Why "Readicide" Should be in the Dictionary

     Within " Readicide" by Kelly Gallagher you find that this word has much more impact in the world then we had ever realized. Readicide meaning: " noun, the systematic killing of the love for reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools". Of course this exact definition made by Gallagher may never actually make it in any official print because it probably would be viewed as an offensive description for the cause of this "killing" of reading.

     Although it is particularly hard to blame one problem for student's lack of interest, the majority of the reason does follow behind teacher expectations, and then school board expectation, and so on. So in the long run we could point it out and relate it back to a group of people responsible for student learning. The problem then is, what does student learning mean? Student learning can mean a variety of things depending on what the outcome should look like. Take current events for example, as schools show a increase in state funded testing, the number of students with frequent or avid reading skills decreases. Why you may ask? Well lets just say that test taking skills do not correlate with comprehensive reading skills. Meaning that the more time students spend preparing for tests or scoring , the less time there is in the classroom for reading.

      According to " Readicide"  about 16 percent of adults are actually avid readers of literary text, and in addition to that about 27 percent of adults admitted to not reading a single book in 2007! that's almost 30 percent of people who DO NOT read. If this isn't a reading genocide i don't know what is. Of course we could all blame it on the new generation of technology that is also in the race for your child's attention and time, but what about the real need for cover to cover experience? Does this also die? There is something magical about reading a physical copy of a favorite book that can take your breathe away. The experience of turning the pages and loosing yourself in time with the images of warriors dancing in your head is something one can never replace. This experience is crucial for students to enhance their own relationship with reading.

   If students are no longer reading then how do we expect them to become good writers? I would say these to things are somewhat tied together. If we begin to have a generation of students who do not know how to read or write in a sophisticated manner then how can we expect them to generate exquisite scores on their SAT's or state testing? If God prevent them from leaving high school with any real literacy skill then what is to say about their college experience? Don't we all need to have mastered these skills in order to become proactive college students? I would say HELL YES. Setting up a student with no real skills in reading and writing is like asking the student to fail. Fail in school, but also fail in many other ways that could damage the student's overall learning for a lifetime! We as parents, teachers, and community members should stand up and fight this battle through school board initiatives, home experiences, and teaching methods. This "readicide" cannot continue to damage our children and future leaders.

Helping Students Gain Back the Joy of Reading: Tovani’s “I Read it, but I don’t get it”

     

        A Common misconception with students is that their level of reading reflects the students motivation for learning. Most students would like to understand what they are reading, but are often fatigued by the density of work. By aiding the students through the use of graphic organizers, thinking methods, and most importantly helping them discover the purpose in everything they read, they can then become fully equip for life-long reading with meaning. 

      Tovani studies student interest in reading through the use of class discussion. In the beginning of every writing class she prompts whole class discussion in where students can freely discuss likes and dislikes of reading. She found that much of the problem wasn't the students ability to read or time restrains, it was the students level of comprehension to the text. She found that the comprehension becomes compromised when the student does not find the real purpose for reading. Within this discussion she found that students will spend hours reading sports articles or glamour magazines because they enjoyed what they were reading and found it applicable to their everyday life. This should also true for readings within the classroom.

      If teachers can connect purpose with every assigned reading, students can then gain a deeper understanding for reading. Most students will admit that a lot of the reading in class does not feel connected to their real lives, as Tovani states, " We were all at one point a master of fake reading". With all of the literature out there we as mentors should be able to adapt some kind of real world aspect into a purposeful reading. In most cases reading has lost its purpose and pleasure for students and has morphed into this horrid assigned reading. In order for students to find pleasure in what they read they must also find purpose. Although this all may sound repetitive, it is important to realize that these two things are very well tied together. 

      As a teacher I will help my students always have a purpose for reading. I will clearly communicate this purpose in the classroom before every reading. I will also try to model what purposeful reading should look like, for example if I am reading aloud I will pause between ideas and thoughts and state them to the classroom. Modeling good thinking practices will help my students understand that good reading takes time and thought. There are many great tips and ques for aiding student reading within this book that I could not write enough about, but one good suggestion that I've heard my professor Dr. Agriss say is, " We should always be writing while reading, I never read without a pen in my hand". This is very true. Reading is a thought process and although our brain is very powerful, we simply do not have the ability to make complete productive mental notes that we can look back on for progress. 
       

Discovering the Meaning of Social Justice Within the Classroom

                     Social Justice may seem like this vague term to describe overall justice between people in our society, but the reality of social justice is constantly changing depending on individual background and experience. In a classroom setting, the environment, curriculum, and overall learning expectations can be greatly influenced by the common culture. This common culture is then forced to mold into ALL students, including those who have no personal connection, experience, or relativity to the curriculum.

