I’ve only read the
introduction and the first two chapters of our book club book, but I already
feel it will be instrumental in my teaching of post-secondary reading. Wilhelm shows
his passion for teaching by expressing his sense of urgency to reach every student.
He talks about having experiences with the books he has read and he wants to expose
his students’ to the same kind of engaged and reflective reading that he
enjoys. The author reveals a fantasy he has of letting everyone in on the
secret of reading and it resulting in an America of readers.
This book has been a
real page turner for me. Last week I was wishing I didn’t have homework for
other classes because I felt as if I would have read the whole thing over the
weekend. I guess what is most appealing for me about the book so far is its practicality.
As I was reading and annotating this book I felt compelled to write a list of
important teaching take-aways in some blank space I found within the book. This
is what I wrote:
* To be a good teachers
of reading, we must read.
* Modeling is a primary
mode of teaching.
* We need to listen to
each other. Teachers listening to teachers.
* Use the social
contract and students will love you J
* Try new things in the
classroom. Don’t be the teacher who teaches one year thirty times. Teach 30
years.
* Use texts that are approachable
for students. Something that relates to their experiences.
The Social Contract (Smith &
Wilhelm 2002).
·
My teacher will try to get to know me as
an individual.
·
My teacher will care about me.
·
My teacher will address my interests in
some way (either outside or inside the classroom).
·
My teacher will assist me to learn and
will work hard to make sure I have learned.
·
My teacher will be passionate about the
subject and about teaching.
All of this came just
from the introduction. I was thinking, I am so glad I picked this book and
imagined myself keeping it on a shelf in my teacher’s office to consult
throughout my career. Wilhelm discusses Rosenblatt’s argument that there are
two types of reading the efferent and aesthetic. From what I understood the efferent
stance of reading is when the reader reads for answers and the aesthetic stance
of reading is when the readers lives through the reading and has an experience.
This got our book club talking about the differences of reading for pleasure
vs. reading for academia and we agreed that there was a disconnect between the
two. We brainstormed in our session thinking about ways we as teachers can bring
the aesthetic stance of reading into our classrooms for our students. A couple of
the possibilities that came up were through a book club like the one we are in
or through designing a unit around a novel. Wilhelm goes on in chapter two to take more of
a case study approach where he looks at successful student readers to try to
discover what makes them passionate about reading. I look forward to reading
the rest of this book and future discussions with my club.
Yes, I'm glad I'm reading this book, too. I appreciate the deep level of respect Wilhelm has for students. This can be easy to lose in the long list of other pressures teachers have; yet, students are the motivation for it all. An inexperienced teacher is susceptible to being to overwhelmed with first year teaching and an experience teacher may slip into their prior knowledge about who kids are. But every child is unique and every class is different. The social contract he lays out is a nice reminder to attend to the individuals in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more book club discussions!