One of the things that was most definitely highlighted in the " Letting Go of Letter of the Week" article by Donna Bell and Donna Jarvis was how many students come in to the classroom as readers but they believe they aren't. When we think about reading in a classroom setting it is so hinged on the ability to pick out letters and read trade books we do seem to forget that literacy is everywhere. As shown in the article students could pick up reading cues on common brands despite of background differences. By isolating 'school reading' as a phenomenon that only occurs between the pages of classroom book or novel we're severely limiting our expectations for students and overlooking a wealth of prior knowledge. Even in older grades you shouldn't believe student can't or doesn't read just because they don't read or enjoy assigned novels, magazines, cereal boxes, board books, trade books, beach reading are all still viable forms of literacy.
That was one of the things I noticed from the article and thought about. I never considered reading a McDonald's bag or Snickers wrapper as reading but that is just it, that is reading. Many adults feel as though reading involves the use of a book with a lot of words but simple recognition of a word is still reading. I will have to be cognizant of that when I begin teaching and allow my students to realize they know how to read without a lesson of reading.
ReplyDeleteJess, I absolutely agree that "isolating school reading as a phenomenon that only occurs between the pages of classroom book or novel we're severely limiting our expectations for students and overlooking a wealth of prior knowledge." I am so excited to see the changes that are taking place in education of elementary students today compared to when I was in elementary only fifteen years ago. Believing in the strengths of students, before noticing the weaknesses is the first thing we should do as future educators. I hope we all learn to build on accomplishments, not establish recognition of disadvantages and drawbacks.
ReplyDelete-Laurel
School reading can be very intimidating for unproficient readers. Instead, I've used internet video games to get my young struggling readers to at least try to read. They have responded well to this change of print, but we'll see how it goes when we get back to the reading textbook.
ReplyDeleteJess,
ReplyDeleteWe totally need to avoid these types of assumptions or labels, I agree. This is a relevant topic which we al discussed our feelings on in the first few class sessions this semester. We should be flexible in offerring alternative reading assisgnments to our students, where we can, to prevent a burn-out affect on our students' desire to read at all.