Okay it's not exactly a fortune but every time I sit down and read Readicide I start thinking about the books I read when I was young and how I want to share them with my students and the next thing I know I'm on Amazon ordering books. I ordered 14 last week and just ordered 8 more. I can't help it; I started my love of reading as a child and want to pass that love on to everyone. I grew up in the country, so far away from town that we never went to the library. My first experience with books was with the Bookmobile (I know you young people have no idea what that is). The Bookmobile was a small portable library that went around the county with maybe 100-200 books to check out. I still remember the first time I saw that many books, I can even remember the smell of the books and how excited I was. I remember the first book I ever checked out and read, Little Black Sambo. I know that is so politically incorrect now but remember this was rural Georgia in 1962 that we are talking about. Oh and I didn't order Little Black Sambo to put in my classroom library; I'm not even sure if it's in print anymore.
I had an interesting experience at school this week. I teach 6th grade math and when I give a test I let the students read when they are finished. I don't care what they read, as long as they read. My assistant principal came into my classroom and wanted to know what the students were doing. I told him and he admonished me for not having them doing math work. He said that I should have something math related for them to do while they waited for everybody to finish the test. I tried to explain to him how I felt it was important to give them time to read but......they will be doing math worksheet now when they finish a test.
I liked the part in the chapter about how less fortunate children have limited prior knowledge and reading is a good way to narrow the gap. I think I'll use that on the assistant principal next time I talk to him. I was also amazed at a quote in the podcast I listened to that said that the best SAT preparation was reading literature aloud to students. After thinking about it, I can see how that is true. There are words that we know when we hear them but would not recognize them in print. If the students listen to the teacher read and follow along in the book, it should help them recognize unfamiliar words. Also, who doesn't enjoy being read to?
We do have reading time every Friday for 30 minutes at our school and I got caught reading with the students and was told that I needed to be up moving around making sure the students were on-task. It was interesting reading in Readicide that a teacher should practice SSR when the students are doing it to set a good example. I love my school and don't mean to talk badly about it, but it's funny sometimes the mistakes that are made.
Last thing, I like the article of the week idea. I have some kids that never watch the news and never, never read a newspaper or magazine other than People or Sports Illustrated so I think the article of the week would be great for them. I will ask permission though before I try to implement it.
Okay I'm tired of writing and have lots more homework so that's it for now. Hope I didn't bore you too much. Kenny
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Random Thoughts about Class, Kids, and my Life as a New Teacher
*** Read these and take them with a grain of salt. I am a new teacher (less than 2 months experience) ***
I listened to a podcast about closing the literacy achievement gap through culturally responsive instruction tonight. The podcast was by Kathy Au and it was fairly interesting, but made me think of more questions than it answered. How can we, as teachers, recognize the many different cultures in our classroom and then alter the lessons to work with these many cultures in a timely manner. It seems to me that by the time you really get to know your students, the year is over and you get another group of kids. I guess we just do the best that we can and hope that we don't mess up a kid too badly.
I'm taking a class on Teaching of Reading in the Content Areas (that's what this blog is for) and the reading we have done so far is interesting, but I'm still having a difficult time figuring out how to teach reading in a 6th grade math class. The most the kids read is a 2 or 3 sentence word problem and some of them are having a hard time doing that. I've tried to tell them to draw pictures after they read to help them understand the problems but most of them ignore the advice and miss the problems because they can't understand what they are reading. I am going to try to think of more ways to incorporate more reading into my class and any suggestions would be appreciated.
Once a week my school gives the kids 30 minutes to read a book in class. They have to read an approved library book and take a test at the end of each book. This is supposed to be their 'pleasure reading'. I do not agree with this at all. When kids are told what to read, they do not enjoy the experience and I think it sours them on reading at an early age. One of our books talks about letting kids decide what to read. Let them read comic books, joke books, magazines, or newspapers. Let kids learn the joy of reading by letting them read something they enjoy for 30 minutes a week. That's my 'if I were King' speech for today.
