Readicide

Readicide is defined as: the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.

Pretty much everything Kelly Gallagher writes is teacher gold. This book especially, accompanied by Tovani's I Read It, But I Don't Get It are fantastic additions to the every day teacher's arsenal. Gallagher's main point in this book is that perhaps schools and the way reading is taught within them are 'killing' the love of reading within our youth.

Gallagher not only points out the reasons for this decline in reading, but also provides very useful curricular tools to better inspire our students to spend their time reading. I can really relate to what he says about how schools are ruining novels for their students. When teachers try to overanalyze a text before students are engaged in it or finished reading it, when they set unrealistic expectations for the reading time, and when they try to teach the novel by chopping up the book into sections and analyzing it along the way, teachers are taking the most basic reading enjoyment away from students. Even though we may have the best of intentions, if students are reacting negatively to what you are trying to teach them, chances are it's time to switch something up.

In my own internship classroom, we were reading a novel. My students are taking college credit and the ENGL 101 course is taught by a professor at the college. One day, a couple of my students were complaining that the professor hadn't given them enough time to read the novel, and if she ruined it for them that day, chances are they weren't going to read the rest of it at all. I asked them how they would have liked her to do things and they said simply: they would have liked it if she had some simple guided questions after each chapter. Had she made an agreement with students about how long they needed to read and complete the questions, chances are more of them would have been ready to go when it was finally time to analyze the story. They would have been prepared, ready to discuss, and it would have been a much smoother transition from reading to analyzing text.

I think some teachers forget that they don't have to do everything themselves. The cool thing about student-centered learning is that it's about the STUDENT. If you are unsure about how to teach something, or what will work best for your students, you don't have to guess. Ask and you shall receive! Plus, students will feel like you value their feelings, trust them to make decisions and your overall classroom environment will become a more pleasant place.

I Read it, But I Don't Get it

Chris Tovani's I Read It, But I Don't Get It is the piece of text that i've been waiting to read. The art of pretending to read or do classwork is sadly the reality of what students are learning how to do in school, rather than actually learning what we think we are teaching them.

It's crazy to think that even Tovani just about graduated from school not actually have ever read a book. How is it, that students would rather work just as hard to NOT read, than to just simply do the work they are assigned? What is the disconnect between what students want to do and what they are being asked to do? How is it that essential reading skills are not being taught at an early age?

I think the reading course that Tovani teaches would be a great addition to every freshman schedule. The whole time students are making their way through middle school, teachers tell them that the reason they are supposed to be learning certain skills is because they will be expected to know how to do these things in high school. if every freshman class had a class dedicated to reading and comprehension, i believe this would be a highly beneficial tool for all subjects. Reading isn't just for English anymore, and if we were to give students these tools at the beginning of their high school careers, perhaps they would be all around more successful readers. Then they would finally have the tools up front that they will need in order to be successful in high school.

The idea that we need to teach students these essential skills seems so simple, however, we aren't taught how to explicitly teach students how to comprehend what they read. Assuming your students know something is a dangerous habit for teachers. Successful teachers should always be gaining feedback from students and tailoring their lessons towards what students need to continue being successful in years to come.

Overall, I really enjoyed I Read it, But I Don't Get it. I think this book is extremely relevant and I am sure I will be referring to it as a teacher of English.

Individual Exploration; Reclaiming English Education: Rooting Social Justice in Dispositions

Leave it to me to choose an 18 page article to read and annotate for the one blog post where we get to choose it ourselves. Why do I do this to myself? Anyway...

The article I chose to read on the topic of Social Justice in Education was "Reclaiming English Education: Rooting Social Justice in Dispositions". In summary, authors Janet Alsup and sj Miller grapple with the ever changing Social Justice disposition requirement for preservice teacher assessment. "This article attempts to begin this conversation and serve as a call to action for English educators who struggle with the idea of teaching and assessing social justice dispositions" (196).

While it would make sense that student teachers should be assessed on their thoughts about social justice in schools, NCATE recently removed the standard about social justice claiming that it can be condensed under the heading diversity. Our authors were not pleased by this and comment,

"When we see absences of the words social justice, replaced by more politically comfortable or less charged terms such as diversity or even tolerance, we, as English educators who recognize that our students cannot be reduced to essentialist or binary categories, might challenge how social justice is being defined and by whom, as social justice and diversity are not the same" (197).

While Alsup and Miller also acknowledge that a concept such as social justice could be difficult to assess within a preservice teacher's disposition, they do provide solutions which include:  Specific assignment development, observation of specific social justice ideals in the classroom, as well as a social justice specific portfolio. They also make a point to include a rubric for evaluating these nebulous concepts, and give explicit instructions for how to educate to the current standard.

