Saturday, October 1, 2016
The Essential Reading Life...Simplify Your Teaching Life
I chose to read Reading Essentials by Regie Routman. I noticed right away that the photographs seemed old and out of date. The text however was spot on. The book was published in 2003 but had so many issues that still apply today. This upset me realizing that not much has changed for teachers or students in 13 years. The book was written to make the teachers life easier. To put some fun back in to teaching and to relieve the overburdened teacher. "our teaching lives need to become saner, smarter and more manageable"." The teacher has way to much to do with not enough time to do it in".
Great advice was to focus on what matters most. Teach the child not the label. Children believe they can succeed when they connect the unknown to the known. I found this to be a nice chapter with advise I could use. But it seems these topics are still a challenge for both the teacher and the student in todays schools. Have we made no progress in all this time?
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Great comment Terri: "Teach the child, not the label." I agree! (I think Jill would too.)
ReplyDeleteHi Teresa,
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a question about how Routman's text was published in 2003 and the concern that the struggles that she wrote about over ten years ago still exist for us today and you wondered if we have made any progress during this time in reading instruction.
Many of the topics Routman brings to light we do continue to face in our schools and classrooms such as overstuffed curriculums, teacher-driven and dominated instruction, and a focus on isolated skills and drills that don't connect to real reading or our readers. One of the reasons we chose this text is to highlight how the essentials of reading - what works - in what Routman highlights is not providing more time in the school day, but reminding us how we choose to use our time and to focus our time is what matters the most. What strategies did Routman suggest that you felt may be applicable in your classroom?
There are many strategies suggested for me to use.
Delete" Focus on what matter most" is one that I am really trying to use. Getting all bogged down with unnecessary worries can drain me. "Teachers need to gain back confidence to trust their own professional knowledge". This is a great one and so true. We are taught and given quite a bit of advice throughout the teaching years but we should depend on ourselves as well. I am using this advise daily but I guess I was just upset that not much has changed and we still face the same issues daily. I guess I am waiting on teacher magic and our classrooms will all be perfect. But thank you for pointed out my confusion.