Scott, Through your yodio and of course our reading I do see how we are harming the most vulnerable students, those special education students, in how we only teach to the test. So I know this is probably rhetorical, but how do you overcome the reading material that as you say is forced by the superintendent or school on these students and integrate fun reading while still accomplishing the goals of district or school in meeting the minimum standards for NCLB? In reading Gallagher's Readicide book, this has been the question that I keep coming back to, and honestly I don't know the answer either?
Excellent question back to Scott. It seems as if the testing industry is so strong that teachers have no power to fight back for their students. That said, there are ways that you can teach to the individual rather than to the test in all of your classroom settings. The more knowledge you have about the reading/learning process the better equipped you will be create ways to maneuver through the test-centric context.
We don't have to overcome the reading material that is forced upon us by the superintendent. Like Gallagher said on page 23, the students who fall behind in reading get an intensified dose of a proven ineffective treatment. He also said on page 12 that teaching to the test is a good thing. The only problem is the standardized tests are too shallow. So, if your tests you prepare in class are more in depth and you teach appropriately towards those tests, will the student not have a better chance of being successful? We know that giving the student more reading practice that involves us stopping them every two minutes is not working. Hopefully, by the end of this program we will be equipped with many different ways to tackle many different problems.
I hope that when you are a special education teacher, Scott, that you will have more choices in what you can offer your students to read. I definitely believe we learn best when we are motivated, and you're absolutely right, reading the short story, limited book list selections they may have is anything but enticing. As I shared in my literacy bio, I learned to read from GI Joe comics because I loved GI Joe and WANTED to find out what was happening in the stories. Students are much more inclined to read, and thus excel when they make reading their own reading about their interests.
I think we are coming to same conclusion, how can we make students enjoy reading? I'm currently working in a reading workshop class. This is a class designed for students who have not passed the OAKS assessment. Our class is specifically focused on helping students that are reading at a 5th grade reading level and below. Many of our Instructional Coaches want us to be using different strategies with them, however, many of these students can't even pronounce the words. We want students to enjoy reading and know that they can read almost any text that is placed in front of them. When I reading this past weekend, Gallagher stated how it's important to understand that it is unrealistic for a student to jump from a 1st grade reading level to and 8th grade level in one year. We need to be practical in our expectations. At the same time, administrators and superintendents need to be practical in their expectations. What is more important, teaching a student to be able to read and understand articles, books and short stories placed in front of them or teaching a student to be able to use strategies like predicting the text, underlining the title, and taking margin notes. I can honestly say, these are strategies I have not used outside the classroom. Good thoughts!
Scott,
ReplyDeleteThrough your yodio and of course our reading I do see how we are harming the most vulnerable students, those special education students, in how we only teach to the test. So I know this is probably rhetorical, but how do you overcome the reading material that as you say is forced by the superintendent or school on these students and integrate fun reading while still accomplishing the goals of district or school in meeting the minimum standards for NCLB? In reading Gallagher's Readicide book, this has been the question that I keep coming back to, and honestly I don't know the answer either?
Excellent question back to Scott. It seems as if the testing industry is so strong that teachers have no power to fight back for their students. That said, there are ways that you can teach to the individual rather than to the test in all of your classroom settings. The more knowledge you have about the reading/learning process the better equipped you will be create ways to maneuver through the test-centric context.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have to overcome the reading material that is forced upon us by the superintendent. Like Gallagher said on page 23, the students who fall behind in reading get an intensified dose of a proven ineffective treatment. He also said on page 12 that teaching to the test is a good thing. The only problem is the standardized tests are too shallow. So, if your tests you prepare in class are more in depth and you teach appropriately towards those tests, will the student not have a better chance of being successful? We know that giving the student more reading practice that involves us stopping them every two minutes is not working. Hopefully, by the end of this program we will be equipped with many different ways to tackle many different problems.
ReplyDeleteI hope that when you are a special education teacher, Scott, that you will have more choices in what you can offer your students to read. I definitely believe we learn best when we are motivated, and you're absolutely right, reading the short story, limited book list selections they may have is anything but enticing. As I shared in my literacy bio, I learned to read from GI Joe comics because I loved GI Joe and WANTED to find out what was happening in the stories. Students are much more inclined to read, and thus excel when they make reading their own reading about their interests.
ReplyDeleteScott,
ReplyDeleteI think we are coming to same conclusion, how can we make students enjoy reading? I'm currently working in a reading workshop class. This is a class designed for students who have not passed the OAKS assessment. Our class is specifically focused on helping students that are reading at a 5th grade reading level and below. Many of our Instructional Coaches want us to be using different strategies with them, however, many of these students can't even pronounce the words. We want students to enjoy reading and know that they can read almost any text that is placed in front of them. When I reading this past weekend, Gallagher stated how it's important to understand that it is unrealistic for a student to jump from a 1st grade reading level to and 8th grade level in one year. We need to be practical in our expectations. At the same time, administrators and superintendents need to be practical in their expectations. What is more important, teaching a student to be able to read and understand articles, books and short stories placed in front of them or teaching a student to be able to use strategies like predicting the text, underlining the title, and taking margin notes. I can honestly say, these are strategies I have not used outside the classroom. Good thoughts!