                     Social Justice fights for the level playing field between all students. By creating a environment in which students feel personally connected to their learning, students can establish a deeper meaning and purpose for achieving the goals. As rethinkingschools.org states, " Schools and classrooms should be laboratories for a more just society". As teachers it is our job to be constantly aware of our student's needs in the curriculum.

                    Many schools fail to employ a safety net for those students who do not fit the common " white man" mold that has been established within most schools in the United States. Although most teachers are also facing the decline in school funding, teacher pay, and large class sizes, we must always be looking for innovative ways to create equality within the classroom.

                  Some ways we can create a socially equal classroom is to begin with the students. If my students find zero relevance to the text assigned, it is my job to figure out what impacts my students on a more personal level. For example, if my classroom consists of a large minority group, then it is my job to discover their cultural interest and values. Once finding that I can connect specific details into reading choice. I must find ways to make learning applicable for all students.

               By becoming culturally and socially sensitive, I can then make choices that best fit my students. This begins with respect. By respecting all cultures and social experiences through curriculum choices, student's innate curiosity for learning increases. This should be respected in all classroom subjects. The teaching should probe the way students connect to society, and how we are often limited as well.

              As the author says, " The curriculum should equip students to talk back to the world". Students need to learn how to pose critical questions about the world and our role in society. Through this critical thinking approach students can gain skills that ultimately provide a voice for change within themselves. As teachers we must not be afraid of our students questioning social reality. This is where learning shifts from not only the classroom, but into real world problems and solutions.

Loving This: Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

              The Authors Jeff Andrade and Ernest Morrel, have really established a clear idea for revamping student learning by incorporating critical pedagogy into their curriculum. This type of learning is focused on : "Dialogue instead of a one way transmission of knowledge". This type of school reform should be established in all classrooms for effective learning.

               If students are not motivated to learn, then effectiveness for student achievement will plummet. These authors have established a focus of critical pedagogy combined with the use empirical data: a new found way of applying learning into urban education for the new century schools. These practices encourage literacy development and academic achievement  for students by approaching education from all aspects of society.

               The authors are ambitious and dedicated to innovating curriculum that promotes student advancement, but also reflects on individual experience for deeper learning. The point of this was to not just serve as " gatekeepers to post-secondary education", but to provide students with tools that will allow them to continue to adapt and grow throughout their lives. This type of commitment for student learning goes beyond the classroom.

               This kind of student learning is mainly focused on aiding critical literacy for student improvement, but with more emphasis on the demand of literacy knowledge. As the author writes
"The language of power" allows students to be able to critique text with a whole new level of compression. This process begins by studying the importance of dominant texts. These dominant text are specifically chosen for the " development and maintenance of a revolutionary consciousness". Meaning that through clear focus and purpose of text, students can reach maximum literacy understanding for lifelong learning.

              As teachers we must focus on tools that will transport into a variety of student needs, specifically within their lifelong educational career, but also education that can transfer into their social and economic awareness. By educating our students they can become authentic voices for inequality and justice, which can promote change for improving their educational experience.

            I believe through these philosophers mentioned, some being Dr. Friere and Dr. Vygotsky who encouraged certain concepts and ideas within their model, they were able to incorporate well researched approaches to student learning while adapting it to student's personal experiences, creating a new level of student commitment. I believe that anytime the teacher is student minded the learning is genuine and purposeful. We should never settle for a one way street to learning, but always be searching for new ways to reach students by taking chances; this mindset can open doors we never new possible.
               

                   

Thoughts: "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"

             Paulo Freire, the author of this chapter begins with a very philosophical view of teacher ego within the classroom. Viewing students as containers for information: Objects. This dynamic of student teacher relationship has never been so magnified as it is within this chapter. By viewing students as receptacles only waiting to be filled by the teacher, we begin this ugly system where the students simply reapply old information; replica minions.

             Students who live in this type of system experience things in a flawed or imitated way. Paulo says, "His task is to fill the students with contents of his narration-contents which are detached from reality". When the teacher is self invested for a specific set of outcomes, causing the students to become master imitators: hollow of any real knowledge.

             This type of classroom is what Freire calls, " The banking concept of Education: knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing". This process is a unproductive form of crippling the human mind from recreating, inventing, or hypothesizing. Classrooms should never become justified through monotone repeats. We as educators should always be moving in a forward motion of learning by resisting this repetitive motionless activity.

           Freire says we can avoid this type of motionless slump through reconciling the poles of contradiction, through teacher-student relationship. The many characteristics described by Freire as the oppressor behavior ALWAYS beginning with the teacher's actions where the teacher is the "subject" while the students are "objects". This concept is very interesting to me because it does rekindle allot of feelings about my high school experience. The teacher knows EVERYTHING and I know NOTHING.

