I'm so glad you asked this question. I have turned away from teaching reading strategies. I think what reading strategies, as we think of them right now, really are are study strategies. The important thing to me is that students love reading and value talking about books. We talk about the books we read all the time, but the conversation rolls along naturally. Students naturally bring up all the things we talk about-- inferences, background knowledge, connections. I don't really care that they can label them, but more that they get the idea that reading is thinking. I mean, that's the whole point of teaching strategies anyway, right? To get students to think?
On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 12:41 PM, Stewart, L <[email protected]>wrote: > I love teaching, but lately I have been questioning the way I teach, > particularly reading. I am an avid reader. Reading is an integral part of > my adult life. I was never taught any reading strategies. I have children > in my classroom who love to read and read way above grade level. I feel > that they, like me, have already internalized the strategies and yes they > can be strengthened but probably that will happen naturally as well. The > more they read, the stronger they will become. It seems that we are > prescribing medication whether the child is ill or not. It's like using > manipulatives in math. Our new math program requires the use of > manipulatives all the time. It used to be that you used maniuplatives when > you differentiated for the child who was having difficulty with a concept. > It seems like we are heading back to a one-size-fits-all mentality which > scares me. I sometimes think the reading strategies were meant for > educators so that we could become better teachers of reading, particularly > for our struggling readers, and I think we have taken it too far and use it > in all cases. When I look at the current guided reading models it is so > prescribed: everyone is in a quick guided group with the teacher drilling a > skill or they are reading independently. I am having a difficult time > seeing the joy in that model. Where do the rich conversations that connect > children to each other and to literature take place in this current model? > Was the model intended for accomplished readers? > > Leslie R. Stewart > Grade 3 Teacher > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > 203-481-5386, 203-483-0749 FAX > > To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, > ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of > poetry. ~ Gaston Bachelard ~ > > > <http://thinkexist.com/birthday/september_24/> > _______________________________________________ > 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. > > _______________________________________________ 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.
