Appleman, D., & Graves, M. (2012). Reading better, reading smarter: Designing literature lessons for adolescents. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Beers, G. (n.d.). When kids can't read, what teachers can do: A guide for teachers, 6-12.
Gallagher, K. (2009). Readicide, Finding the sweet spot (pp.90-109). Portland, ME: Stenhouse.Milner, J., Milner, L., & Mitchell, J. (2012). Bridging English. (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.
Styslinger, M., Ware, J., Bell, C., & Barrett, J. (2014). What Matters: Meeting Content Goals through Teaching Cognitive Reading Strategies with Canonical Texts. English Journal, 103(4), 53-61.
Finding the Right Balance (between personal response, formal analysis, critical synthesis, strategic reading, and teaching vocabulary)
Say:
The Readicide article starts with mentioning Atwell and how she encourages teachers to come out from behind their desk and model for the students--to be a mentor that writes, reads, and listens with the students. If I have learned anything from these articles, I swear that it's the importance of modeling in the classroom. The article mentions how you don't necessarily have to help someone read Harry Potter, the real challenge comes from not "over teaching" or killing canonical texts (Gallagher 91). I spent little time thinking about the value of having assigned, nationwide texts--they can create a cultural foundation of literacy and understanding for many, and in addition "rigor [with challenging texts] is not avoided"(92).
I enjoy the idea of the saying "lousy classic" being an oxymoron. The canonical works have value, even if students who read them take nothing from them. If that happens, it's the teacher's fault. This is why Gallagher argues that instead of pushing students to like the books as much as we may like them, to instead get them to take something from it--to leave the page with a connection or understanding not previously had. The argument behind this was the museum analogy, students may not think of the texts as fun, but with a connection and understanding of the texts, they can have a more enriched life (but not that's not to say to forget about the beauty in the written word).
How do we prevent Readicide? Frame it in a way the students can understand, whether that be with the vocabulary, context, or discussions and connections. Remember the value in re-reading something. Thinking from Reader Response--the text has no meaning without the reader, and your student's (and yours) may change. model confusion and scaffold them into the big chunks by working on little chunks together. When discussion or tackling little chunks, dont be afraid to read with a pencil in order to annotate (or to show this verbally can work).
"If you want to kill the love of reading in a student, plant innumerable stop signs in the text that will require the student to examine his reading processes at each stop."(106).
There are an immense amount of ways to bring the larger texts to a relatable place for students. The examples of visualization through drawing (with the Crucible), reader response, discussion and isolating imagery (with Gatsby), and even modeling how to connect to texts by illustrating a cold-reading and live response to the student's books.
"Did students transfer strategies to other areas of reading and life?" (Styslinger 59).
We can't force students to ask questions if they have no questions. As teachers, we can oversaturate strategies. I've already noticed a few times in my internship when I'm reading aloud to the class or attempting to help with a question that I can pause too frequently in order to question or verbally visualize. "Some students just want to move on with the reading"(59). Also, I'm learning that it's important and valid for students to connect not just to the text, but to be able to read other forms of text and media that exist in the world around them. If we as teachers claim to want to instill critical thinking skills, we must realize where the majority of students' effort is going to go.
A big thing that has been pushed in this program is the importance of pushing the students to read more than one text at one time. This allows teachers to teach and illustrate multiple strategies without bogging one particular text down with too many different strategies. As i'm learning, students are even better multi-taskers than me--perhaps this is due in part to technologies impact on the modern adolescent.
Milner and Milner believe that we're currently stuck at and instructional crossroads between New Criticism and Reader Response. I'm hoping that there is a happy ending for both. Formal analysis is something that I need to come to see as not and "end in itself but as a way of enriching and deepening one's growing interpretation" (Milner 142).
"If students have some to care about literature (reader response) and to communicate with each other about it (interpretive community), their deepening thoughts and their curiosity will ideally drive them to question form. You should be ready for that" (144).
Review of the Beer's and Appleman's texts was nice, as I felt like i was getting strategy after strategy. Anticipation Guides, KWLs, Probable Passage, Tea Party, etc. I was reminded, again, of this great reflection "The more we frontload knowledge of a text and help them become actively involved in constructing meaning prior to reading, the more engaged they are likely to be as they read the text" (Beers 101). During Reading: Saying Something, ReTelling, Think Aloud, DEJS, Bookmarks, Post Its, Character Bulletin Boards, Syntax Surgery, and Signal Words. "If you aren't thinking it, you aren't reading it" (137). Scales, Somebody Wanted But So, Retellings, Texts Reformations, It Says-I Say, and Save The Last Word were the after reading/extended stratagies for review. Some "students more than others need activities that bring the invisible process of comprehending to the visible level, these...help readers 'get it' throughout the entire reading process" (175).
