There are so many components in teaching reading! There is NO right way which is what intimidates us as teachers, especially right brained ones like me. In Math, you use operations, equations, formulas, etc to solve and arrive at an answer. It's "black and white" not gray in finding where the mistake was in arriving at the answer. However in Reading the options, opinions, teaching solutions are endless which can be fun and challenging in a good way. I thoroughly enjoy reading but I don't feel as confident teaching reading as I do math and science because of the variety of styles of instruction. This book has taught me other ways to look at teaching in how to approach all readers. I haven't been overwhelmed in applying the strategies suggested.
In this chapter I particularly liked the framework for each persons role for shared reading in all grade levels: teacher, student, text, purpose, advantages, procedures, and evaluations. This chapter helps to open thoughts about how I felt about the lesson and guides you as the teacher how to self reflect upon the lesson. This is so important and easy to skip. In doing a self reflection it helps me to evaluate myself along with benefits gained in the lesson. Keeping track of improvements, strengths along with weaknesses as the teacher and our students will change each year with each class. In the reading experience, shared reading is one interactive way for students to share the reading of a book or other text while being supported by the teacher. It is the teachers job to model the skills of proficient readers, including fluency and expression. Our students need to see and hear our struggles, learn from our mistakes, and share our experiences of learning to read. Many students judge themselves and can't let go to embrace the imagination of reading to allow them a chance to be at ease while learning. I feel this can be done in shared reading time and can be a great learning experience for all readers!
I agree with you when you said, "Our students need to see and hear our struggles, learn from our mistakes, and share our experiences of learning to read." When they can identify with our own struggles, we can take away the stigma that everything has to be perfect all the time and that "mistakes" are bad. Making mistakes builds the capacity to be able to deal with all that life throws at us. If we want our students to be able to handle the stress of their teenage years and adulthood, we have to let them fail sometimes and know that with each failure comes an opportunity for growth!
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite chapters in this book is this one where Routman reminds us that we are all learners and we are all growing as readers. This modeling in front of students are processes and our mistakes helps them accept and acknowledge the areas they have to grow and not only builds rapport and community, but it builds a relationship with the students. Thanks, Dawn Mitchell