Balanced Diet of Reading

Balanced Diet of Reading

Providing students with a variety of sources to read seems to be the only ethical approach to teaching, compared to limiting students to one textbook.  I believe we can all recall thumbing through old textbooks only extracting key terms and other significant bits of information that we needed in order to pass tests or complete assignments.  But if we only expose students to single textbooks, how are we enriching their learning experience?  What are we teaching them?  

The book raises a good question.  With state exams and expectations to cover a vast amount of content, how are teachers to find time to assign multiple readings and still prepare students for standardized tests?  This is a question I have been constantly asking myself.  Especially with social studies and history encompassing vast amounts of information, I often wonder exactly what content I will be asked to cover.  Whatever the required content may be, I understand I will have to find many different types of reading that will not only challenge students, but also entertain them while covering a deeper understanding of the content.  I am not quite sure where the notion “reading is not fun” came from, but I went through school feeling that way, and it is unfortunate.  However, I will also be the first to admit when I have loved reading something too.  What I need to do is find reading selections that will prevent this mindset from occurring in my future students that also entices them to learn more themselves. 

Like the book suggests, I will need to develop a classroom library and it will have non-fiction and fiction pieces that will help students understand big picture concepts.  I believe, with a better and more comprehensive understanding of major historical concepts, students will make connections to related smaller facts that may be on standardized tests.  Similarly to putting a puzzle together, one would want to know the final picture and figure out how all the pieces fit together to make the complete image.  Without understanding the big picture, the main idea, and the major historical concepts, students are merely looking at individual pieces of the puzzle without understanding HOW it all fits together.  

With my courses in preparation to become a teacher, I have studied the benefits and the importance of literacy as a vehicle for enhanced education.  I can only hope that I will provide many different reading sources that engage students in the reading process.  Pieces that not only include content, but also have good narrative structure, people we care about, places we can imagine, and complicated or relatable circumstances like the book suggests any interesting or likable read has.  I am confident I will be able to find such works because I have already been exposed to many already, but I also know that I have a daunting task of developing a concise classroom library to be sure I can cover many areas of content to compliment or replace the general textbooks. 

Road Trip with No Map

Road Trip with No Map 

The concept of Backward Design has been repeatedly discussed throughout the many education courses I have taken.  It seems to me, that this process of understanding where you are going is the only ethical and reasonable method of proceeding through any task.  In the world of education, clear goals and understanding the reasoning for an end result not only guide a student’s progression, but they also keep individual tasks or activities in perspective which assists and enriches the learning process.

For example, one would most likely not embark on a road trip without a clear understanding of a destination in mind.  Without knowing where to go, the journey would be a blind attempt to reach the unknown.  With a set destination, one can check a road map to assure they are on the correct path towards where they want to be.  This same concept can be applied to instruction planning.

A backward design approach to teaching allows for instructors to use mandated standards to create a framework for instruction.  By using standards, teachers can then establish the desired goals and provide students with essential questions that will help guide their understanding of key concepts, specific knowledge, and the skills they will learn throughout a lesson or unit.  Therefore, standards provide a sort of destination and the teacher needs to decide which path to take.

This path that the teacher chooses is where differentiated and meaningful instruction guide learners toward the desired goals.  Through established acceptable evidence of progress, teachers can plan proper instruction that clearly indicates student comprehension and also assess the need for redirection. 

Interest Inventory

Name:

Who are the people most important to you?

What are your favorite activities or pastimes?

What are your special talents?

What word or words best describe your personality?

What is your favorite quote? Why?

Things that make you go, “hmmm?”

407 Blog 2

Things that make you go, “hmmm?”

During this reading of chapters one and two, I particularly liked the comment that we as teachers should not be getting students “ready” to be life learns, but we should rather have them practicing as life learners right now.  I liked this statement because it is true, we are all learning as we go along each day.  Whether it is within academic content areas or social contexts, we are always learning.  We are constantly making mistakes or realizing connections in many different fashions, remembering that information and storing it for later use. 

Knowing that we are always learning and knowing that we want to encourage and improve life-long learning for students, - Is covering specific content mandated by district-wide curriculum the best approach to teaching?  And how are we as teachers supposed to present students with lessons and experiences that will align them with modern standards that are more conceptual rather than content based?  The expectation to teach content that is measured by a state or national assessment coupled with the initiative to teach abstract analytical skills seems to be quite a polarizing conundrum.  As a future teacher, I am having trouble understanding where this blurred line will actually rest when it comes to exactly what and how I will teach.    

I really liked the fast food lesson mentioned in the first chapter.  It seems like there could be a lot of room for differentiation, student led learning, and deep thinking by the students.  The problem is, how is such a lesson going to cover material that students will be assessed on in state assessments?  The chapter does mention that part of the unit included mandated biology content that will most likely be part of a state assessment, and the unit certainly allows for social studies and English content to be covered as well.  But I have difficulty believing it will include enough content to allow students to perform well on standardized tests.

I am not claiming that there is not an answer to this problem.  In fact, I believe the questions asked and discussions we have about teaming and differentiation are leading teachers in the right direction.  But I think for the moment, high-stakes standardized tests and set curriculums hinder this progression.   

Literacy Profile Blog

Literacy Profile Blog

Throughout my study of becoming a teacher, I have learned to define “literacy” as a combination of knowledge, understanding, ability, and awareness within a specific context.  I am willing to admit that I am literate in music, especially with the guitar.  

I witnessed my cousin’s husband play a bunch of my favorite Beatles songs at a family party when I was 15, and I have been devoted to learning, improving, and playing the guitar ever since that day.  Although I had musical training with the trumpet through junior and senior high school, my love for music grew from my own desire to play the guitar and sing like my cousin’s husband did that day.  Since then, I have performed hundreds of times as part of a band and also as a solo act.  I have also written and recorded many of my own compositions and I have developed a repertoire of songs that allow me to play by myself for well over five or six hours.  My hobby has also turned into an alternate source of income.  I often play in pubs across Rhode Island, which is not only quite fun, but it sometimes pays very well for only a few hours of work! 

My literacy in music has grown and expanded over the years and it has driven me to explore other musical instruments such as piano, percussion, trombone, and the baritone horn.  Through learning the form and chord structure of numerous different songs, my music theory knowledge has improved and it has allowed for further learning to seem much easier to understand.   My knowledge of music has also drastically influenced my taste in the music I personally listen to, because I am conscious of musical talent, effort, and ability.  Through learning and listening, I have developed a balanced approach and understanding of music, especially how it is commonly written and performed. 

I am literate in music because my ability and knowledge of music allows me to hold detailed conversations with anyone about the many different aspects of music such as style, history, or theory.  I will not claim to be a master of music or guitar, but within this context of music I can certainly be among professionals, or those who actually consider themselves masters, and completely understand and contribute to what is being discussed.