Vocabulary was a new beast this week. Beers says that educators know that we should be teaching it somehow, but don't really understand the best way, so we end up defaulting on the ways that we we often taught. This is very dangerous and something i've noticed already in my internships--something that i'm actively fighting (with the help of Beers and company).
"Apart from the [vocabulary book], I'm not sure where the kids would ever see these words again. maybe thats's the problem" (180).
Beers goes on to discuss the experiment with the vocabulary lessons and how teachers in the past have tried multiple forms of drilling and study, but the best way to get them to the students was having the teachers study them and use them naturally in the classroom setting in everyday conversation. Read Alouds are important in their own right as well. I had a rule growing up to never think less of anyone who mispronounced an unusual word, because that more than likely meant that they had only read or seen that word and never heard it properly pronounce in everyday use. In the shortest of short,
"Effective vocabulary instruction means students use words they learn" (183).
Do:
So, even though it's a less important part of the learning process, it's part of the holistic language approach, and I enjoy teaching and learning new vocabulary, so the new section from Beers was refreshing in a way--to know that there is a effective and fun way to help kids learn new words.
I enjoy the thought of having some sort of vaculary or word wall or tree. They are more than likely targeted toward younger learners, but I think that students of all ages can benefit from them.
Latin wasn't taught at my school, but my English teacher had weekly roots, prefixes, and suffixes lessons. These are the most powerful thing that I have in my arsenal today, and despite flirting with them being near a sub-skills frame, I am a believer in the teaching them. I am also a believer in organically teaching them in context.
I took some ideas from Milner and Milner for min-lessons about Intertextuality and thinking (again) about the rhetorical triangle while mixing in genre for a halloween fun. I've been focusing on writing for the majority of my Internship placement and I want to bring a little reading and discussion into the class before I change placements The below ideas I plan to use as community building journal and discussion exercises.
Fun Mini Lessons from M&M
The Readicide article starts with mentioning Atwell and how she encourages teachers to come out from behind their desk and model for the students--to be a mentor that writes, reads, and listens with the students. If I have learned anything from these articles, I swear that it's the importance of modeling in the classroom. The article mentions how you don't necessarily have to help someone read Harry Potter, the real challenge comes from not "over teaching" or killing canonical texts (Gallagher 91). I spent little time thinking about the value of having assigned, nationwide texts--they can create a cultural foundation of literacy and understanding for many, and in addition "rigor [with challenging texts] is not avoided"(92).
I enjoy the idea of the saying "lousy classic" being an oxymoron. The canonical works have value, even if students who read them take nothing from them. If that happens, it's the teacher's fault. This is why Gallagher argues that instead of pushing students to like the books as much as we may like them, to instead get them to take something from it--to leave the page with a connection or understanding not previously had. The argument behind this was the museum analogy, students may not think of the texts as fun, but with a connection and understanding of the texts, they can have a more enriched life (but not that's not to say to forget about the beauty in the written word).
How do we prevent Readicide? Frame it in a way the students can understand, whether that be with the vocabulary, context, or discussions and connections. Remember the value in re-reading something. Thinking from Reader Response--the text has no meaning without the reader, and your student's (and yours) may change. model confusion and scaffold them into the big chunks by working on little chunks together. When discussion or tackling little chunks, dont be afraid to read with a pencil in order to annotate (or to show this verbally can work).
"If you want to kill the love of reading in a student, plant innumerable stop signs in the text that will require the student to examine his reading processes at each stop."(106).
There are an immense amount of ways to bring the larger texts to a relatable place for students. The examples of visualization through drawing (with the Crucible), reader response, discussion and isolating imagery (with Gatsby), and even modeling how to connect to texts by illustrating a cold-reading and live response to the student's books.
"Did students transfer strategies to other areas of reading and life?" (Styslinger 59).
We can't force students to ask questions if they have no questions. As teachers, we can oversaturate strategies. I've already noticed a few times in my internship when I'm reading aloud to the class or attempting to help with a question that I can pause too frequently in order to question or verbally visualize. "Some students just want to move on with the reading"(59). Also, I'm learning that it's important and valid for students to connect not just to the text, but to be able to read other forms of text and media that exist in the world around them. If we as teachers claim to want to instill critical thinking skills, we must realize where the majority of students' effort is going to go.
