It’s hard to believe it’s mid-September. This school year is
flying by quickly, and I feel like I can almost put my feet on the ground.
“Beginning of the year teacher tired” is a crazy level of exhaustion. The
regular chaos of the start of school has been intensified by the new 21st
Century grant program at JMB. The afterschool program has exciting goals and
possibilities for students, but getting a program this big off the ground is a
major undertaking. All of the paperwork and drama is worth every minute and all of the stress to see how
much our students are loving the program.
Aside from our afterschool program, I do some literacy
coaching. J
As a coach and an advocate of literacy for life, one thing I want to do this year is help teachers enhance classroom libraries and expand student
choice. Our school has a long history of providing ample reading materials for
students, but students’ voices and choices have been limited by levels.
Although I completely understand that students need to read material they can
comprehend (reading IS making meaning), I believe there are authentic ways of teaching students to select
books. A level or a color or a number should never define students as readers.
Approaching this topic is sensitive, especially with people grounded in a system. A shift in thinking about student choice in
reading is a process, and I know it’s not something that will not change overnight.
At the beginning of this school year, I had the chance to meet with every
teacher and classroom assistant in small groups. I asked every group to
describe a time when reading was successful for them and a time when reading
was a struggle. Guess what? Almost every group listed being told what they CAN
read as a struggle. The similarities across the groups were absolutely
astounding. We have fond memories of reading with others, happy thoughts about
social interaction around a text, feelings of confidence when we read something
of interest or passion. At the close of our time together, I posed a series of questions. One of the questions was, "If XYZ made us feel unsuccessful or less than a reader, why are we continuing the practice?"
The most powerful question related directly to our school mission.
Our school mission is “to provide an environment where students are loved and
where students love to learn.”
My question: if we want students to love to
learn, how are we encouraging them to LOVE to READ?
I 110% believe positive literacy role models and authentic
opportunities for student choice are the answer. What are you doing to
encourage real-life literacy love in your classroom or building?
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