This article was very interesting to me. The concept has really never crossed my mind, and looking back in my elementary years, I cannot recall ever being overwhelmed in my later elementary years. A time that does stick out in my mind is the year I had Miss Arrington as my third grade teacher. She would read to us in the beginning of class every single day. What made it so memorable was that she did not just read out of a story book; she would read from magazines, newspapers, and a variety of other prints. After she would read, we would be asked to write in our journals about the "Text of the Day". Each day she had a different prompt such as "If you could change the ending of that story, what would you change and why?" It was always a fun and entertaining, and it caused us to think about several different topics that we probably would not have been introduced to for several more years. She must have known what she was doing because I have no bad memories of reading and understanding information during my elementary years.
Another part of this article that struck my attention was the section from the Carnegie Reporter that stated, "Nearly half of 17-year-olds are unable to read at the ninth grade level". This is a very disturbing statistic, and causes me to feel naive since I had no idea this was even possible when I was in high school. This brings up my question.
--- How can we discover if children's inability to read later on in life is a result from the "systems" used to teach them, or if it was actually a reflection of a year or years of poor teaching?
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I have the same questions you do (not on my blog, but in general)...I guess all we can do as teachers is do our best to make sure each child that comes into our classroom leaves knowing how to read well.
ReplyDeleteWow Kari, sounds like you had a really good experience in elementary related to expository texts. I wish that I could say the same. You actually answered one of my questions that had to do with how exactly do we teach how to use informational texts. Your response about your experience was just one way that it could be used in the classroom; and in your case, proved to be successful. You ask a good question and all I can say is I think it's both the system and lack of teaching or extra attention. How in the world does a 17 year old get by with a <9th grade reading level? Craaazzyy.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I want to say that I LOVE your blog. You did such a great job designing it! Also, I thought what you said about your teacher reading to you every day from different texts was really great. That is definitely something I will have to borrow for my own students. Great job!
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