Readicide

          In my 408 class, we read a Kelly Gallagher book called “Teaching Adolescents”, and it was about teaching kids how to read, but in an effective way. I really enjoy Gallahger’s outlook on reading because it helps me as a future teacher prepare for what I am about to face. 

          In my class, today we were talking about teachers preparing students for the test. Now, this seems to be a hot topic in all my education classes because it is an issue that we, as future educators, realize is ineffective because students become bored with the subject. Gallagher states, however, in his book Readicide “that teaching to the test is the foundation of good teaching, and when every minute counts, teaching to the test provides necessary focus, so time is not wasted” (12). It isn’t about teaching to the test, but instead it is about teaching shallow tests. I love this statement because it is so true. We as teachers, are educating our students to practice for a multiple-choice test, yet we create prompts for essays that hold more value than state test questions do.

          A quote that really stuck out to me was on page 106, “if you want to kill the love of reading in a student, plant innumerable stop signs in the text that will require the student to exam his reading process from each stop” (Gallagher). This quote applies to over analyzing a text, meaning the teacher is over teaching the material.

          The differences between over teaching and under teaching a text are very interesting. I didn’t know that it was hot and cold, I just thought it was underteaching. I don’t know what grade I’ll be teaching, but I like how the author talked about if my students are higher level, have them read a book and come back and discuss it as a class. Otherwise, if my students are lower level then I should incorporate mini lessons into how to read better. Gallagher gives the example of having students mark spots that were confusing in their books.

          This whole book was well written and I enjoyed reading the author’s point of view on how we are killing reading. It makes me think, as a teacher, how I am going to teach reading to my students. While yet, following the state standards.

               

I Read It, But I Don't Get It

The chapter that stuck with me the most in “I Read It, But I don’t Get It”, by Cris Tovani, would be chapter 5. Tovani discusses how students get stuck in reading, and they just quit. That is exactly what I do, even to this day. If I don’t understand a text, then I don’t even want to bother with it. It was useful reading the different strategies on how I can fix that type of issue. I like when the author talks about thinking harder. That doesn’t even work! I had math teacher who used to tell me to think harder when I didn’t get a problem, as well. It frustrated me. If I don’t get it then I don’t get it, why are you forcing me to find an answer I don’t know. I feel like teachers in general do not want to give their students the answer, so they sit there until a light bulb turns on above their students’ head. Which sometimes it does, but most of the time the student just wants the answer.

One strategy I really liked was write about what you’ve read. I do this all the time in college. I even performed this strategy while reading Alexie Sherman. After each chapter, I would summarize what I read for that chapter, usually I would have a bullet point format. When my classmates perform their mini lessons on that book, I will be prepared because if I don’t remember something I can look back at my notes. Or if I have something that I want to share with the class, I can look back at my notes. Another strategy I do often is retelling the story, this really helps me grasp the text. No matter if it’s my parents, brothers, or my dogs; I will retell the story whether they want to hear it or not because it helps me as a reader.

As a teacher, I know reading is going to be tough for my students because it goes in one ear and out the other. However, Cris Tovani helped me better understand the frustration that my students will feel because he provided a story of his own experiences. This book will be on my shelf when I’m a teacher. It’s vital to put myself in my students shoes, and instead of getting upset at them for not understanding what they read, I need to support them and find different ways to collaborate understanding and reading together.

Critical Pedagogy in an Urban High School English Classroom

           I absolutely loved this text because it talked about popular culture being integrated in the classroom. I feel like education is focused on preparing students for college, placement tests, ACT’s, SAT’s, etc. It’s stressful not only for the teachers, but for the students as well because they must compete with other students, and measure up to what their teachers/parents want them to be. Having students apply their life to the texts they are reading in class, helps them better understand the characters point of view, especially with oppressed texts. High school is a detrimental time in a young adult’s life, they are going through hormones, issues at home, peer pressure, and oppression as well. We, as teachers, can integrate multiculturalism in our lessons by having “students pay close attention to the treatment of those who [are] distinguished as cultural “Others” (5). When I was in high school, I hated reading classics. This included Old Man and the Sea, Poison Wood Bible, Romeo and Juliet, Fahrenheit 451, etc. They are boring, and I always felt the teacher rushed through it, so she could move on to the next thing that the state required her to do. To this day, I don’t remember any of those texts because multiculturalism was never applied. I remember reading the oppressive text, The Secret Life of Bees, and I will never forget that book. Why? Because my teacher made sure we, as members of society, recognized and understood racism. There is a difference between “reading the world and reading the word, where readings of the word informed readings of the world in a dialectic cycle” (9). Our teacher made us do both because you can’t have one without the other. She did this by creating a wailing wall for us to stick our prayers on, and she also made us kneel on grits so we knew what punishment the characters went through. I will never forget that book, or that lesson because it put me in the characters’ shoes.

PAULO FREIRE: CHAPTER 2 OF PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED

This chapter was very confusing, and used words that I didn't even know. I was constantly looking up certain words, just so I could understand the sentence. I did not like it at all, and it made me feel stupid for not knowing what anything meant. I was very frustrated. What I did like about it, however, was how they talked about student and teacher relationship. How the teacher thinks of his/her students as banks to be filled with knowledge. I don’t agree with this concept because I don’t want to think of my students as “containers” to be filled, and the more I fill them the better a teacher I am. Students are human beings and my efficiency as a teacher isn’t about how much I can teach them in one sitting, or even one year. It’s about understanding, compassion, and being sensitive to their intelligence. Everyone student is unique, and some will learn faster than others. The banking concept of education, I believe is wrong. One thing that stuck out to me was the teacher regulates how the world is perceived by the student. This applies to me because I want to be a middle school teacher, specifically, I want to travel the world and teach abroad. One of my goals as a teacher is to help my students become a civil human being in society. Students who are in middle school are moldable and vulnerable. It’s my job to help them be knowledgeable about the world, the good and the bad because when they go out there on their own, whether it’s in college or hard labor, I want them to remember me as the teacher who educated and prepared them for reality. I want my students to think of themselves as conscious human beings and liberate themselves.