Prompt: Response to readicide. What is the message? What is your reaction? What are your connections to school experiences? What are ways you now understand will help students read more effectively in your discipline?
I thought that Readicide was really interesting. The facts that Kelly Gallagher presented about literacy in adolescents were overwhelming and depressing. Some facts I found really hard to believe, such as the statistic that only 16% of adult readers are "frequent" or "avid" readers. That is unbelieveable to me on so many levels. Plus, he doesn't even define what "frequent" or "avid" is.
I also agreed with what Gallagher said about "teaching to the test" but teaching to a test that is shallow and doesn't test effectively. I know that when I was in school it was all about test-preparation not about reading for content. Learning how to take a multiple choice test is important, but it is not the most important skill that we should be teaching our students. It is NOT the only skill that they will be using after graduation. They will however, need to know how to read for content and read for knowledge and "deep analysis of literary works." I believe that that is more important than knowing how to guess intelligently. In my opinion, the opinion of an awful test taker, standardized tests are horrible measures of student knowledge.
I also agree with Gallagher's opinion and the opinion of several other teachers that educators are overwhelmed with standards and frameworks to teach our students. I also agree that knowing what is expected of good teaching is important to know, but being expected to teach a million standards in one year does lead to "shallow" teaching. There is just no way that we can possibly cover in depth all the standards that are required of us.
As far as my experiences, as a history/poli sci content most teachers skim the surface of the material and do not go in depth on any one topic. However, I can't blame the teachers for this, I in turn blame the states for placing an enormous amount of impossible standards upon the teachers.
I do not have much experience in teaching right now, so I do not know really anyways how to improve reading in my content...let's hope this gets clearer as the student teaching progresses! :)
that's all for now...
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I completely agree with your statement regarding the statistic about adult readers. I also find that very hard to believe. The percentage of readers among my family and friends is quite high. Unless, the old adage is true, that like attracts like... I agree that educators are under a tremondous amount of pressure to teach only to the tests especially considering the amount of material they are expected to cover even before the school year is complete since the tests are given a couple of months before the school year ends. But I also think that unless educators take a stand and work to make changes in a system that doesn't work, then they are as guilty as the people that set the system up. In the meantime, educators can continue to be proactive about their own continuing education and work to make a difference among the students that cross their paths. We can all try to improve our little corner of the world. That kind of change works faster than the systemic change that is needed, but we need to begin somewhere.
ReplyDeleteNicole,
ReplyDeleteI liked what we talked about in class the other day- the idea of having one group of students go deep into one subject, another into another subject and so forth. Then, have the students share that "depth" with each other. So far, that is really the only encouraging strategy I have learned that I feel could help with this tension we will face as teachers needing to teach all the standards.
That is something you could definitely do in your class- have students group into different portions of your content, learn something at a deep level and then share/present it with everyone else. I know how overhwhelming something like "polisci" can be, and I think that could help students who aren't "politically minded". Just a thought!
I think you got to the heart of the issue, Nicole. Do we want to nurture life-long readers or cultivate competent test-takers. When there are high=stakes involved, teachers' jobs and incentive pay, choices that benefit students are not being made. I trust you will find out hso wto support readers in your internship. Look closely at what they are required to read, and how competent they are at reading it.
ReplyDelete