Absolutely phenomenal post Matt. I think that you definitely touched on a major contributor by wondering :is the reading curriculum making our students less-effective readers?" by addressing the issue of time. Time is pretty is pretty much the only thing in life that once expended can never be replenished. When it's gone - it's gone. So maybe that's where we begin as educators. I once worked with a school that was rigidly faithful to the basal teacher guide. Every question. Every activity. EVERY EVERY! I engaged them in what I called ARGUING WITH THE PUBLISHER. We went through a lesson for a specific book (a different one at each grade) and I wrote the suggestion from the plan with added columns: How will this benefit kids? How long would the __ take. What ELSE could we do with that time that would maximize the benefit. While it took some time, it engaged teachers in some very powerful conversations about the limited precious time we have with kids. In fact several teachers even said, "You mean I can choose to do something else and not what is in the book. Sad statement but reality. So what if we put our questions related to this around time. How often do we talk about the benefit of anything (or lack thereof). What if we asked, "What is the book that goes with the lesson. What other book would allow us to accomplish the same goals that would be more motivating? Is there a poem or article. What will we do with the added time. Will the book motivated readers. What are we sacrificing by the choices we make. For me, time is the one we never talk about and develop a plan for and it should be at the forefront. You showed in your post how teachers are capable at looking at alternatives in the library story. But we have to provide time for those conversations. And of course the big one: How much of that precious time are we allocating for time spent reading CHOICE books. And let's not forget the nonsensical mandates as is happening in Virginia now. I'm not sure if you saw this wonderful piece by Dorothy Suskind - The Science of Reading and the Perils of State Literacy Policies: Virginia’s Cautionary Tale but take a look at the "Not scientifically based " and specifically #11: Student book choice. Right now we face a hidden enemy that is complicating all of this and they are changing schools in ways that do great harm. Very scary times indeed but it's incredible what individual teachers can do to hold tight to what they value
Thank you Mary for commenting and your insights. "Arguing with the publisher" is a healthy approach to any curriculum resource.
And time...yes...it's the currency of the classroom. How we spend it reflects our beliefs and values. It's easy to blame teachers and leaders for any perceived lack of achievement, and yet the system incentives education to prepare students for a test instead of for life. Very sad what Virginia educators are dealing with right now.
Sadly the "test vs. life" issue you refer to is alive and well in education and teachers are not given a voice in the matter. We are famous for repeating past mistakes in education as the pendulum swings back and forth but rarely in the middle!
p158 Quote – ‘Knowing that one is allowed – and expected – to read critically is as important as knowing how to read critically.’ It is our role as educators to ensure young people understand this and create the safe environments for them to ‘try out’ their thinking with their peers, encounter safe challenges and refine their beliefs, as tentative as some thinking can be!
Afflerbach's quote (p 142): ‘Epistemology and epistemic beliefs … it’s our knowledge about knowledge – the state of knowledge, how it is created, and what counts a “knowledge”. And, “Its how and what we think about knowledge”… epistemology helps readers vet the meaning they construct or choose to avoid particular texts altogether.”
These ‘big, new words’ frightened me when reading the chapter the first time – I got the intent, but this post has prompted me to revisit my first thinking with new meaning. It reminds me of Pennac – The rights of the reader. This has consolidated my understandings about the reader having multiple chances, choices, confidence, challenge, and conversations. If young people do not have the opportunities to access a broad range of reading materials there will be, yet another c, consequences. The is a moral and societal imperative, here. What do we have to do for ourselves, and students, to enable critical reading and higher-order thinking in order to become informed and active citizens or educators?
This brings us around to the Conclusion chapter and our responsibility as educators to read the broad range of reading (and literacy) research – to analyse, synthesise, make connections to the curriculum, discuss our understandings with colleagues, question and challenge the scienceS. p163 – ‘Teaching readers demands new approaches to practice and ongoing research to further explain the powerful interrelationships between the factors that are the focus of teaching READERS.’
