change of topic
January 30, 2007 at 2:43 am | In Uncategorized | 4 CommentsI have decided to change my topic and address new methods in teaching reading, rather than focusing on the evaluation aspect. While the conflict between better reading instruction and standard methods of evaluation remains important, it is the better instruction that I want to focus on.
Though it is hard to believe that it could be considered a revolutionary teaching technique, one 8th grade teacher in Hawaii, Jim Harstad, is spending an hour every day reading to his students as they read along.
I wish I could find the data to back up the claim I am about to make, but I’m sure I saw somewhere that there is a significant positive correlation between how much a child is or was read to and how well they read and write themselves. When there is little to no reading going on in the homes of impoverished, middle-class and evn well off students, I am not surprised that someone has finally made the leap and started reading to their students.
“It’s a three-pronged approach that includes five minutes of journal-writing or free-writing at the start of class to improve the ability to express thoughts; a second five-minute segment devoted to analyzing a new sentence each day; and the remainder of class time is for reading aloud together.
“‘Students tend to think books are dead things… I want to bring them to life’ says Harstad”.
Harstad’s reason for approaching reading this way is what I agree with the most. He says that preparing for a test is a process that runs counter to reading- he doesn’t want students thinking of books as a chore.
If our goal is to get students to become better readers we have to get them more interested in reading so they read on their own for fun, and so they approach reading as a process they can get something worthwhile out of. That way, when it comes time for them to read and understand required texts, they have a wealth of experience from which they can draw tools that they’ve used in the past to help them understand and enjoy.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070128/NEWS07/701280357/1012/NEWS
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Hi Michael or Mike (can’t remember which you prefer),
I think that your change in topic is really interesting. The reason for this being that when I was a student in my younger years, I really did not like to read. For many of the reasons that we’ve talked about in class when I was going through elementary and middle school most of my teachers taught in a way that suggested I should be regurgitating facts about what I read. Then I would have to do that standard book report on each aspect of the text such as setting, plot, theme, etc. It was not until I was in the eighth grade and my teacher read out loud The Tell-Tale Heart in which he expected us to act out in our ways did I gain more of an appreciation for reading. In high school, I began to experience more methodology for teaching literature for students and my love of it began to grow more and more. So I agree with you that yes, evaluation is important to discuss in terms of how students are able to progress in their secondary years but actually determining the different methods is just as important if not more. I like the quote about bringing a text to life because that is what my eighth grade teacher was able to do for me. As a result, now I’m the English major and I think that many students have the ability to process and understand literature better than most administrations give them credit for.
Comment by hpiette — January 31, 2007 #
[...] comment on Mike’s [...]
Pingback by A Splurge of Comments « Always searching for inspiration… — April 16, 2007 #
Thanks for helping
Comment by KenMarshall — April 16, 2007 #
24% of Americans believe that the Internet is able for a time to replace them with a loved one. For obvious reasons, such sentiments particularly prevalent among residents of the United States alone. Both men and women can replace the beloved, beloved trips to the World Network. However, the willingness to such transactions vary among followers of different ideologies: conservatives frowned relate to this idea, and the “progressive-minded” on the contrary, Nerkarat it.
Study company Zogby International also showed that every fourth resident of the United States have their own representation in the web-site or internet-stranichka. Creating internet-dvoynikov most passionate about young people (18-24 years of age) – 78% of them have personal Web page. In doing so, 68% of those surveyed said that the World Wide Web, they do not appear in its original capacity, their virtual overnight seriously different from the real.
Only 11% of Americans would agree implantable microchip in his brain, which would provide them with direct contact with the Internet. But the situation is changing, in the case of children. Almost every fifth resident of the United States would agree to equip their child safety device which would allow him to track the movement in space on the Internet.
10% of U.S. stated that the Internet brings them to God. ” In turn, 6% are convinced that because of the existence of the World Wide Web God away from them.
And how you feel? Sorry bad English.
Comment by Zeratulss — November 12, 2007 #