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Reading Rainbow and colicky fun times
Sep. 4th, 2009 11:04 amI have fallen off the face of the LJ, largely because...Sophie has colic! Yes indeed. We went to the pediatrician yesterday and there is nothing else obviously wrong with her, so colic it is. ( Some more talk of colic, cut for the disinclined. )
Tabs that have been sitting open for ages:
Reading Rainbow coming to an end made me think about the direction of reading education.
"Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that's not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do.
"Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read," Grant says. "You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read.""
As a school librarian, when I was working, I was encouraged to always be teaching a concept. There was supposed to be a product, a tangible result. This is largely about accountability, etc., Meeting Standards and Passing The Tests. You know, all that NCLB sort of stuff. I see the value in producing tangible "stuff" as a result of a lesson, and creating ways of testing or proving learning. But not to the complete exclusion of just reading a book for the sake of it. I think that my job as a librarian should be to teach research and library skills, reinforce reading skills learned in the classroom, and provide a space to learn about and explore reading for pleasure. Sadly though, I felt like I was being pushed to sort of abandon that whole "reading for fun" business because it took time away from Meeting The Standards. And okay, in a way, it does. But I really believe that students who see the value in reading for fun will do better with learning reading skills. There are exceptions to this, of course, but in general - kids don't care as much about the obvious functionality of knowing how to read. They are motivated more by enjoyment.
Besides, reading for fun reinforces reading skills because kids get more practice, and being read to helps with reading fluency - the ability to read smoothly and expressively, and to get meaning from reading. I think it helps many kids pick up on other reading skills, too. So I am really disappointed at the movement towards purely functional education from all directions, but particularly in this area. One of the biggest joys of my job is working with kids who are excited to find books to read, and if we abandon fostering that excitement, I think we will lose a lot. (I tended to work as much reading aloud in to my teaching as possible. I found reasons to spend entire class periods just reading, usually in the interest of some eventual goal or teaching point - but I just think that time is essential as well as fun.)
And okay, I had other things I wanted to write about but I am pretty sure Sophie is waking up and it's time to feed her anyway. I hope this post doesn't need serious editing because I barely had time to vomit the thoughts out at all. ;)
Tabs that have been sitting open for ages:
Reading Rainbow coming to an end made me think about the direction of reading education.
"Grant says that PBS, CPB and the Department of Education put significant funding toward programming that would teach kids how to read — but that's not what Reading Rainbow was trying to do.
"Reading Rainbow taught kids why to read," Grant says. "You know, the love of reading — [the show] encouraged kids to pick up a book and to read.""
As a school librarian, when I was working, I was encouraged to always be teaching a concept. There was supposed to be a product, a tangible result. This is largely about accountability, etc., Meeting Standards and Passing The Tests. You know, all that NCLB sort of stuff. I see the value in producing tangible "stuff" as a result of a lesson, and creating ways of testing or proving learning. But not to the complete exclusion of just reading a book for the sake of it. I think that my job as a librarian should be to teach research and library skills, reinforce reading skills learned in the classroom, and provide a space to learn about and explore reading for pleasure. Sadly though, I felt like I was being pushed to sort of abandon that whole "reading for fun" business because it took time away from Meeting The Standards. And okay, in a way, it does. But I really believe that students who see the value in reading for fun will do better with learning reading skills. There are exceptions to this, of course, but in general - kids don't care as much about the obvious functionality of knowing how to read. They are motivated more by enjoyment.
Besides, reading for fun reinforces reading skills because kids get more practice, and being read to helps with reading fluency - the ability to read smoothly and expressively, and to get meaning from reading. I think it helps many kids pick up on other reading skills, too. So I am really disappointed at the movement towards purely functional education from all directions, but particularly in this area. One of the biggest joys of my job is working with kids who are excited to find books to read, and if we abandon fostering that excitement, I think we will lose a lot. (I tended to work as much reading aloud in to my teaching as possible. I found reasons to spend entire class periods just reading, usually in the interest of some eventual goal or teaching point - but I just think that time is essential as well as fun.)
And okay, I had other things I wanted to write about but I am pretty sure Sophie is waking up and it's time to feed her anyway. I hope this post doesn't need serious editing because I barely had time to vomit the thoughts out at all. ;)
