Readicide Post

Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide book is something that all future (and current) teachers need to read. Today, we have an alarmingly high number of students who do not want to read. In fact, if students were given the choice, they would probably prefer to go to the doctor or the dentist rather than ever looking at something that they have to read. We are teaching students that all they need to do is pass a standardized test to reflect their intelligence, and sending them off into the world with no ability to perform literary tasks. We are doing it to ourselves, and if we do not correct how we teach reading now, then the future looks bleak.

I remember when I was younger, that I didn’t like to read. I would rather have had my teeth pulled out than to pick up anything to read. It wasn’t until I was in middle school that I found a love of reading, and since then I haven’t wanted to stop. Sure, there were some setbacks from teachers and professors who wanted to talk about books to death, or an excessive amount of reading material that needed to be completed in a short period that made me take a break from reading. But I always come back because I love to read.

Right now, we are killing students drive to read. And we need to stop. We need to go back to the practices of having students being held accountable for their reading, and cultivate their desire to continue to read. Students need to have materials that they are interested in, and they do not need to be taught just how to pass a test. If students are being taught the right way, then they will be given the tools to pass tests without being taught to the test. We need to help our students because we are not doing them any favors with them not having to read. 

I Read It, But I Don’t Get It Post

It can be so frustrating for people when they do not understand something. It is even more discouraging when a person thinks that they will never gain that understanding. I remember when I was younger, I struggled with reading. I couldn’t remember what was important from the overall story, and I would get so bogged down that I almost gave up reading all together, and this was by the age of ten. I would get so frustrated when I would read a chapter book, and I couldn’t make sense of what was happening. I wasn’t engaged and I faked reading, a lot.

It wasn’t until I was in middle school that I became a better reader. I was in the seventh grade, and we had to pick a book to read during reading time, and I decided to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. As I was reading that book, I read slowly, and I discovered that when I took my time I could better visualize what was happening in the book. I stopped fake reading and I became interested in reading books. I found a love of reading, and I found a love in literature.

Cris Tovani’s I Read It, But I Don’t Get It gave so many helpful tips to help improve student’s reading comprehension. What I really liked was the section on connecting new information to what a student already knows. If a student can find something that they relate to in their reading, I think it can make the reading more personal to them and increase their interest in the material. Not only do the connections increase student interest, but it also increases the comprehension for the readers. If a reader can make a connection, then they are more likely to remember the information.

Cris Tovani made me understand why I had reading struggles when I was younger, and with reading this book, I think I will be able to help my future students who struggle with reading as well. 

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom post

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom gives very insightful tips for when teaching in an Urban school district. I loved how this paper emphasized the need to give students reading materials that will challenge their critical thinking skills and make them analyze texts. I also liked how they chose literary texts that students can experience through a different lens, and look at the texts from different perspectives of those who were involved within the piece. I think it is so critical for students to experience these old texts where they should explore the different themes that they may not be familiar with.

All students are entitled to an equal education, but that is not always the case. The difference between poor schools and rich schools are drastic when compared to the materials and the resources that are available. Schools in urban school districts for the most part do not have access to the new materials and textbooks available because these schools are usually underfunded and have limited resources. I don’t think that it is very fair for students in urban areas to have to suffer such inequalities that they have to go through, but what was presented in this article really gave great ideas on how students can be inspired to go above what they have available to them and excel academically.

I liked the unit that compared contemporary hip-hop music with canonical poetry texts. It was very beneficial for the students to see how in both they use literary techniques in the different styles of texts. Because hip-hop culture was so important to the students in the class, they could incorporate something that they were interested in into the curriculum and they were able to make those connections to what they know to something new and unexpected. 

PAULO FREIRE: CHAPTER 2 OF PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED post

In so many of my past classes, I have had teachers and professors use their lecturing time as a chance to speak from their soap boxes. They tried to paint the world as they saw it without taking into consideration how their students felt about their opinions or how their students saw the world. For many of those classes, I felt that I was being talked at, and I wasn’t active in the learning process. Needless to say, in those classes, I did not learn much and I felt that they were very much so a waste of my time. And I know that I am not alone in feeling that way.

What’s worse is when teachers spit out facts and expect us to remember them without any context. I can remember that “Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492” because of the rhyme we had to memorize in elementary school, but the historical aspect of Columbus’ journey is lost on me because it was never taught in context, there was no “why” explanation to fill the void and to do this day I have very little recollection on Columbus’ journey, other than the fact it was during 1492.

The classes where I learned the most were in classes where the teacher was active in the learning process; we as a class thought, and experimented, and hypothesized, and analyzed together. It wasn’t just a one-sided experience. We all learned from each other, and I always did better because they were engaging and insightful. In those classes, I found a love of learning. I hope that I will be able to instill that same kind of practices into my future classroom. As a future teacher, I hope that I will be able to learn with my students and be surprised every day. I want to continue to be a learner and not just a lecturer at a podium.

Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning Post

Learning literature is more than just being able to regurgitate information about the text, the author, or the literary elements that are being used. While knowing that information is helpful to comprehending texts, I think it is more important to be able to demonstrate your thinking about how you tried to understand a text. What were the questions that you asked about a complicated text? How did you think critically about the text to gain better understanding of the text? How did you demonstrate your thinking? Did you write down your thoughts on the text? Did you make comparisons between similar ideas or thoughts presented in other examples? How did you demonstrate that you knew what the text was trying to say?

I think it is important, when trying to learn literature, to put texts into context for students. If a student knows the period when the piece was written and the historical connections in a text, they are already one step further than students who just read the text and answer questions on a test. Students need to read texts slowly, pausing to think about the text and what it is trying to say and then express their ideas and interpretations on a text, and how they came to those conclusions. I really like informal writing when trying to understand a text; I ask questions when I am confused about an idea, and then look further in the text to see if I can find the answers. I also like class discussions because discussions are a great way to get other students input on texts, and see how they interpreted an idea presented in the text. Discussions can be insightful and add clarity to texts, and they can also present different interpretations that one might not have thought of themselves.

There are multiple ways to demonstrate ones understanding of literature, and so many different assessments that teachers can use to gauge student comprehension. I personally think that using a variety of assessments is better to gauge a student’s understanding and challenge their thinking than just sticking with the same routine of reading and taking a test. I want my students to be able to think critically, analyze texts, and demonstrate their ideas and interpretations in more than one medium because I think it will help make them better learners.