I enjoyed this chapter in the book because I liked what the teacher Steph did with her sixth grade class. I love when middle school teachers read to their classes because I think it keeps them interested and attentive. I also loved that she gave them insight into her own childhood comparing it to the book she was reading. No matter what age, students love to hear about their teacher’s experiences and lives. She modeled how when you read a book it is beneficial to connect it to your own life because you are “more apt to engage in the reading as well as understand it” (page 12). Engaging in the text is extremely important because I know from experience that if you are not interested in what you are reading, your mind wanders. I often find myself reading a page in a textbook while thinking about a million other things. When I finish the page I have no idea what I just read. It is so easy to think about other things while you’re reading, which is why visualizing and connection to the book is crucial.
I also liked the section that talks about how much pressure teachers are under. Between performance, curriculums, standards, standardized tests, and so on, it seems so easy to lose track of what is important. This is one of the fears I have with becoming a teacher. I’m worried about all the pressure that is put on teachers. It is a huge responsibility to teach a classroom of students all the things they need to be knowledgeable and successful in their next year of schooling and if life. However, the pressure builds when standardized test scores are used to reflect the teacher. This reminded me of the article that I posted last week about the school in the Bronx. The school’s low test scores put them under the watchful eye of the Department of Education, yet the fact that the students’ were achieving much more in school and were gaining much success compared to year before was ignore.
I want to be the teacher who encourages active literacy in the classroom. The book states that classrooms with active literacy “burst with enthusiastic and engaged learners” (page 16) where teachers and students weigh in with opinions, examples, and ideas (page 16). I want to promote dialogue in my classroom, even in the younger grades. I think that conversations are extremely important because kids learn from each other’s questions, thoughts, and ideas.
I too have goals of being a teacher who encourages active literacy in my classroom. One of the most difficult challenges of being a teacher is keeping your students engaged and interested. I think that having students contribute their opinions, examples and ideas is a great way to keep them engaged in the classroom. At the elementary level, children love to talk about themselves; their main concern is themselves. They are rarely focused on other things that have nothing to do with them (unless a classmate is getting in trouble). To keep them engaged, have a child talk about their own experiences and interests; it always works.
ReplyDeleteKristen, I feel like self-interest plays a large part in active engagement and motivation. Students should have some choice in class material that is covered. I feel like choice provides the opportunity for students to relate to the material because they picked it. Responding to Marilyn's post, one of my challenges for teaching that I am really nervous about is keeping students interested and engaged. I feel like once a student's interest is gone, they are gone.
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