When I was school many years ago, I use to hate when a teacher use to tell us that we were going to watch a film and then when it was time to watch the film, the teacher would show a few scenes of the movies because this was the most important parts and were the most relevant to our issue that we were learning. The opposite always the case when it came to reading text. When we had to read a novel, an article or a textbook section, we had to read it all. This is not fair. I said it then and I say it again. Students have to be given purpose when reading materials. When I say purpose, I mean that they need to think that the reading is completely relevant to the subject that we are studying. If not, the students will get bored or may refuse to continue reading. As students, we should not be afraid to pick and choose the important points of the text. A good example of this is when I would teach a unit on the American colonies and the first thing we would read as an introduction to the unit was from Howard Zinn's, People's History of the United States and it was a section called, “Columbus and the Indians”. We would read the whole book, just the introduction o get the students interested in the subject and the realities of the colonization of the Americas.
Another issue that we, yes, we have is that we are not clear with our instruction. I remember when I first started teaching about 5-6 years ago and I would hear students say, “What is the point of this?” That is hard to hear but it causes or should cause me to make clear exactly what we are studying. I do not me that we explain at the beginning of the unit but rather we should keep repeating this as we go along with our unit plan. Last year I taught a unit plan on the Holocaust, using the textbook, articles, documentaries, the novel Night, which is pretty much the most depressing book I have ever read. I was a broken man the first time I read it. Anyways, I digress. But whenever we would go from subject to subject in the unit, like the Nuremberg Laws, to Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) to the death camp, I would explain to the students why this is important and this topic is the point of the lesson.
We should not assume that students have to read everything to get the point. We should not be afraid to skim, or jump around in a text with our students. Being concise is the best way. We should not think that students will go along with everything that we through at them. If they have to ask what is the point of this?” or “what does this have to do with what we are studying?” then we need to re-evaluate how we are laying out our unit plans.
Omar- You are absolutely right about giving students a reason to read. How can we make students read something they do not want to if we do not give them a reason for it. As teachers we need to guide students' learning by letting them know what they are looking for inside the text. Even as college students we are given a syllabus to guide our learning we need to do that with our students as well. This past year our principal told us we needed to start begin our lesson by stating our objective in kid friendly language. What a difference it made in students learning. They knew what they were going to be doing and why they were doing it. It's also pretty impressive when an administrator, parent or other teacher comes in and asks the students what they are doing and instead of saying "I don't know", they say "sorting short a and short e sounds" ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you mention this. I often catch myself reading the "whole" book because that's what I believe you are supposed to do. While reading I know that it is not relevant, but it would be cheating if I allowed my students to jump around. I guess in retrospect...it's okay. Why should students' time be wasted??? DUHH!
ReplyDeleteThis is so true, my teachers would always do that. And just when you are getting interested in the scene they fast forward it to show something else. And you are right when it came to reading there was no "just read these sentences on this page."
ReplyDeleteYour statement where you talk about how we need to tell the students why what they are reading is important is spot on. If we do not do this than they ill most likely not read what we want them to and it will o in one ear and out the other. When I teach students in P.E. I try to cover the importance of the activity in my "introduction" of the activity. This way the students know ahead of time why we are doing it and how it benefits them.
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