Teachers as Readers: How has what I read changed over time?

 I have continued reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd along with various news articles and blogs.  A few of my favorite blogs include the following:

• Andrea Dekker
• Make It Love It
• Confessions of a Homeschooler
• Pioneer Woman
• Green Kid Crafts Blog

I was going through my "blog roll" and many of the blogs that I used to read are no longer active.  Several are things I'm no longer interested in (blogs geared towards parenting babies, toddlers, and preschoolers), or rather things that I've moved past. 
I can remember reading Nancy Drew and Babysitter Club books as a preteen.  The characters in books and relationships between characters that was most interesting for me to learn about as I read.  Even as an adult, most of the books, news articles, blog entries I'm drawn to revolve around human behavior and interactions.

Teachers as Readers: Why do people journal?

I have been reading  The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd these last couple of weeks.  In addition, I have read various news articles.

For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed keeping journals.  I can remember keeping different journals in classes thoughout my schooling.  In addition, I often would write in a diary or something similar.  Several years ago, I started blogging and that has become to way I frequently journal.  I enjoy being able to write down my thoughts and feelings, writing about things that are new and different for me, including photos or other small artifacts.  One of the things I most enjoy about journalling (is that a word?) is being able to look back on what I have written.  Whether it's a week later or several years later, I have always enjoyed being able to look back and see what was going on at a particular point in my life.  I can't ever remember keeping a journal to document what I'm reading (besides for classes of course!).  The times I do keep some sort of journal for a class, I have found that I do end up understanding the reading material better and also I usually think beyond the text.

Teachers as Readers: Self-efficacy and motivation

Last week, I read For One More Day by Mitch Albom.  I just finished reading I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy by Angie Smith a few days ago, and have now begun reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd.


Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011) states that a high level of self-efficacy in content literacy situations is exhibited in confident learners, and vice versa.  Science is one subject that I have always struggled with personally, and I cannot ever remember feeling confident when it came to learning something of a scientific nature.  Looking back, I do believe that it negatively effected my motivation to succeed in science.  I took the required two science classes in high school to satisfy graduation requirements but did not pursue any further science instruction beyond that.

Reading and writing were two subjects that I had a fairly high level of self-efficacy.  I was very motivated in those subjects and wanted to succeed.  They're also the two subjects I most enjoy teaching.  I love teaching children how to read and write.  In kindergarten, most of them go from children who can maybe write their name, read a word or two, and hopefully know several letters and sounds, and by the end of their year of kindergarten, they're writing sentences and reading books.  I love guiding them through that progress and watch that growth.

My daughter loves reading.  She's six years old; we homeschool.  Her and I sit together most days, and we each read our own books.  It's fun now that we're at the point where we can talk to each other a bit about what we are reading independently. 

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Teachers as Readers: Interest before reading

Currently, I am reading For One More Day by Mitch Albom.  I read another book by Mitch Albom not too long ago, titled The Five People You Meet in Heaven.  One of my aunts and I were discussing books we both read recently, and she highly recommended The Five People You Meet in Heaven to me.  She told me just a little bit about the book, but it was enough to motivate me to want to read the book.  I thoroughly enjoyed the first book I read by Albom, and decided to look to see if he had written any other books of interest to me.  I noticed two that I felt would be worth getting on my nook and reading as time allowed, For One More Day and Tuesdays with Morrie.  I read the overviews for several of his books and also read several of the reviews.  Doing so motivated me to buy the books.  I also purchased another book just tonight titled I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy by Angie Smith.  What motivated me to get this particular book was that I heard the author on a radio show tonight.  She talked about her book and the topic was of interest for me, but also of interest was her style of talking (which I'm hoping carries over into her writing).  Creating interest very often leads to motivation (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2011).  This statement is true whether we are students in fourth grade or adults just looking for a book to read in our spare time.

References 

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading: literacy and learning across

the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Teachers as Readers: Problems with Textbook-only Instruction

One of the first problems with textbook-only instruction that comes to mind is the inaccuracies.  A few years back, my husband read a book that he insisted I also read.  It was Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen.  The book was interesting, and I had never realized how much was misrepresented in some of today's textbooks for a variety of reasons.  There definitely is a value to having and using textbooks, but they do have limitations.  When using textbooks only, only one perspective is given.  I've used textbooks while in school that were the exact same textbooks my parents used growing up (their classmates names were written in the front cover of the book along with the year used); the material was, needless to say, quite outdated.  Another big problem is that many textbooks are boring.  They don't lend themselves to allowing students to learn about what interests them.

I think that as teachers, we need to utilize a variety of resources.  Textbooks can be one of those, but we need to branch out and use the numerous other resources we have available to us.  

References

Loewen, J. W., (1995). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. New York: New Press.

Teachers as Readers: How is studying a text different from reading it?

Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011) discuss how students are expected to learn more with the texts at a higher frequency as they progress through their schooling.  Students can merely read what is before them, or they can study it.  What is the difference?

Frequently, I read through news articles.  I tend to gravitate towards articles on health related issues.  When reading something that I find interesting, such as an Aleccia (2014) article today about a cluster of birth defects in Washington state, I will read through the article and then continue reading about the subject matter to gain more information about what I have read.  If I had only read that particular article, I would have retained some of the information that I read.  For that particular article, I studied the topic in greater depth and could tell you about what the article discussed plus additional information that I read by further reading about the subject through other sources.