Absolutely phenomenal post Matt. I think that you definitely touched on a major contributor by wondering :is the reading curriculum making our students less-effective readers?" by addressing the issue of time. Time is pretty is pretty much the only thing in life that once expended can never be replenished. When it's gone - it's gone. So maybe that's where we begin as educators. I once worked with a school that was rigidly faithful to the basal teacher guide. Every question. Every activity. EVERY EVERY! I engaged them in what I called ARGUING WITH THE PUBLISHER. We went through a lesson for a specific book (a different one at each grade) and I wrote the suggestion from the plan with added columns: How will this benefit kids? How long would the __ take. What ELSE could we do with that time that would maximize the benefit. While it took some time, it engaged teachers in some very powerful conversations about the limited precious time we have with kids. In fact several teachers even said, "You mean I can choose to do something else and not what is in the book. Sad statement but reality. So what if we put our questions related to this around time. How often do we talk about the benefit of anything (or lack thereof). What if we asked, "What is the book that goes with the lesson. What other book would allow us to accomplish the same goals that would be more motivating? Is there a poem or article. What will we do with the added time. Will the book motivated readers. What are we sacrificing by the choices we make. For me, time is the one we never talk about and develop a plan for and it should be at the forefront. You showed in your post how teachers are capable at looking at alternatives in the library story. But we have to provide time for those conversations. And of course the big one: How much of that precious time are we allocating for time spent reading CHOICE books. And let's not forget the nonsensical mandates as is happening in Virginia now. I'm not sure if you saw this wonderful piece by Dorothy Suskind - The Science of Reading and the Perils of State Literacy Policies: Virginia’s Cautionary Tale but take a look at the "Not scientifically based " and specifically #11: Student book choice. Right now we face a hidden enemy that is complicating all of this and they are changing schools in ways that do great harm. Very scary times indeed but it's incredible what individual teachers can do to hold tight to what they value
https://ncte.org/blog/2022/12/science-reading-state-policies/?fbclid=IwAR0LeHhG7uE27YS4L2kioHkzujs17BPsUgF3IJBZ0MbmSylhBulAkWcIry4
Thank you Mary for commenting and your insights. "Arguing with the publisher" is a healthy approach to any curriculum resource.
And time...yes...it's the currency of the classroom. How we spend it reflects our beliefs and values. It's easy to blame teachers and leaders for any perceived lack of achievement, and yet the system incentives education to prepare students for a test instead of for life. Very sad what Virginia educators are dealing with right now.
Sadly the "test vs. life" issue you refer to is alive and well in education and teachers are not given a voice in the matter. We are famous for repeating past mistakes in education as the pendulum swings back and forth but rarely in the middle!
p158 Quote – ‘Knowing that one is allowed – and expected – to read critically is as important as knowing how to read critically.’ It is our role as educators to ensure young people understand this and create the safe environments for them to ‘try out’ their thinking with their peers, encounter safe challenges and refine their beliefs, as tentative as some thinking can be!
What a powerful example Matt – thank you!
Afflerbach's quote (p 142): ‘Epistemology and epistemic beliefs … it’s our knowledge about knowledge – the state of knowledge, how it is created, and what counts a “knowledge”. And, “Its how and what we think about knowledge”… epistemology helps readers vet the meaning they construct or choose to avoid particular texts altogether.”
These ‘big, new words’ frightened me when reading the chapter the first time – I got the intent, but this post has prompted me to revisit my first thinking with new meaning. It reminds me of Pennac – The rights of the reader. This has consolidated my understandings about the reader having multiple chances, choices, confidence, challenge, and conversations. If young people do not have the opportunities to access a broad range of reading materials there will be, yet another c, consequences. The is a moral and societal imperative, here. What do we have to do for ourselves, and students, to enable critical reading and higher-order thinking in order to become informed and active citizens or educators?
This brings us around to the Conclusion chapter and our responsibility as educators to read the broad range of reading (and literacy) research – to analyse, synthesise, make connections to the curriculum, discuss our understandings with colleagues, question and challenge the scienceS. p163 – ‘Teaching readers demands new approaches to practice and ongoing research to further explain the powerful interrelationships between the factors that are the focus of teaching READERS.’
The 6 Cs - an essential set of principles for being a reader!