          This type of classroom atmosphere is not at all what I would want in my classroom. It minimizes student "creative power". We must always become aware of our students needs and create a thinking free zone, where students are considered "conscious beings". Freire replaces the oppressor mentality with a system in where education becomes "problem posing" through the process of communication. I believe this is a productive way to experience authentic reality. By allowing students to participate their own solutions, we can then begin a process for collaboration. A real experience of individual voice is a process by which no other person can process for you. The students should always be exposed a free environment for learning through a healthy student-teacher collaboration.

Response to : "Assessing and Evaluating Students' Learning"

 
          The first question in this chapter asks, how do you know what they have learned? I find this to be a very important question that all teachers should be wondering. The ability to assess my students properly will determine how well my students do. If my assessing is inaccurate or inappropriate for the lesson, then my results can be skewed yielding inaccurate results. All of this can become overwhelming as a new teacher and finding a correct way to get the answers I need will take some researching. 

            Assessments found in this chapter are both formative and summative and are focused more on student gain. Students feel less anxiety when they are shown expectations. By providing the students with the rubric for a assignment they can plan and establish a clear idea for exceptions. A negative to this would be student reliance on word-for-word guidance instead of maybe exploring individual voice in a essay assignment. This is why I feel that It is essential to fit the assessment tool with the content, but also always having the students in mind.

          Another way to improve student perception about assessment is to allow them to become graders themselves. As discussed in this chapter, students can not only discover what things to look for, but also learn reasoning behind grading with a grading template. By providing productive assessing students will value their work and want to improve. 

             According to the Secondary Standards Based Grading and Reporting Handbook, all assessments should match the work in the classroom. Although this sounds like a no brainier, this is a eye opening reality for all classrooms that feel the pressure of assessment scores and at times can reach for higher achievement based on state expectations rather than individual classroom needs. The rubric should focus on student improvement and not so focused on reaching a funding goal. 

         Secondary Standards Based Grading and Reporting Handbook states, "When a student makes progress they feel motivated and more successful because enhancing perceived competence is motivating in and of itself". When students feel personal progression they begin to discover what they are working towards in the big picture. purpose should always focus back on the students. For example, homework which is a lot of the time perceived as a method of overwhelming the student should be another tool for students to practice what they are learning in class, these two things should ALWAYS match. By viewing assessment as a tool for student progression the anxiety for both teacher and student can be reduced. I will be focusing this system of matching along with also connecting my assessing to the common core standards. 

Connecting Reading and Writing: English Language Arts and Literacy

              Taking Advantage of Common Core approaches for improving student understanding in reading and writing has shown to greatly improve student achievement. The methods discussed within this template are very well displayed and all play a purpose. The template overview is very well designed to cover all areas: prereading, reading, postreading, and then connecting all of this to writing.

              I found the template to be very productive and informational for new teaching techniques in reading and writing. In a essence this piece is a "how to" guide for new teachers to apply proactive activities and questions for reflection while teaching. Getting ready to read is just as important as reading. When you set up your kids for success they will have a better chance at discovering their individual voice through reading. 

              I found that this template not only connects the physical demands to reading, but also the emotional and personal side to reading as well. By exploring all aspects to reading students can then form a more concrete idea or opinion about the text. From all of the key ideas this template discusses I find that the most intriguing and important for me would be, " Set a purpose for reading". If the students or reader does not start off with a real purpose for reading then the motivation for understanding also decreases. 

              Setting purpose and goals for readers is a essential  component to productive learning. I find this to be very true in my classroom. While observing my 10th grade language arts class on Thursday the teacher was reading a story of "Little Red Riding Hood" aloud to the students as they followed along and then use as a writing task. The classroom of twenty five young teens seemed to only have a handful actually listening, while the majority laid their heads on their desk. I found that most students did not seem at all intrigued with the reading and did not complete the writing task. 

              As  teachers we must always ask ourselves what are purpose is for reading, or what we are trying to achieve, and sometimes this might take you back to the drawing board. "Little Red Riding Hood" might be a easy read, but then you suffer the risk of boredom to a over age crowd. If the purpose was set for a classroom getting ready to mentor small learners in a reading group, this approach to teaching might have established some clear objectives, but because this was not relatable and to easy for young teens the value to the text decreased. 

            This module is definitely a keep sake for my new teacher binder! It has so much to offer that I could ever fit into this one blog post and enjoyed how easy it is to follow and apply. This module connects every approach directly to Common Core State Standards which makes it easy to connect to objectives.