SP19:Methods of Teaching ReadingI:24405

Chapter 5: Struggling and Difficulty in Reading Who is a struggling reader? Are we all struggling readers? In this chapter I felt as if I could relate to being a 'struggling' reader. In the fifth grade I did not meet the expectation of being a 'good' reader on a standardized test, and so they put me in tutoring. I remember feeling so embarrassed and feeling so terrible about myself and my reading skills. I had never struggled with reading, until this test. "A poor score on a test may mean simply that a reader struggles with the test, not with reading something she is interested in" (Bomer K. & Bomer R. pg 89). During this time I was aware I was a bad test taker, and thinking back this was probably my same issue. Not the reading. I think it is important as future teachers that we look more into the student and not just a test score. But what is a struggling reader? I loved how the article said, "Anyone can struggle. (pg.89) Struggling ...

Last week I went to the public library to find a social justice book to read during my upcoming field experience. As you all know I like to talk, so I ended up having an emotional conversation at the library with a sweet middle-aged woman. I was going on about how I feel the education system has many flaws & how I want to make my classroom culturally relevant for my students (looking back I am sure the entire library heard me talking). At the end of my ted talk this woman looks at me & says, “Have you went to the state house & talked to any legislators?” As the tears & snot ran down my face, I looked at this woman like: Therefore, I find it really ironic that our readings this week touched on teachers going out & being political agents. Throughout this blog I will discuss some points from Chapter 9 – Teachers as Political Agents (R. Bomer & K. Bomer 2001). Feel free to bring up other points in the replies! Enjoy! *****************************...

Embrace the Power of Text Alright so this may have been very short article, but there was some very interesting things that I learned. Let me just say this, the United States education program is problematic. We still let things such as race and gender affect what we teach and how our students learn. It's like we are trying to protect them from something. We don't talk about the hardships that these students go through. We label them before they enter the classroom. We don't represent them into the readings that we teach for school. And the when they represented it's usually in a bad way. And this is why I think that our education program is problematic. But wait there's more. The article starts out with saying that, "The field of education is saturated with studies documenting the poor performance and achievement deficits of African American males throughout their school years." We aren't teaching them like we do our other students. We are ...

To read, or not to read: That is not the question  By: Chris Enochs   Remember talking in class about how we talk to much about the old text. Well, we read more for the dead white guys of history. But something should be said about the old text as well. It noted, “In Mockingbird, Caitlin, a fifth-grade artist who has Asperger’s, struggles with the aftermath of a school shooting that took the life of her beloved older brother, Devon. Readers look through Caitlin’s eyes as she struggles to make sense of the world without her brother . . . focuses on Caitlin’s unique personality and experiences” (Jocius and Shealy, 2018, Pg. 696). I feel that being culturally relevant teachers should not be about bringing in books relevant culturally, but physical too. Some books are looked as being too distanced for some students and sometimes they are. But, being culturally relevant can also go to what makes them, well them. Caitlin was someone who could co...

"Linguistic integration is preferable to segregation." -Gerald Graff Is Code Switching Adequate? Is Code Meshing Adequate? Educators have a great responsibility to meet the needs of diverse students who come into the classroom with unique funds of knowledge that have developed in their home communities. It is important that we address and help to elevate these funds of knowledge to ensure academic success and potential for development. We must ask ourselves, however, does codeswitching help to elevate the cultural diversity of students? Or does implementing codeswitching suppress the unique needs and attributes of different cultures? Before we can understand codeswitching and its effects on students, we need to better understand what occurs when educators in urban areas correct the language of culturally diverse students. When educators "correct" student's "informal" language, they are stripping students of their identities and values t...

"Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity."  - Yehuda Berg With ever-growing language barriers constructed by the dominant culture, how do we as culturally sustaining teachers create spaces and opportunities to break down barriers in the classroom that students face when they speak different dialects of language? Many teachers are under the misinformed notion that there is a Standard English, and then there are the ‘lesser’ dialects of Standard English that children speak, which are formed within different geographical settings and cultural affiliations. In result of teachers accepting myths about language variations and how to approach it in the classroom, many schools are failing children who possess cultural vantages, damaging their identity as a learner and as a speaker.  Although it wasn't often, I can remember times in schools when teachers would blatantly correct us in front of the class and make us repe...