In Wilhelm’s “You Gotta BE the Book”, the section “Looking at Student Reading” stuck out to me the most. As a teacher, you do need to teach the things mandated by particular curriculum. However, it is more important to listen to what the student wants. In this section, Wilhelm writes that “…through the initial interviews and conferences, it seemed that the real reading lives of my students were led outside of school” (39). As a student, I can completely relate to that statement. When interviewing the students, Wilhelm discovered that the majority of them felt that they could not express their feelings through literature assigned in school; rather, they were expected to analyze and interpret. When growing up, I often felt at a disadvantage when reading assigned stories. Sometimes I just didn’t want to read them; I felt no connection to the text. I feel that students who are learning different ways to respond to literature should have a wide variety of choices to be able to respond to.
I think the first step here is encouragement. How can a student develop a meaningful relationship with literature if the teacher doesn’t encourage it? Have the students start with magazines. At least at this point, they are engaging in some type of reading. Perhaps deliver a class survey asking the students what their favorite hobby or topic is for literature; this way you can offer them suggestions of outside reading. Once a student finds something they appreciate, their relationship with reading can become much more intense.
As a teacher, I want to make sure I encourage reading in my classroom, not just teach it. I’m sure at some level, I will assign book reports to my students. For the book reports, I can split up the amount of classic and contemporary books they read. When I was in ninth grade, all of our book reports were on required classic novels. We could pick from a list, but at the end of the day, I still did not want to read Hemingway. At this point in my academic career, I felt at a complete disadvantage because I had no say in what I wanted to read. Sure, I got to pick from a list, but that doesn’t give me as a student much credit. In tenth grade, my wish came true. I was finally allowed to choose my own books. Given freedom in high school is the best feeling. My teachers in high school were so keen on making sure everyone knew they were the authoritative figure. Being allowed to pick my own book was important for me. It allowed me to be much more creative when completing my book reports. I want to give that feeling to my students. I think by being allowed to pick their own book, they obviously will be more in-touch with outside reading.
I think it is an awesome idea to allow students to choose an appropriate book of their choice for a report. It implements differentiated learning and gives students a chance to express themselves. I definitely am going to try this in my classroom! Outside reading is so important for growth academically and as a person. With this idea the student and teacher benefit. Cassie, do not worry because you will certainly "give that feeling" to your students.
ReplyDeleteStudent choice can be a very powerful tool for promoting literacy. How can we motivate students who have little interest in "required" school reading, however?
ReplyDeleteEncouragement is crucial for getting students more involved. Also the different teaching techniques that you implement in your classroom should be encouraging and engaging in order for your students to feel this way. Therefore it depends on us, the teachers to evauluate each assignment given in multiple ways to figure out if the assignment is touching base on many concepts. These "fun" assignments can give students more interest in the required school reading as well as how you teach the required text. By giving students the ability to be more social, modern and cooperative students should be more enthusiastic about reading!
ReplyDeleteI also like Wilhelm's "Looking at Student Reading." It is important to emphasize on reading that students enjoy. In grade school and though middle school I always thought of reading as "homework." My teachers only gave physical work, such as worksheets, to go over the readings. I think students should interact with readng through many different teaching strategies.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of getting students to read the required reading I believe there are ways to make the students want to read these texts. While I also did not, at least at first, enjoy some of the required readings I had in school my teachers made me look forward to getting to certain parts in the text. I had the same teacher for 10th and 11th grade English and she always had some fun activity planned for the middle or the end of a required text. For example we did Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream, and she let us know when beginning the text at the end part of our exam was going to be getting with a group and modernizing and acting out a scene in the work.
ReplyDeleteAnother way to get students to want to read required texts is to give them options within the required texts. Say maybe there are 10 books a 9th grade class could read but you only have time to do 5 units. Have the student’s research the 10 books and see which they would prefer to do units on. Letting the students be actively engaged in their learning will excite them more.
I completely agree with what you had to say about Wilhelm's book and teaching. It is extremely important to take into consideration the student's interest. I have found a lot of people from our class reflecting on this point. That allow shows the importance of what the student likes. Also, your ideas of what you are going to do as a teacher are fantastic. I can completely see myself using similar strategies.
ReplyDeleteI like your ideas Chatty Cassie! I would love to hear from a room full of my students about 30 different books they all chose to read. I think as a teacher grading books reports and listening to speeches all on the same single books will get monotonous. I do not want to be bored with the work my students hand in; nor do I want them to feel bored completing my assignments. I want to be excited to hear their ideas and feelings, and one of the best ways to accomplish this is to let them choose their own literature sometimes. Yes, it will be tricky to grade if I have not read all of the books they are reading. But we can also do activities with our students that are NOT graded for a change...just imagine! In my tenth grade English class, we had a day every five to six weeks called a "literary tea day." We would come in, drink tea, eat snacks, and tell our classmates about the latest book we read outside of class. It was very informal though, which made the reading for this day fun. It did not even feel like homework; I loved it!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love that you included the word encouragement in your post, because as a teacher encouragement will be one of the most difficult and important parts of our job description. I can completely relate with your lack of motivation to read required texts throughout school because we have definitely all been there. Although the classics are a vital part of curriculum; as a teacher it is important that we allow the students the opportunity to relate to the text. I can tell that you definitely relate to Wilhelm's styles and methods and that is great, because that means you will be a creative and ENCOURAGING teacher as well as one who excels at teaching mandated curriculum.
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