One of our books talks about grouping students for peer learning. It talks about grouping kids with diverse abilities and skills into groups with each other and changing groups often for different activities so that the groups don't become stale. Okay, I'm going to say something now and I'll probably take a lot of grief for it, but....I agree with the concept of tracking. I don't think that kids should be completely segregated by ability, but I think that it is easier for the teacher to tailor lesson plans if a class is composed of students with abilities that are similar. Okay, I said it, let the beatings begin (just remember that I am a new teacher and my opinions change daily). I do like the idea of grouping kids of different cultural backgrounds and skills together in groups. I think that it promotes awareness and acceptance of differences. I do run into problems with the same kids in a group doing all of the work. Even if I assign roles for the group, it seems like the 'smart kid' in the group ends up with more input and more responsibility for the final product of the group.
One of our books talks about reflective teaching. I try to practice reflective teaching every day. I teach the same lesson to 4 very diverse classes throughout the day and after every day, and every class, I think about how effective I was and what changes I can make to get the point across better to my next class. I am a new teacher and I am constantly thinking about what I've done and how I could have done it better.
Okay, I think that's all for tonight. I have 102 papers to grade before tomorrow (quick feedback for the students) and it's getting late. Feel free to respond, but be gentle. Remember, I'm new at this and I need all the help I can get. Thanks.
I listened to a podcast about closing the literacy achievement gap through culturally responsive instruction tonight. The podcast was by Kathy Au and it was fairly interesting, but made me think of more questions than it answered. How can we, as teachers, recognize the many different cultures in our classroom and then alter the lessons to work with these many cultures in a timely manner. It seems to me that by the time you really get to know your students, the year is over and you get another group of kids. I guess we just do the best that we can and hope that we don't mess up a kid too badly.
I'm taking a class on Teaching of Reading in the Content Areas (that's what this blog is for) and the reading we have done so far is interesting, but I'm still having a difficult time figuring out how to teach reading in a 6th grade math class. The most the kids read is a 2 or 3 sentence word problem and some of them are having a hard time doing that. I've tried to tell them to draw pictures after they read to help them understand the problems but most of them ignore the advice and miss the problems because they can't understand what they are reading. I am going to try to think of more ways to incorporate more reading into my class and any suggestions would be appreciated.
Once a week my school gives the kids 30 minutes to read a book in class. They have to read an approved library book and take a test at the end of each book. This is supposed to be their 'pleasure reading'. I do not agree with this at all. When kids are told what to read, they do not enjoy the experience and I think it sours them on reading at an early age. One of our books talks about letting kids decide what to read. Let them read comic books, joke books, magazines, or newspapers. Let kids learn the joy of reading by letting them read something they enjoy for 30 minutes a week. That's my 'if I were King' speech for today.
One of our books talks about grouping students for peer learning. It talks about grouping kids with diverse abilities and skills into groups with each other and changing groups often for different activities so that the groups don't become stale. Okay, I'm going to say something now and I'll probably take a lot of grief for it, but....I agree with the concept of tracking. I don't think that kids should be completely segregated by ability, but I think that it is easier for the teacher to tailor lesson plans if a class is composed of students with abilities that are similar. Okay, I said it, let the beatings begin (just remember that I am a new teacher and my opinions change daily). I do like the idea of grouping kids of different cultural backgrounds and skills together in groups. I think that it promotes awareness and acceptance of differences. I do run into problems with the same kids in a group doing all of the work. Even if I assign roles for the group, it seems like the 'smart kid' in the group ends up with more input and more responsibility for the final product of the group.
One of our books talks about reflective teaching. I try to practice reflective teaching every day. I teach the same lesson to 4 very diverse classes throughout the day and after every day, and every class, I think about how effective I was and what changes I can make to get the point across better to my next class. I am a new teacher and I am constantly thinking about what I've done and how I could have done it better.
Okay, I think that's all for tonight. I have 102 papers to grade before tomorrow (quick feedback for the students) and it's getting late. Feel free to respond, but be gentle. Remember, I'm new at this and I need all the help I can get. Thanks.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
And So It Begins
I am a 53 year old beginning teacher. This blog will chronicle my experiences in my Masters class on teaching Reading in Content Area.
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