Tempers are hot, especially with budget cuts happening, and everyone wants to know: whose fault is it?
Everyone also wants to blame teachers. In fact, an entire debate in the NYTimes was dedicated to this very topic. But as Francesca Burns has written, in most of the countries who do well on the PISA, teachers are trusted and respected professionals whose opinions and advise is sought and followed. Stephen Krashen, educational researcher, has also pointed out that the countries who did best on the PISA have the least amount of poverty, or select students to take the exams, unlike the random draw in the US. In the UK reading crisis, the boroughs with the lowest reading ages are also some of the poorest boroughs with the most council estates in London. The media was quick to point out that some boroughs are getting better results than others, which leads them to believe that it must be the teachers' faults... they aren't working hard enough to get results out of the children.
Now that last statement sort of offended me as a teacher. I don't see my students as animals that I train to get things out of them. I see them as developing minds who will go through different processes as they learn.
Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, also found in his book that students from wealthy parents do better not because they get extra help, but because even on school holidays they are surrounded by education and information be it trips to museums, educational camps, or merely the kinds of magazines, newspapers and books laying around the house.
Each term I meet with the parents of my students and we set targets... this is a tedious task for everyone and the problem most tedious is that rarely are the previous targets met. For example, several students have the task of reading every night for 20 minutes. Some kids read the newspaper, some read books, some read to younger brothers and sisters, but few actually read ever. Their targets sit in their organisers and mock them, waiting to be taken seriously.
Because most of my students don't like reading.
This in and of itself sort of shocks me. I might be a bit different, but I taught myself to read when I was 3. When I was 4 I went to pre-school and threw a fit during ABC lessons because I could already read. So my teacher set me in a corner and gave me books while they did their lessons.
My greatest challenge as a teacher is helping kids to read because I never struggled to do it.
The thing least challenging as a teacher is showing kids how much I love reading and learning.
Many thinkers in the UK believe that children need to be aware of their learning and their targets and so inspectors will ask students what they need to do to improve.
I feel like this is really unnatural and very unchild-like. Children learn by discovery and by learning to love things. Children learn by being amazed by the world around them and listening carefully.
So many of my friends tell me stories of the books they loved as children. Books about babysitting adventures and school mysteries, books about naughty boys running away, books about fairies and monsters and super heroes.
Each child has something they love that catches their attention and their heart and won't leave it. Children want to read the same story before bed each night. They want to watch the same dvd over and over. They want to wear the same clothes because they love them.
The most shocking and least surprising statistic about the UK reading crisis is that children don't read at home. Most shocking because I can't imagine a home without reading, but least surprising because I teach them and I know they don't read at home and probably their parents don't either.
That's why the problem isn't teachers focusing on functional literacy... it's teachers and parents, it's the community developing a love and culture of reading. Whether or not you need to read to pass a driving test or fill in a mortgage contract... no one wants to do that kind of reading. Reading should be about things that grasp our minds and hearts and don't let go...
At my first school in NJ, I taught a class of students who had failed English. At the beginning of the year, one of my students looked at me and said "Miss, when you read, you can see everything in your mind, can't you?" And I realized that they didn't have this ability... something that came so naturally to me, had never happened to them.
After going through Othello, Modern American Poets, Of Mice and Men, and a few other short novels, at the end of the year, when only half of them had completed their research papers (laziness runs deep and is very hard to overcome) some of my students were reflecting on what they'd learned and smiling said "Miss, I still don't like reading, but I could totally see the hurricane sweeping away Janie in the flood in Their Eyes Were Watching God"... my eyes swelled up with tears. I had taught them something, something that would enrich their lives forever.
They may not develop a deep and life-long love of reading, but they WILL be among the many who say "The book was better because I didn't imagine it like the director"... a skill so many take for granted.
Cultivating a culture of reading goes beyond confidence or skill... it's helping parents and kids alike engage with books and build relationships around reading. Reading often and together, celebrating good books (cause lets face it, some of those beginner books by Accelerated Reader are LAME)... (this will have to be another post)... taking trips to the library, reading as a family, and building up a love of learning.
Students who love reading and love learning are not just those who are good at it, but those who find the process enriching, fun and valuable. So lets make reading and learning enriching, fun and valuable... not tedious, boring and target based... because those things are definitely not child-like...
Well mused.
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