Nicole Brown, Blog Post 5: Routman, Ch. 4 “Teach with a Sense of Urgency”

            In this day and age of high stakes testing, an overflowing amount of curriculum, and limited time in the classroom, we teachers know all too well the notion of teaching with a sense of urgency. Routman’s chapter was refreshing in that she is not talking about teaching “prompted by anxiety, but rather about making every moment in the classroom count.” Isn’t that what all of us want? She says, “Complacency will not get our students where they need to be.” Routman couldn’t be more right. I think many would think Routman was alluding to those teachers who are burned out and ready to leave the classroom who are just going through the motions. I, however, believe he is referring to ALL teachers. We can NEVER be happy or satisfied with our practices or ever think that we are “experts.” We must realize that just as we encourage our students to strive towards self-improvement, we should as well. We must always be reflective, think about alternate methods, and never be “satisfied” with our teaching. Our students will change daily, weekly, yearly. As the years melt on, what we once found as effective may not be effective any more. I think that teaching with a sense of urgency also means learning with a sense of urgency! I hope I can always strive towards self-improvement!

            Routman shared her top five things she does to ensure students become excellent readers. Many of her beliefs are ingrained in her previous chapters. First, she says she demonstrates she is a reader. Sharing your reading life is so important. Just knowing that it is something important to you will make your students take notice. Second, she says to provide an excellent library. Students having access to books (all kinds of books, chapter books, picture books, fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, etc.) is the only way they can read a varied diet of numerous books. She says to let students choose books they want to read and give them time to read them. As teachers, we make time for what we value. We know research says the single most important thing that will increase students’ reading ability is increasing their volume of reading! Routman says to teach students reading strategies they need in order to “process and understand text.” Our goal should be to develop lifelong readers. Not just readers for our standardized tests. If we teach students how to transact with varied texts, we will be teaching them to survive once they leave our school system! Lastly, Routman says to evaluate regularly (and here comes the important part) giving them feedback, and helping them set goals. The feedback is where we are making the evaluation useful. Just evaluating to put a grade in a grade book is meaningless. The purpose of our feedback should be the part where students are able to see what they are doing well, and what they can do (their goals) in order to continue to grow.  Routman rings true when she says that “students never let (us) down.” They will almost always strive to please us. If we have high expectations and provide students with the tools they need to be successful, we will produce literate students and one day, literate successful adults!