I am absolutely speechless by the appropriateness of the Kersten and Pardo article to the teaching world I perceive. Near the end of my undergraduate education, it felt at times like I was no longer being taught how to teach to individuals, but instead how to teach for standardized tests. Reading Finessing and Hybridizing has made me very hopeful and excited for the content of graduate school!
The biggest dilemma I have always feared as a prospective teacher is a forced curriculum like that of No Child Left Behind described in Finessing and Hybridizing. While I have always felt a premeditated resistance to such unnatural teaching solutions that hinder professional educators from doing what they above all else are qualified to do, I never considered such methods of coping like what Celina and Emily adapted. After all, I cannot expect to be hired or keep my job if I appear to be the very stubborn and resistant person that I actually am.
However, what I can do as a teacher is to accept the ever-changing policies being made for education, and with the help of a supportive staff, make an abiding curriculum that works. From that, I can be the creative and innovative teacher I know I'm capable of becoming with the goal in mind of creating an effective curriculum that integrates requirements with methods developed through my own experiences. In fact, in my internship I am being faced with this learning
opportunity, however, I do not expect to make any progress on this goal.
Due to low standardized tests scores, my placement school
has needed to adopt a new reading program (in fact, it sounds very
similar to the one in the article). It has caused a lot of adjustments
for my school because it required giving one teacher the sole
responsibility of implementing the program and teaching reading and language arts, while the team's second
teacher assumes the teaching of every other subject. While I expect very
little differentiation from how the program was designed to be
implemented by my MT, and little wiggle room for my own lesson planning
as a result, I am very interested to see the program in action as it was
designed. After all, how can I justifiably resist something I don't
understand and have never given a chance?
Finally, what I believe to be the resounding message of the article and what I and everyone else must do is become more politically aware and involved. It is simply not acceptable to allow education reform to continue down this regressive path. My goal as a teacher is to change the world from both inside the classroom and outside.
(Continued) So, I woke up this morning with every intention of giving my post a little more substance and thought, but then I heard about the Chicago teachers strike. I'm hoping you all find enough meaning in this post as is to respond because now I'm really distracted.
Regarding the approaches I will use to effectively teach reading and comprehension, I think this topic is especially relevant to someone like me who has always preferred maths and sciences. How will I teach reading comprehension skills? First and foremost, I need to learn to explicitly say how my comprehension thought process works with frequent modeling. Not just telling my students how, but showing them! Modeling will especially help when I encourage students to connect with their texts. I am a firm believer that if a student feels connected with what they are reading, it will generate interest and they will want to learn. I especially liked how Harvey and Goudvis recommend having several thorough "anchor" lessons for reference so if a student is unsure of what skill to use you can just remind them of that anchor lesson when the skill was initially taught and practiced.
Also, journaling has always interested me and I would like to implement some sort of daily/weekly journal assignment where students can demonstrate their comprehension by having a place to ask questions and record answers, make predictions and connections, and reflect on the whole process for their own records and as an informal assessment for me.
Overall, though, I am mostly preoccupied by the Reading Street basal being used in my internship school. I will be very interested in seeing what it consists of and how it encourages comprehension. Even the format and design of the lessons is a complete mystery to me. I'm curious to see if, like the Finessing article discussed, this reading program tries to unnaturally separate reading and writing. In my mind, I agree with Emily in that the two really should be taught hand-in-hand. Then again, what do I know as an almost-teacher?
What a very thoughtful and wonderful post, Hannah.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your reservations about teaching with the overstressed importance of standardized tests and No Child Left Behind. I have always had qualms about focusing on the certain benchmarks that lawmakers expect students to surpass. While I appreciate the intent of holding educators accountable, the way in which they track success goes against our basic instincts as prospective teachers.
