> I have been thinking a lot the last hour about whether I am a better reader > or enjoy reading more since I read MOT many years ago, and in my efforts to > help kids think about the strategies and the way the mind works. I don't > think I am.
You sounds like a teacher who helps his students to love reading, by far the most important thing, in my opinion. Like you, John, I have been an intuitive reader most of my life. I loved reading from the moment I finished my first book. I learned strategy instruction as part of all the learning I do as a teacher. Surprisingly, I came to it through a basal, Open Court. I liked some of the things presented in the text, but it all seemed so canned and unhelpful. I came across Mosaic and my learning of strategy instruction began. I followed with Atwell and many others since. This journey has helped me to help the students who were not intuitive like myself. Later, in my teaching life, my daughter, an avid reader, was frustrated by a teacher who was requiring the use of strategies and such in her fiction reading (I had already taught her to use strategies to keep her nonfiction managable) and she was frustrated by the slow process of stopping to take notes and such. I became annoyed with the teacher for forcing such a thing, but my daughter is now the most vocal proponent of annotating thoughts. Yes, some reading she just reads, but when she wants to get more from a book, out come the post-its or margin notes. Sometimes she waits to do it on a second-read so the first-read is smooth and relaxed. Sometimes she does not wait because, in her words, "I want more from the start." I now find myself imitating her lead and taking notes myself, at times. It only happens when I realize I want more from a book, or if, like reading the Known World, I have no one to talk to and know there is much I am missing, hidden in the folds and seams of the story. In my class, there are books I read aloud with little "talk," hoping my students feel the joy and lose themselves in the story. There are books I read and "think about out loud" as well and ask them to think about out loud. There are books where they just read, and there are books where I "force" some notation to help even the intuitive readers develop tools that they can rely on when they finally hit that book that needs something more (for my avid readers, often that struggle happens first with nonfiction). Most of us hit that book at some point and often we give up on it, not realizing that with the right tools the book may be a small treasure chest. Always, I am hoping that by teaching the strategies I am not losing the war. It is so important to do what you describe--teach them how wonderful it is to find and read a good book. Bonita DeAmicis California, Grade 5 _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
