Adults always stressed to me how important reading was and I never understood why. I also didn't really care. As a child, I was all about doing what I wanted to do, when I wanted. So how does someone communicate the importance of reading, without ordering the child? The truth is I have no idea. All of my amazing teachers never really explained why I was required to have leisure reading time. They also didn't explain why they assigned my leisurely reading material. Why should a teacher tell me that I can't chose my own book (as long as it is an appropriate reading level)?
I believe that my early education was damaged. I loved all my teachers, but by forcing me to read/ read material I did not want to, made me hate reading and books for most of my early education. Within the last few years I have really started to grasp reading for leisure. I will tell you that when you find a good book, there really is nothing like it. However, to all you future teachers out there, please find better teaching strategies and make reading fun!
Ann S.- What a great post! Thank you for being so open and honest about your struggles with reading, I know that can be hard, so brava, totally!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading and I always have, so it is hard for me to relate to your experience on that level. And I feel that I am SO lucky that this was the case for me! But I know it is a struggle for teachers to find interesting, relevant, fun literature that can help us relate to set curriculum as I may have mentioned in class. As I may have mentioned in previous classes, I was a summer school teacher's aid this year in Detroit Public Schools. DPS has a set summer school curriculum for both language arts and mathematics. The curriculum had 6 weeks of different themes, from Wild Animals to Drumbeats to Giants, we had a single picture book that we read from all week and supplemental magazine that the students read from all week. We also had a Teacher's guide and work books. Snooze-fest.
The set curriculum was very assuming. Assuming, in that, it assumed a skill level that many of my 2nd graders were not on par with. I had a lot of English Language Learners who did not have the skills necessary to do a lot of the set activities from the program. This made them feel defeated and they lost interest in a curriculum I was REQUIRED to teach from. It was extremely frustrating.
I want to make reading fun and exciting, I want my students to pick up books outside of the classroom to drive their curiosities and imagination. But when you have that set curriculum, it can be really difficult. Given the chance to do it again, I would have loved to dropped the entire curriculum and taught to their interests every day. But I know and feel that is unrealistic.
I had a similar experience with literature growing up. I did not learn to read until second grade and being the struggling reader in the class was not fun. I hated when the time of year came around for the reading proficiency tests as I was always below what the normal level was. I think I struggled with reading so much because it was not something that I enjoyed to do. If my teachers had spent time working with me and finding books that I really really wanted to read then maybe I would have had more of a drive to learn. I am going into Elementary Education and I hope that none of my students have bad experiences with literature. I want to learn how to bring literature into my classroom in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteI completely understand where you are coming from as far as being forced to read for leisure-- doesn't seem to exactly match up. In my elementary school we had to post in our reading log I think 30 minutes a night and then were rewarded for the number of books we read. We used to have a star chart up in the classroom for every book we completed and it was made into a sort of contest or motivation so people would want to read more and be at the head of the class. In theory this is a good idea and I am very competitive, but thought there was a huge disconnect because we got a star for an easy picture book just the same as we received a star for a chapter book. Because of this, so many kids in the class just wanted to get stars so they would spend all of their time reading the easiest, shortest books they could. There were others who didn't want to read the little books so they read longer, chapter books that challenged their reading level but on the board it appeared they were slacking. I understand that all kids may not enjoy reading, but as teachers we need to make it relative and fun for the kids.. if that means throwing in a contest, great; but we need to make sure we are challenging their minds and reading levels and not just rewarding them for completion.
ReplyDelete