Readicide by Kelly Gallagher Response

This was a very frustrating read. It melts my brain that we have let education come to this point. As a product of standardized testing, I can honestly say I feel a little cheated out authentic, genuine reading experiences. My honors English class teachers in high school were wonderful and let us fully absorb classics, mostly because we didn't have the added pressure of the standardized test. Yes, there was the AP test, but that was way less pressure packed. Anyway, I am incredibly turned-off of standardized tests. I understand holding educators accountable to what their students learn with valuable standards, but as was stated in the book, it creates an incredibly shallow learning experience. A child should not have to be home schooled or attend an expensive private school to have a more meaningful educational experience. So, I can rant and rave about this all day, but was inspired by Gallagher's call-to-action to stand-up for educational issues and contribute to a meaningful classroom environment. Also, I think it was very helpful to get methods to combat shallow teaching/learning. I hope that no matter what curriculum guidelines I am required to follow, that I can create meaningful experiences with the material and my students.

I particularly liked the Big Chunk/Little Chunk method. I definitely related to the frustrations of chop-chop reading where I lacked the time/ability to get into a flow only to be interrupted by a worksheet or shallow group discussion. To allow students the chance to read 1/3 of the book and then analyze a key piece, gives them a chance to get into the flow, collect thoughts and details as they go without the pressure of a worksheet, and give them a sense of accomplishment for getting through a large portion of the book. For me at least, I feel a lot better seeing my book mark move deeper and deeper into a book. I also think that this would be a more effective way to reach multiple CCSS without making the experience shallow. The unit can be designed to allow for multiple reading sessions and then thorough time to identify things like theme, author's purpose, character analysis, and seeing how characters evolve throughout the book.

I Read It, But I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers

This book was incredibly eye-opening. Particularly, I identified a lot of my own reading problems. See, I love books, but I am a slow reader. What took my friends in school 15 minutes to read, took me 25. I became self-conscious and started to do "fake reading". Obviously, I didn't know I was doing something that had a term attached to it, I was just trying not to be embarrassed. In textbooks I would read the first and last section and one in the middle. This saved me time & I would fill the blanks on the sections I skipped by asking my friend or taking notes during discussions. When I discovered Cliff Notes, I don't think I read an assigned book for the rest of high school. I took excellent notes and paid close attention in class, so I still got good grades, but felt like I really missed out on the pleasure of wrestling with a classic novel or poem. Unfortunately, these habits followed me to college. Again, I paid close attention in class and took notes, but avoided actual reading. I hated that I had to re-read something 3 times when YouTube had an excellent lecture from a nice scholar kind enough to upload a 20 minute video and Google had extensive Cliff Note-esque websites. I don't exactly know where my reading went wrong. I loved majority of my teachers and honestly love school, but have been faking it til I make it for a very long time.

I think my struggles with reading speed/comprehension will make me a better teacher in the long run. Over the last year as upper division coursework doesn't allow room to fake it, I have had to struggle through my shortcomings and learn how to read again. I am very grateful to have gotten to read this book. I took away a lot of tips for my personal reading, which I think will ultimately help me model these practices for students.

In the Fix Up section I liked/utilize
1. Asking myself questions as I read
2. Write a reflection after a section or chapter.
3. Retell it...specifically to my toddler. He's not judging my comprehension and is excited to have dialogue with me. Also, I think Einstein said that if you can't teach something to a 5-year-old, then you don't totally understand it yourself. I also like to retell course work as I'm driving. I look crazy, I'm sure, but helps me organize my thoughts.
4. Adjusting my reading rate. I have been practicing speed reading to get through more faster, but also recognizing when I need to slow down and process as I read.

I think that the Why Teach Questioning sections on p. 86 was super helpful. It is another way to model critical reading of complex texts without giving up when we get stumped. Questioning while reading adds a lot of interaction and in my experience a question I jot down is usually addressed later on in the text.

What is Social Injustice? Why is it important for our classrooms?

Source: 

Washington, Ahmad R. "Addressing Social Injustice with Urban African American Young Men through Hip-Hop: Suggestions for School Counselors." Journal for Social Action in Counseling & Psychology, vol. 7, no. 1, Summer2015, pp. 101-121. EBSCOhost, ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=113858534&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Key Summary from the Text:
 "...funding disparities, the mass closing of urban schools, school re-segregation, and the school-to-prison pipeline - all issues that disproportionately impact students of color in very profound ways - represent legitimate civil rights and social justice violations because of the immediate and long-term social and economic ramifications they have on urban students, their families and communities."

My Thoughts:

This article discusses how school counselors can integrate hip-hop into productive conversations with urban African American students. I am personally a big fan of hip-hop, so I like to find meaningful uses for it by educators. While the article is centered around hip-hop utilization by school counselors, the information still applies directly to our own classrooms as teachers. Washington states that it is up to those within the actual school population to intervene in the inequality handed out by government officials.

Washington discusses the long history of social injustice against the POC population. Cuts to funding and limited educational opportunities take away students' power. By involving them in productive conversations about how laws, funding, and government entities run, POC students are empowered to rise above circumstances Hip-hop comes into play, because it has a history of addressing egregious social injustices against POC.  It is said to be a safe space for people to express ideas against the status quo and for listeners to gain insight into these ideas. A recent example of this was Eminem's freestyle against Donald Trump. Agree with him or not, he got his message across and addressed recent issues regarding Trump's behavior with the NFL, Puerto Rico and North Korea. By drawing parallels between literature, social injustices, and hip-hop an educator can connect to urban POC students on a more personal level. They can share that social injustices are not going unnoticed, but there has to be more action taken to correct these wrongs. While the solutions to wage gaps, discrimination and racism are not glaringly obvious, it is part of an educators job to empower their students to use their voice to call for changes.

