I have been having the same conversation... with myself. As the district literacy coach, a new position and a new job for me, I have been trying to familiarize myself with content standards across the boad (K-12). My experience is with lower primary. I am shocked to see how narrowly focused on literature our standards are in the middle years, at a time when (IMO) our struggling readers most need support accessing content related reading so that they can be more successful students. It seems like we are not focusing on real world issues. In our district, kiddos have no experience with textbooks prior to Middle School. Our elementary staff across the district is working hard to prepare students to be successful readers across genre. Research suggests 60% of the reading instruction in grades 3 and up should be focused on nonfiction, according to Sharon Taberski, so why such a disconnect in terms of standards? I think that probably explains the emphasis on literature in the testing, but it doens't explain the standards. In our district, our testing (which we struggle with, Native American & highly impoverished community plus attendance issues...) shows that our kids are comprehending fiction fairly well, but across the district kids are struggling to comprehend nonfiction passages.
Lori On Tue, 17 Oct 2006 06:21 , Diana Holmes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> sent: >What a great question. I think reading is a cognitive process whereby a >reader actively synthesizes and evaluates text--all kinds of text, of >which fiction may be the least important.. > >It's such an important question--on the Maryland State Assessments last >year 80% of the reading involved literature (Willa Cather, Jack Wild, >poetry)--yet literature is certainly not 80% of anyone's everyday >reading experience. I'm not sure at what point reading, literacy and >literature became somewhat synonymous, but it serves students poorly. > >Looking forward to the article.... > >_______________________________________________ >The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org > >To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ lit_literacyworkshop.org. > >Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive _______________________________________________ The Literacy Workshop ListServ http://www.literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/lit_literacyworkshop.org. Search the LIT archives at http://snipurl.com/LITArchive
