Take some time to reread through all of the different blog posts. Even from last semester. What has changed in your thinking about the teaching of reading? What role does it play in your everyday teaching? What will you continue to do that you were not doing before? This reflection can take on the form of anything you want to be shared with the class. Doing a quick write here will give you a sense of what it is you want to remember from this work.
When the assignment was first given about the final reflection, I knew I had to organize all the materials from the last two semesters in some sort of way that I would find it useful to me. I started off by journaling in my writer’s notebook about the different aspects of reading that we discussed in class and then I went through the books and added the stuff that I had underlined or made note of. I then took that information and made charts in notebook. Those charts morphed into different sections of a notebook; where all the materials are in one accessible place.
ReplyDeleteThe one quote that continues to resonate with me from this course is that from Kylene Beers, “Perfection is impossible. However, striving for perfection is not. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts”.
I went through the blogs and took out quotes that resonate with me. Some made think about my own reading instruction. Others made me feel unified with my fellow staff. I think that some of the obstacles I face in my daily teaching, while I am facing them, it can be lonely. Being in your own room and with your own thoughts I sometime find myself questioning my thinking. This is healthy but it is also reassuring that my peers are having these same feelings. I took these poems and arranged it into an acrostic poem.
DeletePamela Alexander
ReplyDeleteReflection on “Dover Reads – Learning Through Teaching”
March 25, 2012
Before I began my reflection of this course, I decided to review each chapter of Tovani’s book. I made notes, drew conclusions, created a list of teaching possibilities, and thought, “I was wrong. I can employ many, more, and different strategies in my classroom.” In Chapter 9, Cris tells of a colleague’s wish for her, “that each year you look back at your career and laugh with embarrassment about the way you used to teach. If you do this, you will continue to learn and grow.”
Learn and grow . . . I know I’ve done both during my time as a Study Skills teacher. I’ve added better lessons, subtracted useless ones, and reformatted assignments based on student needs, but I’m finally realizing that I am a reading teacher. I can ask students to make inferences. I can ask them to think and comment on or question the text we’re using. I can ask what they can do with the information after they read. I can ask them how the skills we’re working on apply to the real world. I can model reading strategies. I can teach them to hold their thinking. I can demonstrate how to keep their conversation voices on. I can, good Lord, even develop text sets.
This knowledge will certainly improve my teaching and will also profit my students. When I ask them to think more, many will resist. I am, after all, only a related arts teacher whose class has way less importance that the core subjects – this is a sentiment I hear with frequency. But I have added tools to my toolbox – tools which I will offer my kids with whatever song or dance will help them understand how to use them. Learning that I’m a reading teacher has added a second drawer to the box, and therein lies my growth. I can do this.
I'm feel I am a lousy reading teacher during those spells when I am not reading, for whatever reason: home, school, funk, whatever. When I am not reading I find it hard to communicate to kids what it is about reading that can me magical and healing and just plain good for them. When I am reading, which for me means my half hour a day, everyday, coffee and journal close by, it becomes clear what I need to do. I need to catch those automatic, quiet thoughts, questions, and inspirations that rise up while I read and turn those into pedagogy (am I using that word correctly?).
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if anyone hasn't watched the documentary The Stone Reader, you need to. Granted, it's a little too brainy for many of our kids, but it is a great story about the development of the habit and the relationship between a writer and his or her reader.
Mark