I wasn't assigned a specific chapter, so I just have some scattered commentary to make, i.e. what else is new.
Useful Things
What I really liked about this book were all the ways to actually employ his methods that Gallagher included. Theories and teaching philosophies are nice and all, but I don't have a whole lot of time to "be inspired" and then "create best practices" right now. Sad but true. I especially liked the "Big Chunk / Little Chunk" philosophy, and his explanation of exactly how to employ it. (Pgs. 99-102)
I've used this practice before, redirecting students to reread parts that I (as teacher) know are especially relevant, and / or may be useful to papers I intend them to write or tests that lurk in the future. Plus, they are the "best" parts - most beautiful, emotive, inspiring, or "just plain good," and therefore, worth a second look.
On Pgs. 104-106, I also found his list of strategies "adult" readers intuitively use that kids do not always know to employ (so, things we should be teaching) quite useful. It's nothing we haven't considered / discussed before at the CWP, but it's cohesive and pretty damn thorough, and I thought one way I could use it in my classroom would be to post such a list for students to refer to as "entries into texts" when they get stuck.
Or if they come up to me and say "I don't get it" and I say "what part" and they say "All of it" I could pick something on the list and have them try it out. "Well, why don't you use #4 on the first paragraph and give it another shot? Come back and let me know how it went."
Idea I'll Be Stealing
Appendix A (a list of book for "Reluctant Readers" or any student looking for something new / extra to get into) is something I've always MEANT to do and something both my students AND their parents ask me for every year. I resolve to hereby steal Gallagher's list, and add my picks to it.
The way he included one small sentence summarizing each book and broke them down into topical categories is also very smart and user-friendly. And I haven't read some of these titles, so if I ever get a free moment...
A Point I Can't Get Out of My Head
The Death of SSR, from Pgs. 42-45. I can't EVER remember having time for SSR in English class in ANY school I've ever attended. It was employed in Social Studies, Math and Science, but then only as punishments or when we had "bookwork" to do and questions to turn in at the end of the period. Frankly, I would've LOVED to have SSR even for "assigned books."
Of course, I loved to read, period. But so often, I know my students who DON'T necessarily love to read but DO the class reading anyway shoot me emails at 9 o'clock at night, after their clubs and sports are finally over and they are getting to my assigned reading to ask questions about characters, situations, and sometimes even vocabulary.
But, if I gave them time in-class, maybe these questions could be answered then, leaving them time at night to take the knowledge acquired in the reading and the clarifying and apply that to the writing that goes with it... Or, maybe they'd really get more "into" the book knowing they were in a roomful of people all reading the same thing as themselves... Maybe discussions would spring up later-on in the lunchroom, about whether or not you'd ever be friends with Holden Caulfield, or the Haitian-American immigrant experience, or the parallels between Othello's rise and that of Obama's (and who his Iago may yet be - that Biden is quiet, too quiet).
It's a lofty dream.
You know what I end up thinking though? I find myself wondering just what would happen, if I wrote in my lesson-plans (which I have to submit to my department head and administrator on a weekly basis) "Today in class, students will read silently to themselves from Ch. 1." I am willing to bet I'd be told this is a waste of a period.
Especially as I was so recently told, when seen carrying a copy of Readicide - "Oh, that book? There's nothing new in there. And frankly, I found the woman who wrote it just plain irritating." No, there was no typo in that sentence.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
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I think you should plan "reading days." I started doing it this year and it is honestly the best thing I have ever done. And, I'm talking about my 10-2 classes, not my AP kids. So maybe you'll have to employ some creative wording in your lesson plans, but I don't think anyone will catch on! My kids know that once a week they have to come in, sit down and read whatever book it is we're reading. There's no other assignment. The one rule is you have to stay awake! I have had so many kids finsh books before schedule and go to the media center to get something else for reading days. At first I think they were just excited to not have questions or a worksheet to do, but now many of them really seem to enjoy reading. Ok, so maybe half of them, but hey it's something!
ReplyDeleteFunny that you mention reading days...
ReplyDeleteFor my 9-2 participating in Lit Studies groups, I ask them to read for the first 20 minutes of class. I took some of the "sentence starters" from the On-Pager appendix (as well as some of my own), renamed the "paragraph starters" and glued 2 on the everyside of a block. Each day, after their reading, they have to address any side of the block and write. Still feeling the need to assess them on something, I thought it was a good compromise. They are really getting into the books.
I have to admit Kate, I had the same thought about SSR. I remember it being a newly introduced concept in 8th grade (for about a month), but SSR was never really enforced in any of my schooling. As a high school teacher who only gets 48 minutes with my students a day, I have a hard time finding the extra few minutes to give my students that opportunity. Not to mention, when I do, I am usually met with groans and excuses for why they prefer to read at home. Trying to find a balance is difficult, especially with all of the other benchmarks we have to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteI have definitely gotten more into the habit of allowing students to read in class. (I even hate that I just used the term "allow" as if I am some power-that-be who should determine whether a child can get lost in a world of reading or not.)
ReplyDeleteThat said, at our school, we are looking to redesign the high school experience and create a new schedule to suit our students' needs and to promote what we value most. Gallagher raised such a good point in Chapter 1 about asking ourselves what our curriculum suggests we value. Certainly not reading, not in most cases, at least. Now he's got me thinking... how can we create a schedule that demonstrates WE VALUE READING?
And I'll just give one more quick shout out to our College Reading class at our high school. All students do is read for 48 minutes each day + 20 pages per night. Kids enter the class as reluctant readers and our job as the teacher is to help them reignite that spark that they, no doubt, had at one point in their life. What a cool experience!
I've been doing SSR since year three; it is the best thing that happens in my class. I can tie in every single skill I teach to what they are reading. Sure we have "class books," but every single reading experience doesn't need to be a class book. This teaches them to articulate, summarize, discuss main ideas, explain themselves better (since nobody else in the room knows about the book they're reading or the point they are making) and be clear and concise when writing, since they have only 10 minutes to write. If anyone questioned my judgement, I would show them the pages and pages of evidence that shows the benefits of reading, including increased brain development similar to the type of development that happens in year 0-5. And if that isn't enough, I would create smoke and mirrors. And if I get caught, I would go somewhere else. It is that important.
ReplyDelete