Essentially, connecting to our students on a personal level can turn the wheels of revolution and create the future we want for every student that comes into our lives.

Pedagogy of the Opressed

 I always found school pretty easy. Take some notes, make some flash cards, pass a test, repeat. I had great relationships with my teachers and enjoyed being a part of school events. College classes have been pretty similar. Take notes, make flash cards, regurgitate information, repeat. THEN I started taking upper division courses & felt like the stupidest person in the room. Suddenly professors were probing and digging deeper into texts. Important points were made by fellow classmates that I 100% missed. Google couldn't even save me here. I often felt like a butterfly nailed to a board without a clue as to what was going on or why. What was wrong? I was wrong. Maybe not wrong, but I was very good at allowing deposited information to accumulate into my brain and not dig any deeper. Or when asked to dig deeper, faking it until I made it and hoped to never get called on. Sometimes I wonder if I was an intelligent student or just a good test taker...

According to Freire, the outdated system of the bank teller-deposit student-teacher relationship needs to be replaced. A more problem-solving/problem-posing style should take its place. This would allow students to dig deeper than their Cliff Notes and build critical-thinking skills. Problem-posing takes away the oppressor's (the current educational system) control and power. It becomes less and less of a teacher "filling" the "empty" minds of students. The teacher becomes a giver/guider. They give students the tools they need and guide them to a solution without spoon feeding. I have found that classes like those are the ones I learn the most from. I can pinpoint classes where I got a 4.0 and can't tell you one thing about the subject. I can pinpoint the classes where I barely passed or met the standards and still utilize the tools I was given and remember a lot. To me, that learning, challenging and motivating environment was how learning should take place. The professor expected a lot from us and you either rose to the occasion or you sat there mouth-breathing.

I understand the hoop jumping required to be a teacher. I just hope that in my real classroom I can be the teacher that gives/guides and does not simply deposit.

Assessing and Evaluating Student Learning-

Pro Portfolio

My goal for my classroom is to instill a growth mindset. Literature/writing can pose a lot of challenges for students. Connecting concepts, sentence structure, grammar, and understanding themes are a few examples. My hope is to create assignments that allow for multiple drafting/editing periods. I would hope to take away the pressure of having to get it right in just a few days of examples. Practice makes perfect and all that. While there are a lot of ways to evaluate student learning, I personally favor the portfolio. To me, this gives students the chance to show improvement, get creative and "show off".

For example, if I do a unit on writing research papers here would be the rough timeline and how they can add it to a portfolio:
1. Practice brainstorming with bubbles maps or lists. Give students a topic and come up with branches off the bubble. Then, allow students to write down their own topic and add branches.
2. Show examples of research paper construction that are high quality and ones that need work and how to correct them
3. Allow for research days and how to find credible sources
4. Draft their first paper
5. Peer editing/me editing
6. Chance to make changes before final paper.

I would have them start small-a few pages and grow from there. On my end, if I have them put in their first draft with edit suggestions and then their final essay, it would be easy to see the changes they made, where they improved and if they took suggestion well. This progress would be shown with any essay that we do.

I like the idea of having a journal section, chance to respond to articles and chosen stories and maybe a free reading tracker where they can earn bonuses for reading for fun. I had a teacher in middle school that had required portfolio elements (tests, papers, reflections) and then allowed us to add what we wanted in certain categories. For example, we had to either reflect on a poem we really liked or write one based off of the criteria we learned about certain types of poetry. Another optional entry was writing a short story based on what we learned about short story criteria.

To me, the portfolio allows students to stay organized and get creative. It also allows me to note progress and watch for areas where they may still struggle. This also shows performance vs regurgitation. It is easy to name characters and settings, but more challenging to analyze and express new ideas about the story. By requiring portfolio elements that emphasize mastery, analysis, and demonstrating contextual ideas, then I am moving beyond simple who, what, when, where, why questions.

Cal Expository Reading and Writing Response

I was actually surprised at how helpful this was for my own personal reading. I'm sure I got some lessons on prereading, reading and postreading, but it was pretty fuzzy. I really liked how this template broke down each piece. It helped me understand it as a reader and as an instructor.

Specifically, I liked the prereading predictions. By asking questions about what you think the reading will cover and how to turn headings into questions, it gives you a chance to grasp onto what the text is really saying. If I were to be wrong about a prediction, then it would stick in my head more because the unexpected happened. This questioning really engages you as a reader. It is active vs passive reading. I often find I need to reread sections because I was not fully engaged. Had I taken the time for some surveying and predicting, then I'd be more efficient with my reading.

I also liked how each step tied together. For example, having students connect ideas in the margins and then applying those to the summarizing stage seemed super helpful. Again, you as a reader are more engaged and you create less work for yourself later.

The standards listed in the margins were helpful to me also. At first, I was thinking that breaking down reading and writing this way seems tedious, however, the standards feel pretty intuitive and the steps in the template reflect that. If you want students to write argumentatively, then the prereading surveying, linking ideas in the margins, and gathering summary points is important to showing students how they have to back up ideas based on the text.

In the rhetoric feedback section, I liked the point about minimal marking. There is a time to be nitpicky and a time to focus on whether or not the students are grasping the bigger picture when it comes to expressing ideas on paper.

I found the sections on assessment helpful. I did not read all of them, but a few seemed like easy ways to get a sense for how the students are dealing with these reading/writing concepts. I personally favored the "No-Stakes" quiz and the Once Around (or Whip). The quiz would give me a clear sense on what concepts are clicking and what aren't. The Once Around would similarly help, and potentially help other students click with more ideas because they would hear it summarized by a peer.