The title of the book that I have chosen to read this summer is Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms by R. Schoenbach, C. Greenleaf, C. Cziko and L. Hurwitz. These women are two classroom teachers and two senior staff members of a research and professional development project called the Strategic Literacy Initiative. http://www.wested.org/cs/ra/print/docs/ra/home.htm
The goal of the authors in writing this work is to “give readers a new way to think about teaching reading in all subject area classes. (p. xviii)
The intended audience for the work is middle and high school classroom teachers who are interested in improving their students’ ability to read materials ranging from textbooks to Web pages to novels, and increasing students’ interest in reading on their own. So, if you fit into that category, “Come on down!” This book’s for you.
This work is a case study of research done in a classroom in an inner-city location along the west coast. The result of this research is documented in these pages. The work:
Provides a framework for thinking about teaching reading that is clear and powerful, and adaptable across the middle and high school curriculum.
Provides teachers with a concrete description of the key ideas and practices of a reading apprenticeship approach in a variety of classrooms.
Provides practical ideas regarding curriculum, staffing, professional development, materials, assessment, and school politics for educators interested in adapting the approaches described.
Encourages others to adapt and extend the ideas presented and join in an ongoing dialogue about successful practices for developing stronger readers in middle and high school. (p. xvi) (Just what we are trying to do!)
On a personal note, I teach history, science, and literature. I have noticed a pattern over the last six years or so, in all three classes, that students seem to be arriving at my doorstep less and less prepared/able/willing to read the assigned materials. I am excited about what I have read in this book and look forward to implementing the strategies in my classroom. I hope that I will be able to pass on the ideas that are presented in this work so that other middle and high school instructors will be able to implement them with their students. I do believe that what I have learned will be applicable in my classroom and yours. We all have materials that our students need to read and students who will not or cannot read them. I am very hopeful that it will make a difference for our students.
In my next blog I will begin to assess the work according to framing questions of our class.
Until then,
Penny
The goal of the authors in writing this work is to “give readers a new way to think about teaching reading in all subject area classes. (p. xviii)
The intended audience for the work is middle and high school classroom teachers who are interested in improving their students’ ability to read materials ranging from textbooks to Web pages to novels, and increasing students’ interest in reading on their own. So, if you fit into that category, “Come on down!” This book’s for you.
This work is a case study of research done in a classroom in an inner-city location along the west coast. The result of this research is documented in these pages. The work:
Provides a framework for thinking about teaching reading that is clear and powerful, and adaptable across the middle and high school curriculum.
Provides teachers with a concrete description of the key ideas and practices of a reading apprenticeship approach in a variety of classrooms.
Provides practical ideas regarding curriculum, staffing, professional development, materials, assessment, and school politics for educators interested in adapting the approaches described.
Encourages others to adapt and extend the ideas presented and join in an ongoing dialogue about successful practices for developing stronger readers in middle and high school. (p. xvi) (Just what we are trying to do!)
On a personal note, I teach history, science, and literature. I have noticed a pattern over the last six years or so, in all three classes, that students seem to be arriving at my doorstep less and less prepared/able/willing to read the assigned materials. I am excited about what I have read in this book and look forward to implementing the strategies in my classroom. I hope that I will be able to pass on the ideas that are presented in this work so that other middle and high school instructors will be able to implement them with their students. I do believe that what I have learned will be applicable in my classroom and yours. We all have materials that our students need to read and students who will not or cannot read them. I am very hopeful that it will make a difference for our students.
In my next blog I will begin to assess the work according to framing questions of our class.
Until then,
Penny
I am reading the same book and I can't wait to hear your comments as you have so much experience working as a teacher. I have not taught in the classroom except as a volunteer with Art in the Schools and Jr. Great Books many years ago, and as a catechist. I found the book fascinating and it seems like their process is so intuitive.
ReplyDeleteSo you siad this in your blog thta concerns me...
ReplyDelete"that students seem to be arriving at my doorstep less and less prepared/able/willing to read the assigned materials." My question is how much of their primary discourse interferes with their learners. And as an educator have you forumaleted any idaes or actions that in your experience you want to try with your students. I ask this so I too can find what works in the class room in an effort to make me be a better teacher. Thank you for a great post. I look forward to your response. A>K>A> Melissa
By the way I love the blog template you choose. It is beautiful and eleoquent. Melissa
ReplyDeleteI bet it is difficult for teachers in the upper grades who have students who may not be proficient readers because the expectation is they will read the provided texts. I think that middle school and high school teachers have to be very flexible and creative to find ways to reach all their students and hope that the book your reading will provide some ideas.
ReplyDeleteSecondary teachers do face the problem of getting students to read stuff they don't want to. I think student resistance is often at the core of students' seeming inability to read school texts. OF course, there are some who are trying and just don't get it, but I wonder what we are doing as a system to produce the kinds of adolescent readers that we see everyday.
ReplyDeletePenny,
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your future blogs on this book. You are so right in the reality that students are not able to and therefore not wanting to read the material assigned.
ellie
Hi Penny,
ReplyDeleteThe whole problem you note of students going into middle school less and less prepared to read the text is interesting. Maryanne Wolf, who wrote the book I am reading "Proust and the Squid" proposes that kids are actually wiring their own brains differently because they are not reading as much traditional text any more which requires deep meandering thought, but instead are reading internet pages and google that doesn't require that same kind of thought...maybe, in part the students' brains are less adapted to the task of reading than they have ever been. There should be an asterisk after this because I am still near the start of the book where Ms. Wolf focuses more on the history of reading; I think she gets into what I just said in more detail, later in the book.