Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Readicide: Chapter 3
Ok, I totally believe in the the Kill a Reader Casserole! I hated when teachers would rip apart something beautiful and turn it into boring worksheets. But here's the thing....I want to keep my job. I'm not sure how well "stupid book" reading would go over to administration. I read all the time. It is my hobby. However, I do not enjoy reading for class (other than this book, which I happen to really like----shocking). But where this book is lacking (to me) is giving a more practical way to allow some of it's tid-bits to happen in a real classroom. I only get my kids for 50 minutes (and this is on days that we don't have an assembly or the sports team leaves early. So basically, I don't see where I can incorporate 20 minutes of "fun" reading in my classroom. Sure, it builds vocabulary, but I can only get away with that line for so long. Furthermore, I have learned through summer reading books, that Sparknotes and movies or utilized more often than the actual book. Implementation....what can we do?
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5 comments:
Remember, Gallagher is a LA teacher. Teaching reading is something that he does in his classroom. We do want you to keep your job. What is something your students need to know about reading in YOUR discipline? How can you help scaffold them to more challenging disciplinary text? Think about the text you needed to read in your college courses. How can you help your students get there? In this way, they will be learning your content and you will be developing their literacy.
Kristin,
Yes, maybe 20 minutes is too much in the classroom, but waht about a daily reading journal where tey log in at least 20-30 min. a day on ANYTHING they've read that day and turn it in at the end of the week? I get my struggling college students to do this and they are amazed to discover how much reading they do or don't do! Gallagher is right in that, as LA teachers, we teach the deeper stuff, terminology, etc. and may bore the daylights out of some -so let them read on their own, finding texts they find interesting, but make them responsible for it- make them own it!
I used to think it was useless to read in the classroom but I am changing my opinion. It has worked well in small doses. I am lucky our school is on a block schedule where we have more time to do these things.
I like Eve's idea. I think it isn't something you can do everyday so maybe you let them keep a journal and turn it in and/or you could do "fun reading" on Friday's or a day that you think there might be an assembly. This would be something everyone could do whether they are in the classroom or not in the classroom. It would be a good "assembly" day kind of thing too. If you are like me, it gets on my nerves when 1 class gets 1 or 2 days behind b/c of an assembly or whatever. It is much easier to keep them all together. You could let them "fun read" on some of these kind of days as a means to get them reading but keeping your classes all together.
I like Eve's suggestion as well. A reading journal would help to build their vocabulary and allow for that fun reading. I know I hate worksheets as well and reducing literature to rote drill learning. Sometimes it is hard to stay away from that kind of teaching. But with some creative learning tasks (that of course take loads of time to plan) we can help our students to become more interested in the subject. Finding that balance between "fun" stuff and academic learning is difficult.
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