In addition, by drawing attention to acts of injustice in schools Alsup and Miller hope to ground ideals dealing with social justice in the teacher preparation curriculum. For them, it is not simply enough to talk about binary diversity, and lightly touch on practicing teacher's preconceptions about what social justice should mean in the classroom

"By making sure social justice is an inherent and transparent aspect of valued dispositions for English teachers, we enact our belief that preparing English teachers is not only about lesson planning and the Common Core State Standards; It is also about fostering and effectively assessing social justice-inspired dispositions that are the foundation for a critical and equitable education for today's diverse students" (211)

Overall, this was a very enlightening article to read; it was interesting to put myself in the shoes of someone who would be educating myself, and think about the things that I will need to be aware of as I continue to evaluate my own professional disposition.

It is clear that as teachers saying, "we have a big job to do" is an understatement. The success or failure of tomorrow's youth depends on whether or not we are successful at teaching them all that they will need to know in life outside of school. If we fail to teach them about something as important as social justice, or cooperation with peers, or even something as simple as listening or critical thinking skills, the repercussions of that failure could yield immeasurable disparities for our students.

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

This was one of those articles that the moment I received it, wished I could give it back. Luckily, despite the girth of the packet, the content within was worth the time it took to read it. I feel like the content that Duncan-Andrade and Morell chose to teach to their students was exactly the sort of things that every new teacher hopes to employ in their classrooms.

We all know the narrative. Teacher finds him/herself in a low income school that is struggling to give students the essentials to succeed. Crafty and well-to-do as said teacher is, they make due with what they are given and promote a classroom culture that encourages activism and super practical applications. In the end, students not only learn what they needed to in order to move on into college and 'real life' but they made a difference along the way.

I wish it was that easy. What is frustrating for me is that if this is truly a reality for some teachers, why aren't we all given this sort of curriculum to begin with? Why are only a select few students receiving this kind of learning atmosphere? More importantly, why are we not given any curriculum to thumb through at all, good or bad?

As a new teacher that's just burning to get into a classroom of my own, I day-dream of having this sort of success in the classroom every time I am forced to sit through another direct instruction style lecture from yet another professor over the age of 70.

I love how relevant and engaging the units they described seem. The students were not only invested in what their peers were saying, but they actively worked together to discuss issues, rallied together to work towards a common goal and exemplified the sort of young adults we hope are making their way from high school into the community. These students seemed to have one commonality in their classroom culture that I think most teachers fail to cultivate: relevance. For today's modern high school student, they couldn't care less about the things teachers have to say, unless they can directly relate it to the way they see the world works.

Overall, I believe Duncan-Andrade and Morell are really sitting on a concept that has more value to the education system than they could have imagined. If all teachers could foster this type of relevancy in their classrooms, I believe that we would most definitely be graduating students that have a passion for life and tools for real success, rather than young adults that learned how to 'be in school and pass'. As a teacher, I would have a much easier time sleeping at night knowing that this was what I was getting up to facilitate the next day, rather than putting my students to sleep talking their faces off about why they should know how to write a 5-paragraph essay.

Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”:

                The second chapter of Freire's article mainly talks about the 'narrative between subjects and 'patient listening objects' or teachers and students. While I don't think this is necessarily true of all modern classrooms, I know that for a mass majority of students, this is sadly their reality. I myself have sat through countless hours of this type of 'learning'. While it isn't fun, interactive or particularly meaningful in any way, I also didn't know any other way of learning to compare it to either.

            
Freire's solution to perpetuating this unsuccessful 'banker style' of education is to begin actually communicating with students; what a novel idea. "Yet only through communication can human life hold meaning. The teacher's thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the student's thinking. The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them."

Freire suggests that teachers move towards a problem-posing method that allows students to demystify what is happening in their classroom and outside in the 'real world'. This way, students begin to see their education as a practical way to prepare them for the life after graduation. This article is definitely from a Philosophy page, it honestly sounds more like a rant, or a pre-war speech than simply an article talking about the shortcomings of the education system. But in all, I think he had some really powerful things to say, and I found the overall analogy he used to be pretty accurate. 
               
I would hope that teachers who are teaching this way would stumble on a page like this one and finally begin to understand that their students can see how they pry themselves out of bed in the morning, drive to school and slump through the day just to get through so they can wake up and do it all over again the next day. It doesn't make learning fun. It doesn't inspire them to want to succeed in life. And honestly, they are setting an example of laziness, complacency, and more than they're teaching their students about grammar rules, or the second World War, they are teaching them that they don't have to try to be an adult. That's saddening. I hope this new generation of teachers, including myself, will bring with them passion and the common sense to realize that all students want is to be involved in their education process. Students need to learn how to think critically, read efficiently, and think independently. Gone are the days where it sufficed to open their minds simply to be filled with knowledge that they then memorized and regurgitated back to the teacher on a formal test. Today, students need to be involved in their learning. We need to revise the teacher-student contract and create a more democratic classroom. Students deserve a better learning environment, why don't we give it to them?