A big thing that has been pushed in this program is the importance of pushing the students to read more than one text at one time. This allows teachers to teach and illustrate multiple strategies without bogging one particular text down with too many different strategies. As i'm learning, students are even better multi-taskers than me--perhaps this is due in part to technologies impact on the modern adolescent.
Milner and Milner believe that we're currently stuck at and instructional crossroads between New Criticism and Reader Response. I'm hoping that there is a happy ending for both. Formal analysis is something that I need to come to see as not and "end in itself but as a way of enriching and deepening one's growing interpretation" (Milner 142).
"If students have some to care about literature (reader response) and to communicate with each other about it (interpretive community), their deepening thoughts and their curiosity will ideally drive them to question form. You should be ready for that" (144).
Review of the Beer's and Appleman's texts was nice, as I felt like i was getting strategy after strategy. Anticipation Guides, KWLs, Probable Passage, Tea Party, etc. I was reminded, again, of this great reflection "The more we frontload knowledge of a text and help them become actively involved in constructing meaning prior to reading, the more engaged they are likely to be as they read the text" (Beers 101). During Reading: Saying Something, ReTelling, Think Aloud, DEJS, Bookmarks, Post Its, Character Bulletin Boards, Syntax Surgery, and Signal Words. "If you aren't thinking it, you aren't reading it" (137). Scales, Somebody Wanted But So, Retellings, Texts Reformations, It Says-I Say, and Save The Last Word were the after reading/extended stratagies for review. Some "students more than others need activities that bring the invisible process of comprehending to the visible level, these...help readers 'get it' throughout the entire reading process" (175).
Vocabulary was a new beast this week. Beers says that educators know that we should be teaching it somehow, but don't really understand the best way, so we end up defaulting on the ways that we we often taught. This is very dangerous and something i've noticed already in my internships--something that i'm actively fighting (with the help of Beers and company).
"Apart from the [vocabulary book], I'm not sure where the kids would ever see these words again. maybe thats's the problem" (180).
Beers goes on to discuss the experiment with the vocabulary lessons and how teachers in the past have tried multiple forms of drilling and study, but the best way to get them to the students was having the teachers study them and use them naturally in the classroom setting in everyday conversation. Read Alouds are important in their own right as well. I had a rule growing up to never think less of anyone who mispronounced an unusual word, because that more than likely meant that they had only read or seen that word and never heard it properly pronounce in everyday use. In the shortest of short,
"Effective vocabulary instruction means students use words they learn" (183).
Do:
I enjoy the thought of having some sort of vaculary or word wall or tree. They are more than likely targeted toward younger learners, but I think that students of all ages can benefit from them.
Latin wasn't taught at my school, but my English teacher had weekly roots, prefixes, and suffixes lessons. These are the most powerful thing that I have in my arsenal today, and despite flirting with them being near a sub-skills frame, I am a believer in the teaching them. I am also a believer in organically teaching them in context.
I took some ideas from Milner and Milner for min-lessons about Intertextuality and thinking (again) about the rhetorical triangle while mixing in genre for a halloween fun. I've been focusing on writing for the majority of my Internship placement and I want to bring a little reading and discussion into the class before I change placements The below ideas I plan to use as community building journal and discussion exercises.
Fun Mini Lessons from M&M
Julian,
ReplyDeleteI agree that vocabulary instruction is not an area that is well developed within many high school English classrooms. I have often struggled with vocabulary instruction throughout my years of teaching. I started trying to emulate what my own teachers did with vocabulary when I was in high school. However, with the students that I was working with on a daily basis this was not effective. Giving them a list of vocabulary words to learn and be tested on was not helpful to anyone. I have found that using vocabulary strategies within the context of a text or writing is more effective. As Beers mentions having the vocabulary terms arise naturally within the classroom and used by the teacher in conversation is a more effective way of getting vocabulary to students.
Have you ever thought of using some Stephen King stories for part of the genre for Halloween? Stephen King does have a pop up children's picture book.
Thank you for noticing and noting the new reading around vocabulary--one more area of instruction we need to teach, but not overteach. Just like reading strategies, reading as process, reader response, formal analysis, and critical synthesis (from last week)--how do we find the right balance between it all? I can also hear you still tussling between whether to teach the canon or not--so many decisions we have to make in less than a year?? All I want for you to accomplish this year is to consider the options and the possibilities--like your list of methods above. Keep all of this in mind for now and enjoy the learning and "not knowing," As we talked about in class Monday, so much will depend upon the red wheelbarrow--the students you are given, the district where you decide to teach, the classes you are asked to teach. So for now, keep collecting the ideas and living a bit in uncertainty.
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