While reading D&Z chapter 11, there were a few topics
that really caught my attention. I found it interesting that struggling readers
don’t see what is happening in the text until a considerable amount of
discussion brings the picture into focus. I think as individuals, it is easy to
take our reading skills for granted and disregard those who are struggling.
This is because when we read, we see the picture, and we believe everyone else
does. This is where teachers are gifted! Teachers are able to understand that in
order to help students understand and learn from the tasks we assign them, we
must work with their reading process. If they aren’t seeing the picture, we
must paint it for them. In order to help them, D&Z propose key strategies
for helping struggling readers on page 281.
I especially liked these key strategies for helping
struggling readers. At the beginning I understood the idea of supporting
readers and pushing them to succeed, but I was questioning “How?” I think these
are great strategies and definitely something to keep in mind because we are
all going to have struggling readers. It is enough to help them through the
text, but it will mean so much more if we incorporate these strategies. One
word I have been seeing a lot is the word “model.” D&Z have definitely
stressed this idea of modeling throughout various chapters in their book
(including this one… specifically modeling thoughtful reading). But, I am
finally understanding why… especially from observing these last few weeks and
being in the classroom. Students like to see that you are performing and doing
what you expect them to do. My cooperating teacher was teaching a lesson on
annual parallax (the difference in position of a star as seen from Earth).
There is a little demonstration you can perform to help drive home this idea of
annual parallax. You have the students hold their hand out in front of them
(making a fist) with their thumb sticking upwards. Have them close one eye and
focus on an object in the background. Then, ask them to switch their focus
between eyes (so now they close the one that was open and open the one that was
closed). What they should see is a shift in the location of their thumb in
relationship to the background object they were focusing on. At first the kids felt embarrassed to
sit there with their hand stretched out in front of them, but when they saw the
teacher doing it, they joined in.
Believe it or not, modeling occurred to me one morning
during my observations. Regardless of where I am and what I am doing, if the
pledge of allegiance or the national anthem is to be sung, I stand up in
respect for my country. However, this particular day, during my observations, I
felt I NEEDED to more than ever. I thought “Wow… I’m really becoming a
teacher!” For some reason I felt obligated to model this behavior. It really
seems silly that I felt I had to model the pledge of allegiance, but if I
expected them to participate, then I had to too. I’ve noticed this is something I have been getting better at
as I progress through my studies, and I never realized how important modeling is
to students.
D&Z focused on modeling thoughtful reading in this
particular chapter. The idea is for teaching to help struggling students by
modeling their own mental processes as they read rather than throwing them to
the wolves, so to say. One strategy proposed in chapter 5 was this idea of
using “think-alouds,” where teachers go through their thinking as they read a
passage in the text or a word problem. Eventually, the students grew familiar
with this kind of thinking, and when asked to perform think-alouds on their own,
they used the same kinds of inner dialogue. This goes to show how powerful
modeling can actually be!
Anyway, I apologize for the rant on modeling, but it is
something I have been thinking about extensively. Another topic I liked in
chapter 11 was the idea of building engagement with the text. I liked how Jeff
Wilhelm did this by incorporating drama and drawing in his classroom, and I
also liked the idea of taped books. However, I think taped books would benefit
middle school students much better than it would benefit high school students.
Hi Alisha :) This idea of expert readers taking for granted the skills that they do subconsciously is an important one - even though I have been exposed to this idea and done some thinking about what I might be taking for granted in my own reading strategies, I was still surprised to hear that some struggling readers have trouble picturing what they are reading - this is definitely a skill I take fro granted b/c I just assumed that it was something people naturally did. When it comes to teaching such a skill, I think this is where modeling comes in handy - instead of just telling a student to picture things in their mind, you can do a "think-aloud" and share what you are picturing as you read . I also think it's important that teachers model things other that thinking strategies and behaviors directly related to a lesson - as you did when you modeled good behavior during the pledge of allegiance. Imagine if you were a student who was scolded by a teacher for not saying the pledge and then the teacher totally disregarded the pledge himself ... if we are asking for certain behaviors from students, we need to model those behaviors - this is part of how we create a safe and respectful learning environment. One last thing - I bet high school students would like books on tape more than you might think :)
ReplyDeleteAlisha, you are right-modeling goes so far beyond teaching reading comprehension skills. If we expect students to do what we ask, then we better be ready to do it right along with them and show them what we expect (this is applicable to academic instruction as well as modeling personal character traits that we want kids to emulate.) We need to move away from the "do as I say, not as I do" mindset, and adopt one like “do as I say, and I’ll show you how by doing it myself.” Also, I agree with Jenna about the audiobooks. If a book includes a particularly advanced list of vocabulary words, audiobooks would make it possible for students to hear the correct pronunciation of the words and use contextual clues of decipher what they mean, instead of having to pause their flow to sound the word out if they are reading it. If they read a word like mellifluous, for instance, they may pronounce it incorrectly in their head. If they hear it pronounced correctly, however, they will not need to pause their thought process as much to understand the word. Also, you can't beat audiobooks in the car. :)
ReplyDeleteHey Alisha,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your “rant” on modeling and how much importance you gave it. I think that modeling is a crucial aspect to educating. Over the summer, I learned how to make handmade wooden fishing lures. I would read books about how to do it and look at designs for creative ideas, but when I tried to make it, it didn’t work. In order to do it properly, I had to watch somebody model how to make one on youtube. Now that I’ve seen it, I can make lures, even if they are really basic right now. This is something that we need to think about with our teaching. Modeling is more than how to balance equations and other content type things. We also need to model things like the pledge of allegiance, which I was the only one around me to recite yesterday morning.
I’m curious about your last statement about taped books being better for middle school students rather than high school students; why do you think this? I think both age groups would like to listen to books fairly equally because it’s different than what they are used to. Struggling reader may find it easier and more enjoyable also.