Standards Based Grading:

I like the overall idea of this article. It is trying to shift from teacher being the dictator, to teacher being the guide. I like this title much better. In less words, why standards based grading? Because it is easier to align the objective with the assessment. This makes grading more accurate, and more meaningful. For students, success will always motivate progress more than failure. That's a given. I like how it gave definitions for what exactly the purpose of grading and report cards are. I also like the idea that report cards shouldn't reflect 0's. This does really mess with a student's overall score and it is very disheartening. I also appreciated the part about basing student's grade on the most recent general trend. If a student wasn't succeeding three weeks ago, but they are by the end of the quarter, shouldn't that be the end result? It shouldn't matter that they didn't get it then, the point is that they get it now! I think that for many students, teachers are not helpers as much as they are authorities. I think that if teachers can make the shift in students' eyes from being obstacles to guides, the educational environment would be a much nicer place.

The part about homework was insightful too. I had teachers in high school who would assign a packet for us to complete at home. We would never have any idea what was on the packet because it was not created by our teacher and didn't reflect what we were learning in class. This was VERY stressful and was a large chunk of our overall grade. I didn't appreciate feeling like I had to carry a backpack full of rocks up a mountain, blindfolded to succeed. Get me? Homework should be practice, or opportunity to continue work already scaffolded in class. That is what is going to help students, not assigning a packet of meaningless work for them to do because you said so.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning:

I really appreciated what the author's had to say here. I liked how they explained how easy it is to keep ourselves on the same page with our students,"we can simply demystify the evaluation process by making explicit your expectations or ground rules" (225). I liked that they view assessment in terms of the 'big picture'. They say how we assess depends on how we view learning literature. It is important for new generations to understand that it is no longer enough to know the difference between metaphor's and simile's. Students must know the difference AND be able to apply each of these concepts. Not only do the authors give examples for alternative style assessments, but they also give you tools that help you devise a rubric if you do choose that style of feedback from your students. There were some really cool tools and examples in this article. I will definitely be referring to this when it's time to start putting together assessments and rubrics for my ED classes. Teachers are essentially polite marauders. We may steal your ideas and tools, but at least we give you credit for their genius.

Assignment Template: California CCSS for English Language Arts and Literacy

I will admit, when I first received this packet I contemplated lighting it on fire because I thought it was going to be a tedious read. Luckily it wasn't too bad. There were parts of it that I liked and found helpful, and others that weren't that useful to me. But overall, not a bad read. 

One part that I found helpful was the key on the left hand side which had the state standards plainly listed that coordinated to each activity. This makes it easy to translate each lesson to the standard and perhaps what other things I could do to achieve the same goal using the template for initial guidance.

I am not sure why students today aren't really being taught how to read actively. They are taught how to read, then it seems like as they get older, the tools to add to their school tool belts just stop coming, and it is assumed that if you can read something, you not only then understand it, but can write about it. This is simply not the case. Many of my students either just don't do the assigned reading because they know they won't get anything out of it, or they will spend two hours rereading to try and squeeze meaning out of something that should have only taken them 30 minutes to annotate/highlight. This is not only frustrating for students, but most often, I like students to have discussions with me about their reading in class, and obviously, if they didn't read, they don't discuss. If there is no discussing, there is no writing, and that's how the nasty cycle gets perpetuated. 

This article provides practical solutions and simple foundation exercises for students to master. The nice thing about writing is that it is so personal. For students who have more trouble writing, they can start at more of an understanding level, where someone who comprehends the article can begin thinking about it more critically and writing about their feelings etc. I really liked the section on critical reading. Teaching students about credibility as well as ethos, pathos and logos can not only serve them in the classroom setting, but also in more practical ways. Being able to determine a solid argument and debunk a non-credible source- especially come election time- is a highly useful skill to have.

Revision of the writing process is also something that I think typically gets skimmed over in most classrooms. Most teachers assume that students know what they mean when they say it's time to 'peer edit' or that their papers need to be written in multiple drafts. That simply isn't the case. Teaching students how to put on a teacher minded hat when they revise can help get students involved and thinking more about grammar, conventions and structure rather than just the content of their own papers. 

Overall, if teachers can adapt to this new standard, we can begin to synchronize it with our individual curriculum and create the best possible content for our students. No matter where they start when they come into our class, templates like this can help provide a foundation of basic skills that can be built on using more fun and creative methods for discovering a lifelong love for reading and writing.