subjects like my CT is doing, but to also allow for them to gain a deeper understanding about what they are reading there a few easy things that I could think to change. One thing relates to an issue the students were learning about during social students. While learning about the regions one of the topics was on oil and whether or not is is safe to drill in certain places. The students read in their book about the pros and cons and there was also a section about sending a letter to a member of congress stating your opinion. The students read this section of the book, answered a few questions and were done. What I would have had the students do instead would have been to discuss these pros and cons, come up with a stance (individually or as a group) have them go on the computers and look up members of congress, show them example of letters they could right, and then actually have them write a letter themselves. This way they are taking a controversial topic, getting a deeper meaning of it, and doing something about it while using all different modes of literacy.
I'm curious to know, what grade are you in?? I think that because the teacher is forcing the students to read a book almost every morning and answers questions on it, it is taking away the pleasure that reading is supposed to bring to someone when reading. I know that when I was younger and the teacher forced us to read something and answer questions on it, I would just look for the questions and then quit reading. I always just skimmed the book because I hated having to read just to find some answers. This made me very against books because I was so use to just finding an "answer" rather than reading for the enjoyment and information found within the pages. I think your CT needs to do something about that so that he/she does not cause the students to hate reading. In my class the students never answer questions regarding novels and books they read, instead they are able to silently read purely for enjoyment.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your idea about writing a letter to a member of congress because it allows the students to express their own opinion and really dig deeper in the readings done during class. I think that all too often teachers believe that answering questions about a text is enough and they can just move on after. But children need to engage more and really dig deeper to get a firm grasp on the content. Teachers need to start pushing their students instead of allowing them to just graze the surface.
I am placed in a 4th grade classroom. I agree about how it is not pleasurable for the students to always have to answer questions, I definitely think there could be some easy changes to the lesson plans that could eliminate this issue. And the students do have silent reading every day after recess where they are able to chose their own book to read at their own pace, without the hassel of having to answer questions afterwords.
ReplyDeleteRight when you mentioned the Langer article about reading just to find the answers it brought back many memories of what I and almost all the other students would do when we were given this task. When students are asked to find the correct answer within the text it involves no type of deep thinking, but specifically skimming the text to look for key words, finding the correct answer, and writing it down. Many of my 4th graders do this on a daily basis because the teacher will hand them a worksheet, they look for the answers, and they're finished. I don’t think this is acceptable at all. Like Katie said, the students need to be able to get a firm grasp on the content. I know in my placement the CT gives them at least 20 minutes every day to read a book they chose, and only about 1-2 of the students are actually fully engaged in reading at this time. Many times I've asked the students to read, or grab a new book that will be more interesting, but it seems like the same negative routine every day.
ReplyDeleteI liked your social studies idea about the oil drilling topic.. I feel as if many teachers rely on worksheets and pre-planned lessons for their teaching, but really, many of these lessons may need to be altered to best fit the student’s needs. Like you said, the students read about the pros and cons, answered a few questions, and they were finished. I'm glad you noticed that the best thing to do would be to elaborate more on the topic, and get them more engaged to understand the content better.
I'm in a 4th grade classroom as well and my teacher puts a very strong emphasis on reading/literacy. Every morning the students have "reading workshop" where they are allowed to do anything that involves reading or writing such as finish their weekly journal entry (the teacher gives students a new prompt or emotion to write about every week), review spelling words, silently read, or if it's their literature circles day to meet then they meet in the back of the room with either me or my CT. After reading the Langer article like you mentioned, I was transported back in time to when I was in elementary school and would simply skim the book/text looking for key words that were in the question I was suppose to answer. By skimming, I was reading for a purpose which was to answer the question instead of reading to learn or for pure enjoyment. One thing my CT does that I think is very helpful when it comes to challenging students, is that her classroom library is very organized with baskets and each basket is given a letter A-Z. The books are then separated into their correct basket by reading level and each student knows what level (or letter) basket they should be pulling books from. This ensures that each student is being challenged, but are still reading to their correct level. My CT never inquires about these "free choice" books because they are purely meant for pleasure which I think is nice.
ReplyDeleteHowever on the other hand, my CT asks the students very probing questions when it's their groups turn to meet for literature circles. This past week, I led the highest reading level literature circle and we first read the short story together then I had them find a spot on the floor and read it again with a partner. While reading it a second time, I had them mark in their reading journals places where they had questions, where they needed to make inferences, and where they did/didn't feel sympathy for characters. I think this helps students make deeper connections but at the same time these deep connections need to be made throughout the curriculum like you mentioned earlier, not just in language arts.