Is it necessary to study every text one reads?  Definitely no.  I think at times, we will study a text because we are required to and the other times we study a text is out of personal interest on a particular topic.  


References

Aleccia, J. (2014, February 17). 'Bizarre' Cluster of Severe Birth Defects Haunts Health Experts,  

         NBC News. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/bizarre-cluster-severe- 

         birth-defects-haunts-health-experts-n24986

 


Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading:  literacy and learning across 
           the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Teachers as Readers: Some of the ways I use the new literacies

This chapter got me thinking about the ways I use the new literacies.

• I have had my own personal blog for several years and still maintain it.  I have used it mainly as a diary.  I enjoy looking back on what I've shared through my blog.
• My daughter and I are working on a big geography project that we are documenting through a blog.  Others seem to enjoy looking at the blog and seeing the progress.  It's a nice way to share what we are learning with our family and friends (especially since more of them live far from us), and also share what we've received from our family and friends in the mail.  
• I have used blogs to share my assignments for several classes including this one

• I'm frequently using the internet to gain more information for a variety of reasons (personal interest, class related, etc.).

• Creating youtube videos such as this one: Scary and fun night
• using glogster, weebly, and other similar programs
• Social media websites such as facebook
• Participating on bulletin boards (professionally and personal interests)

Teachers as Readers: 1st big test

My first big test in school was the math regents exam, and I was in 8th grade at the time.  I remember completing test after test in that class (old regents exams).  I don't remember being nervous at the time, but I do remember feeling that it was a big deal.  I'm sure there were word problems on the test and remember being required to "show our work," but we were not required to explain any of the problems.  We just needed to provide the correct answer.

Teachers as Readers:Cultural and linguistic differences

As teachers we need to be responsive to our students' backgrounds, languages, and experiences.  The books, magazines and whatnot that I choose to read independently are ones of interest to me based on my own personal experiences.  For example, my daughter was born with a congenital heart defect and a few books I have read were written by authors who've written about their experiences as a parent with a child with a heart defect.  Many blogs I read are written by parents of children with heart defects.  I could not see myself choosing to read such texts if it weren't for the common fact that we both have children both with similar health issues.  While teaching in Alaska, many of the classrooms I taught in as a substitute teacher included reading books about Alaska (children, culture, state information, weather related, arctic animals, etc.).  Those books were very relevant to those particular children and those books definitely gained a lot of interest.  One year while teaching preschool (and currently with my daughter who I am homeschooling), we completed a project where we invited families (near and far) to write the class a letter or send a postcard telling us a little bit about where they live.  We received many postcards, travel brochures, letters, and other materials and the kids truly enjoyed and looked forward to reading these.  It was relevant to their backgrounds and in some cases their languages.

Teachers as Readers: Reading Strategies

Reading strategies that I use to successfully complete an academic reading assignment and for writing papers include reading selectively, constructing, revising, and questioning the meanings made while reading, integrating prior knowledge with material in the text, reading different kinds of texts differently, attending closely to the setting and characters, frequently constructing and revising summaries of what has been read, and thinking about text before, during and after reading.  I could go on to include additional strategies.  In a way, it's hard to pick out the specific strategies that I use since I do them automatically the vast majority of the time.  In much of the professional texts that I choose to read or are assigned to read, I feel that I work a lot on constructing, revising, and questioning the meanings made while reading.  Often in magazines that I read, I have specific goals in mind (am I interested in learning how to make this or learning how to do this?) while deciding which articles I will read and which I won't bother with.  Some things I may read carefully in the magazines that I read, and other parts I can quickly read or skip over.  In the book I'm reading (The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie by Dana Wilkerson, Kim Carpenter, Krickitt Carpenter), I have noticed that I have been paying close attention to the setting, characters, and that plot of the story and comparing it to the movie based on the book (I wish I had read the book first!).  There have been many similarities, but also huge differences between the book and the movie (both excellent but so very different at the same time).

Teachers as Readers: The Organizing Principle

According to Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2011) "All content area teachers play a critical role in helping students to think, learn, and communicate with texts" (p.1).

My background includes teaching preschool and kindergarten for the most part.  In the past, I have worked as a substitute teacher in grades kindergarten through 5th grade.  I mention this because I have never had to separate the subjects nor been considered a content area teacher.  For the most part, teachers in the younger grades expect to teach all the subjects and often those subjects overlap with each other.  One difference that I have noticed with the introduction of common core is that reading and writing is integrated even more than in the past, and as teachers, we are expected to guide students through learning to truly understand text.  It makes a lot of sense to me that all teachers, regardless of what they teach, play an imperative role in helping students to think, learn, and communicate with texts.

I have been reading a couple of magazines (cooking) and occasionally a book (The Vow: The True Events that Inspired the Movie by Dana Wilkerson, Kim Carpenter, Krickitt Carpenter).  One thing that I've noticed is that if a text is something I choose of interest or even if it's not something I choose but find interesting, I am more motivated to truly understand it and retain what I've learned.  Reflecting on my experiences of going to middle school, high school, and college, I have noticed a mix of teachers who appear to feel that it is their role to help students learn and understand texts while others see that as the role of the reading teacher only.



References

Vacca, R.T., Vacca, J. L. & Mraz, M.  (2011). Content area reading:  literacy and learning across 
           the  curriculum. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.