I am intrigued by an article that I just finished reading tonight, written by Linda Darling-Hammond (1998). I would like to share this quote.
"Motivating students requires an understanding of what individual students believe about themselves, what they care about, and what tasks are likely to give them enough success to encourage them to work hard to learn" (Darling-Hammond, p. 7).
Now that both Jesse and Nathan have a more solid understanding of what 'good readers' do during independent and book club reading, it is now time to think about motivation in the follow cycle. Thinking about this quote by Darling-Hammond, I am now more assured that in order to get students really involved in reading, teachers must provide texts that interest them, possibly characters and story plots that they can closely relate to and reflect upon. In my cylce # 2, I am going to do a series of read alouds, and minilessons that focus on stories that are 'authentic' to the students; with characters whose personalities and experiences are similar to what they have possibly encountered in their lives. I am hoping that Nathan and Jesse will continue to be engaged and motivated in reading with the instructions and approach that I am going to implement for the next four weeks.
According to the NRP (National Reading Panel), there are five pillars to effective reading instruction. Allington (2005) explains one of the pillars to be 'matching pupils with texts'. He says that having suitable and 'just-right' texts for students is a critical part to effective literacy teaching simply because every child has his/her unique abilities, and therefore no single text or one specific task can be appropriate for all children in a classroom. In light of this important statement, I will be introducing reading materials to Nathan and Jesse that are at their reading levels, and of their personal preferences. Read alouds and minilessons will be focusing on character study, making connections, and choosing books in the library. At the end of the cycle, I will be taking them to the school library so that they will have an opportunity to be independent readers that they have the knowledge of picking 'just-right' books, and finding books that they have interests in.
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1 comment:
Now that you've spiraled into the second cycle, it's clear that your blog format is very well organized and easy to follow. The slide shows that you include at the top of each entry provide wonderful road maps for readers. The transition of your thinking and your from from cycle 1 to cycle 2 is quite smooth!
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