I too found some hope in the Finessing and Hybridizing article and I liked how you can see opportunity to be, in your words, “creative and innovative.” The article and your sentiment reminded me of my second grade teacher. While she taught the majority of her career in a pre-No Child Left Behind world, I can see how her approach to education could be drawn upon today. With the help of hindsight and the fact that my mother was a co-worker of hers for a number of years, I am more able to appreciate what she did as a teacher than my eight year-old self could. She was a very effective yet stubborn teacher who did things her own way. To be frank, some of her coworkers resented the fact that she would not do all the same things that the staff had agreed upon. While I will not bore you with all the details of her teaching strategies, I know that her students consistently performed higher on standardized tests than other classes in the school. To top it off, she was relentless in tracking this information, not only in second grade, but later grades as well (when her group of students would break up any given year). The students she had had in the past would still perform at a high level, regardless of their third and fourth grade teachers. I share this anecdote to piggyback off your instinct and desire of being able to be creative in your classroom while keeping a mind toward government’s expectations. While the task is daunting, it can be done!
Like you, I have always preferred the sciences. Literacy is the most intimidating subject to teach for me. I am very self-conscious of my own penmanship, let alone my ability to teach my students reading and writing comprehension skills!
The anchor lessons that you mentioned in your post jumped out at me, too. The one I took note of the most was the idea of a genre chart. One of my mentor teachers (the one who teaches language arts) really focuses on different reading genres throughout the year. I am going to be paying close attention to her literacy instruction, for she used to be a curriculum leader in language arts and it is her favorite subject to teach. I feel grateful that I have been paired up with a teacher who is so strong in a subject that I feel less confident about.
Again, great post Hannah. Your thoughtfulness made it easy to respond.
Like both of you mentioned, I have also started to become increasingly nervous by the growing focus on standardized testing. While I understand the need for it, the thought that a few tests can have such a great impact on a teacher's career is unnerving. As soon-to-be teachers, the importance of these tests has been hammered into our brains over and over throughout the course of our education and it can't help but make us wonder. Yes, these tests are important. But how much can they really show us? Should we honestly be placing such a great amount of meaning on them? And how, as teachers, can we get around sticking to a by-the-books curriculum that has been so clearly defined for us?
ReplyDeleteI thought the Finessing and Hybridizing article was very interesting. Like you discussed, I am also a fan of the idea of tweaking an already in place curriculum to mold it more to your own liking. The article’s explanation of hybridizing test-favoring policies to create more teacher-approved lessons is something that every teacher, young and old, should read. There have been so many times throughout my past placements that I’ve heard current teachers complain about what they are being “forced” to teach. If we found ways to hybridize what the government wants us to teach and what we believe is important for students to know, schools would be full of much more satisfied employees. After reading this article, I feel confident that it is possible for us to take action and stand up for what we believe is right for our students.
I too find standardized testing to be a questionable practice. If I was not a future teacher and I was watching television, I wouldn't see the problem. The media puts a spin on it like standardized testing is the only way to judge if a teacher is effective or not. While, the idea of standardized testing is important (to make sure a teacher is doing their job) I think they may not realize the wide range of students America holds. For example, students who have struggles with education and are far behind on standards already but are expected to do well on a test that contains standards a grade level or two above what they understand are not going to do well on the test. That is one major concern of mine. The district I am in now, with Hannah, has many students who are not up grade level and still must take the MEAP. While, I think the teacher in the article is awesome
ReplyDelete, standardized testing needs to be improved and the government should take that seriously.
I am on the other spectrum for our government's hand in education. The government should have less control over education and the community should have more. I think that more money does not necessarily make a better education system if it is not spent right. While money does help, it is not a solution to the United States' public education system.
Your group is off to a strong start in exchanging ideas and connecting big ideas to your own classroom situations. You also are showing your understanding of how the larger policy context influences what happens in classroom. As you continue your blogging I encourage you to bring in even more ideas from each week's readings to try to make connections with your own experiences and use the readings as an opportunity to extend the conversation, question or critique the authors' discussion or offer advice based on what you are learning. Keep up the good work!
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