I found this video to be very powerful. As a high school teacher, I have seen several students who were well below grade level in their reading skills. I noticed how each day at school becomes an obstacle course. They must carefully get through each day, hoping they are not noticed. their mantra is simply to get by. I suspect many teachers "assist" them by passing them on to the next teacher without addressing their reading problem.
Reading Recovery is a serious attempt to address this problem early on in a student's career. A 75 % success rate is phenomenal. As the teacher from Massachusetts stated "we are saving these students' lives." For some students, having such a program is the difference between perceiving school as a opportunity to explore reality or 12 years in a foreign prison. It is in the community supreme interest that students hold the first view.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Guided Reading Video related to high school setting
The intoduction to this video was very concise. It highlights an easy to remember pattern that should be employed befor during and after during all reading lessons. The lesson itself was very interesting. The teacher is fortunate that she has only 4 students. This is a wonderful luxury. It allows for tremendous personal attention.
I found the lesson helpful, but I had to translate it my own experience teaching 17 year olds. Though some of my students have much trouble reading, the majority are adept. I do use sp3qr technique in my class. I found that my students would either completely blow off their reading assignment, or would simply drag their eyes across 30 page handouts of dense text without observing the main ideas, conclusions etc. They treated reading assignments as torture and would avoid it altogether, or undergo it but to no real benefit. I now request them to ask frequent questions before and during the reading of the text. making predictions not only keeps the students actively involved in the reading, but it also highlights some content prejudices which they took for granted. They are now engaging with the text, challenging the content and allowing themselves to be challenged by it. The handouts are now a lively component of the class, sparking dicussion/debate.
I found the lesson helpful, but I had to translate it my own experience teaching 17 year olds. Though some of my students have much trouble reading, the majority are adept. I do use sp3qr technique in my class. I found that my students would either completely blow off their reading assignment, or would simply drag their eyes across 30 page handouts of dense text without observing the main ideas, conclusions etc. They treated reading assignments as torture and would avoid it altogether, or undergo it but to no real benefit. I now request them to ask frequent questions before and during the reading of the text. making predictions not only keeps the students actively involved in the reading, but it also highlights some content prejudices which they took for granted. They are now engaging with the text, challenging the content and allowing themselves to be challenged by it. The handouts are now a lively component of the class, sparking dicussion/debate.
Reading First Still Works
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon0519ss.html
This article by Sol Stern, a longtime critic on education policy, in the City Journal ardently defends the federal reading First program. A recent study by the Institute of Education Sciences arrived at a negative conclusion, declaring that the Feading First Program did not produce better test results despite recieving greater federal funding. Mr. stern suggests that the study is deliberately misinterpreted for political reasons. He claims that the IES study is methodologically flawed and incomplete. Unfortunately, the media and the long time oponents of 21st century education reform have used the partial study to set a political trap that will demolish funding for the program.
This article falls into the genre of partisan reflections on the success/failure of No Child Left Behind. The author does not clearly demonstrate the positive attributes of his favored Reading First program; instead he highlights weaknesses in the unfavorable study and how such studies can be manipulated for political gain. This article is yet another reminder about how ideological education policy becomes.
This article by Sol Stern, a longtime critic on education policy, in the City Journal ardently defends the federal reading First program. A recent study by the Institute of Education Sciences arrived at a negative conclusion, declaring that the Feading First Program did not produce better test results despite recieving greater federal funding. Mr. stern suggests that the study is deliberately misinterpreted for political reasons. He claims that the IES study is methodologically flawed and incomplete. Unfortunately, the media and the long time oponents of 21st century education reform have used the partial study to set a political trap that will demolish funding for the program.
This article falls into the genre of partisan reflections on the success/failure of No Child Left Behind. The author does not clearly demonstrate the positive attributes of his favored Reading First program; instead he highlights weaknesses in the unfavorable study and how such studies can be manipulated for political gain. This article is yet another reminder about how ideological education policy becomes.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Teaching! Something we do when we are uncool!
The New York Times
September 21, 2008
The Way We Live Now
"Geek Lessons"
By MARK EDMUNDSON
Tremendous article, I encourage all to give it a read. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/magazine/21wwln-lede-t.html?ex=1379736000&en=ce7a81394b8fd5bb&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
The article plays with a quote taken from the movie Almost Famous.
