In a recent post-I explored the question : Why Read from the perspective of what we teach our students about being literate, but I could not stop thinking about answering this question in our own literate lives. As teachers, parents, citizens…WHY READ?
Clearly, I could state the obvious-I love it, I get smarter, I challenge myself, I learn new things, but what about because it makes me a better teacher? The late and wonderful Donald Graves once said, "anything we ask children to do must be for us first."
I believe that we must experience and analyze what we are asking children to complete in our classrooms, and perhaps more importantly, what we ask them to do in their out-of-class lives. This is easier said than done!
In our diligence to be the best teacher of reading, this perhaps is an under emphasized lesson that benefits our students more than any other task we are compelled to complete. When we are able to bring our own intellectual lives vividly into the classroom, we can uncover, unpack, and explore the process with our students in ways far richer than any teachers manual could provide.
After all, how can we we encourage our children to read critically, scrutinizing the most complex and abstract elements of text, if we are not prepared to rise to the occasion? We need to walk our talk.
Think about this at your next teacher in-service (yes, even if it is one that I am giving) as the latest and most innovative ways to teach literacy are revealed. Please do not forget the source of our most powerful teaching comes from mining our own literacy lives. When we read and write for ourselves, collaborate and create with others around those experiences we can understand the learning process from the inside out-the best way.
In the coming weeks, challenge yourself to grow as a reader in one of these ways:
- Make a conscious decision to read something challenging and difficult, perhaps in a different genre or form. Note the struggle. Examine how you grapple and focus on the strategies that helped you breakthrough.
- Reread a powerful, even familiar text. This time through, examine the writer and the decisions made to produce such a masterpiece. What tools, techniques, or elements of style made the piece so compelling and memorable to you?
- Sink Deep into an extended piece of writing. Take a few extra minutes to jot down notes in your reading journey over this time. What builds your stamina? How do you endure? What keeps you focused on the Big Ideas?
- Respond to reading in a new way. Stretch yourself beyond talking with a friend, jotting notes in a journal, or sharing your thoughts at your weekly book club. Take action from the piece. Share, Create, Collaborate in a way you have not before.
I know your lives are busy, but it is easy take this incredible gift of literacy and all its power for granted. In these moments of introspection, we have a rare opportunity to consider the learning process up close and personal. It is hard to imagine a more productive use of your planning time? Think of the million dollar conversations that can follow!
Related Posts:
- Reading as an Act of Engagement
- Comprehension is NOT a Commodity
- Read Alouds-Share Books You Loved as a Child
- Reading Empowerment
- Shared Reading Ideas
