1. Where in your school do students have a genuine voice in their reading lives? Where is that voice missing?
2. What would you have to release, e.g., control, curriculum, or an assumption, to treat students as leaders in their own reading lives ?
In schools that prioritized Independent Reading, students were given a well-thought-out balance of guidance and choice in their reading lives. Sadly, students' voices are now missing in most of the schools I see. If Independent Reading does take place, it is now independent reading (no capitals), meaning that students might have time to "read when you are finished with this required work from the curriculum." The teacher is not able to devote time to conferring.
2. The answer depends on the teaching scenario, who the "you" is:
Scenario 1:
If teachers are used to being in charge of what, why, and how students read, and they are now allowed to act with agency, they will have to rethink their beliefs. When teachers make the shift to treating students as leaders in their own reading lives, they shift from seeing themselves as the holders of knowledge to seeing themselves as facilitators. They need to trust that the students do, indeed, want to read.
Scenario 2:
Administrators need to treat teachers as professionals, let go of controlling what teachers teach every minute of the day, and let go of the notion that curriculum is meant to be followed day-by-day because each classroom is the same. Administrators need to shift their thinking about teachers, allowing them be the decision maker in the classroom.
Yes, this is too common: time to read when all the other "stuff" is done. I think a powerful measure would be to track how much time students spend actually reading or writing texts with some of these programs. I think teachers and leaders would be surprised if not shocked. No purpose in conferring if they are not reading...
Ditto on the letting go - there is an assumption that the teacher has the authority to release responsibility to the students. Thank you Hannah for your wise comments.
Thanks Dr. Sam for sharing this work! In the near future, I will be hosting a free webinar for all subscribers that walks you through the library book budget process. I'll include a link to the toolkit that they can download and adapt for their classroom or school library book budget project. Take care, -Matt
This is in reply to your questions:
1. Where in your school do students have a genuine voice in their reading lives? Where is that voice missing?
2. What would you have to release, e.g., control, curriculum, or an assumption, to treat students as leaders in their own reading lives ?
In schools that prioritized Independent Reading, students were given a well-thought-out balance of guidance and choice in their reading lives. Sadly, students' voices are now missing in most of the schools I see. If Independent Reading does take place, it is now independent reading (no capitals), meaning that students might have time to "read when you are finished with this required work from the curriculum." The teacher is not able to devote time to conferring.
2. The answer depends on the teaching scenario, who the "you" is:
Scenario 1:
If teachers are used to being in charge of what, why, and how students read, and they are now allowed to act with agency, they will have to rethink their beliefs. When teachers make the shift to treating students as leaders in their own reading lives, they shift from seeing themselves as the holders of knowledge to seeing themselves as facilitators. They need to trust that the students do, indeed, want to read.
Scenario 2:
Administrators need to treat teachers as professionals, let go of controlling what teachers teach every minute of the day, and let go of the notion that curriculum is meant to be followed day-by-day because each classroom is the same. Administrators need to shift their thinking about teachers, allowing them be the decision maker in the classroom.
I could go on....
Yes, this is too common: time to read when all the other "stuff" is done. I think a powerful measure would be to track how much time students spend actually reading or writing texts with some of these programs. I think teachers and leaders would be surprised if not shocked. No purpose in conferring if they are not reading...
Ditto on the letting go - there is an assumption that the teacher has the authority to release responsibility to the students. Thank you Hannah for your wise comments.
This is DrSam7. I will be posting this in my Read All About It blog post this week. Good luck with the project.
Thanks Dr. Sam for sharing this work! In the near future, I will be hosting a free webinar for all subscribers that walks you through the library book budget process. I'll include a link to the toolkit that they can download and adapt for their classroom or school library book budget project. Take care, -Matt