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you are uncool.”
The author's premise is that ultimately a good teacher is "uncool." A good teacher is the honest assessor of reality who challenges her students to be honest as well. Only then, when we get past the pretenses that our media culture hoists upon us, can true learning take place.
The article is fun, it serves as a slight corrective to the over reliance upon technology or other fads. However it works only if taken with a grain of salt. Technology can certainly be misused or used to distract the student from other inadequacies of the teacher. But it should not become the bogey man. It is a tool that can be used and should used to facilitate education.
Besides the bromides against the prevalence of gadgets and gizmo's in the classroom, the article shines brightest when it calls for honesty and authenticity over faddishness and hipness in the classrooms. Students respond well to an educator who posits his uncool but real life experience as a means to evaluate the material.
September 21, 2008
The Way We Live Now
"Geek Lessons"
By MARK EDMUNDSON
Tremendous article, I encourage all to give it a read. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/magazine/21wwln-lede-t.html?ex=1379736000&en=ce7a81394b8fd5bb&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
The article plays with a quote taken from the movie Almost Famous.
“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you are uncool.”
The author's premise is that ultimately a good teacher is "uncool." A good teacher is the honest assessor of reality who challenges her students to be honest as well. Only then, when we get past the pretenses that our media culture hoists upon us, can true learning take place.
The article is fun, it serves as a slight corrective to the over reliance upon technology or other fads. However it works only if taken with a grain of salt. Technology can certainly be misused or used to distract the student from other inadequacies of the teacher. But it should not become the bogey man. It is a tool that can be used and should used to facilitate education.
Besides the bromides against the prevalence of gadgets and gizmo's in the classroom, the article shines brightest when it calls for honesty and authenticity over faddishness and hipness in the classrooms. Students respond well to an educator who posits his uncool but real life experience as a means to evaluate the material.
"Long summer holidays 'harm pupils' reading skills"
"Long summer holidays 'harm pupils' reading skills"
By Tim Ross; The Sunday Independent 25 May 2008
This brief report from a major British Sunday Paper notes the release of a private study undertaken by a center-left think tank. The study suggests that the long summer recess is detrimental to a student's ability in retaining reading skills. Scheduled extended breaks occasion dramatic relapses in reading skills. The study calls for a revolutionary change in the academic year. Schools should remain is session for five- eight week long terms with 2week breaks between each term.
I find that this report is a little too dramatic and overemphasizes the structured reading facilitated at school. Some students do their best reading during their holidays. This reading is independent and healthy. It is important that often it is not directly linked to curricular assessment. It is here that a child can come to love reading. This applies to other extra-curricular activities that are healthy and beneficial in the growth of a child. Unfortunately for those students who do not live in a reading friendly environment summer vacations become reading wastelands. Free time is wasted due in large part to a deficient cultural milieu. Where children lack opportunities for growth (parks, safe playgrounds, camps, libraries) the state will use the school as the catchall.
It would be a shame, however, if the exception became the rule.
By Tim Ross; The Sunday Independent 25 May 2008
This brief report from a major British Sunday Paper notes the release of a private study undertaken by a center-left think tank. The study suggests that the long summer recess is detrimental to a student's ability in retaining reading skills. Scheduled extended breaks occasion dramatic relapses in reading skills. The study calls for a revolutionary change in the academic year. Schools should remain is session for five- eight week long terms with 2week breaks between each term.
I find that this report is a little too dramatic and overemphasizes the structured reading facilitated at school. Some students do their best reading during their holidays. This reading is independent and healthy. It is important that often it is not directly linked to curricular assessment. It is here that a child can come to love reading. This applies to other extra-curricular activities that are healthy and beneficial in the growth of a child. Unfortunately for those students who do not live in a reading friendly environment summer vacations become reading wastelands. Free time is wasted due in large part to a deficient cultural milieu. Where children lack opportunities for growth (parks, safe playgrounds, camps, libraries) the state will use the school as the catchall.
It would be a shame, however, if the exception became the rule.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
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