Reading, Thinking and Community

As teachers, is it our responsibility to create an atmosphere in the classroom that is conductive to learning and to teach students skills and strategies they should develop in order to activate their minds. Continuing in Subjects Matter, chapters 5 and 7 talk about using reading strategies in the classroom and how to build a community of learners. By putting these two components together, we can create a thought-provoking classroom.

In order for students to be successful and active readers, we need to introduce different reading strategies in the classroom, no matter what content you teach. We have discussed before the ideas of pre, during, and post reading strategies. These strategies can be as simple and common as Venn Diagrams, but they can promote strong thinking as students read. By providing them with tools for reading, students can interpret and apply what they are reading to other tasks. For instance, one strategy is to create a conversation with the text, or with other students about the text. Even in one of my classes, we write book notes in the margins of our textbooks, asking question, making arguments, and agreeing with concepts we are reading about. It allows us to think while we read and make connections to the book, enabling us to remember better what we read. The professor then used sticky notes to guide us into deeper levels of thinking as we read our text.

I feel like when someone learns a strategy that they like or have learned a lot about, they begin to apply to other things. This is a little off topic, but the other day I learned about Miscue Analysis, a strategy used to test students' reading abilities. After we learned about it and practiced it, I found myself starting to use it outside of class. I went to a conference over the weekend and started miscuing the keynote speaker. I think that if a student, no matter what age, learns a new strategy that they find interesting, once they have learned it, they will bring it with them outside of the classroom, which is why it is good to teach students so many different reading strategies. They are bound to find one that they like and will get a lot out of it.

The other thing that is important is creating a community environment in your classroom. No matter what school or age level, it is important that students are welcome and feel like a part of something. We need to create a “social support” in to guide what we say, do and teach. We need to make it personal – relating content to the student and issues that are bigger than the classroom; we need to listen to our students, know who they are, and believe that they can succeed. Support also comes from their peers – respecting one another and working together, learning from each other. It is important to provide students with opportunities to help and learn from each other.

This is one lesson that I want to make sure I take with me as I become a teacher. Class is no fun if only one person is in charge and no one else has a say in anything. It’s important to make the students a part of the lesson – let them explore and engage with one another. Students learn a lot from each other, so it’s good to let them learn on their own sometimes. I want my classroom to have some fun and feel like a community. In order to do that, I have to get to know my students and let them get to know each other and themselves. Allow students to make mistakes and grow – both academically and personally.