What do we do about this? What is our solution? The solution, according to Tovani, is accessible text. An accessibl text is a "text that helps students make a connection between school subjects and the real world because it helps them experience reading that is done in the real world." Just because we give students accessible texts does not mean that it uses any less rigor. If we give students text after text that is too difficult for them to read, not only will they not understand, but they may resort to cheating or feel defeated in school due to the fact that they feel stupid. Tovani says that when students are given texts that are too hard for them to read, they begin to feel as though all reading done in school is pointless.
One idea to help children succeed is text sets. Tovani got this idea from elementary schools. These classrooms typically split the reading into different lengths, difficulty, and structure, as well as author. These sets are accessible to students and are interesting and relevant. They give students a variety of choices to choose from and helps them to learn content information. The beautiful thing about this idea is that you can use it in any content field! As the teacher, you can split the reading into as many different text sets as you would like and have as many as you would like, just make it easy for the children. Make these texts appropriate in level of the reading, content, and variety of texts.
So... here is what works:
- Give students a CHOICE in their reading material.
- Make your students see the CONNECTION between what they are reading and the real world: the reading has a purpose.
- Give students INTERESTING and provacative texts, not boring ones.
- DON'T let your textbook do the teaching, you are the expert!
"Don't let your textbook do the teaching, you are the expert!" Before we can work to give students the sense of having power over the text rather than the text having power over them, we as teachers also need to feel like we have power over the textbook and that it is one resource among many that we want students to be able to read.
ReplyDeleteI love how Tovani challenges the standard textbook as not being the best text to use for all students. This really connects to a lot of things we have been talking about in regards to giving the student choice int heir reading, having text at the students level, etc. This books seems to fit right into a lot of the topics we have been discussing as a class. I think it is absolutely appropriate to scaffold text to meet the learners needs. Then teach the students skills in mastering text, and challenge them with something a little harder. Babysteps to success.
ReplyDeleteYes! I love how Tovani really takes risks in her teaching by challenging the teachers, content, and texts. She has completely "stepped out of the box" and into her own way of approaching education to first and foremost benefit the students. You can tell she loves her students and wants them to grow to be capable adults in not only their reading, but their overall education.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed how this cold be applied to many different content fields. I feel that I would have already had a large amount of text available for the students about art and art history but I like the idea of how she split it up and put it together.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Students need to be interested in the subject manner they are studying. I realize that many times they don’t get a choice but if the content is flexible it is so nice to have them choose their text to read. Deepness and understanding of curriculum is much more important them to touch slightly on many subjects. Second, Ilove that he callanged standard text books. Students need be learning from more then one book, which is only one opinion! Its sad
ReplyDeleteI think teachers should use textbooks as a guide and resource, but not let the textbook control our teaching. In my college-level reading classes, I do have certain freedom in deciding what my students read, which is great. I usually supplement a lot of reading materials outside of the textbook. The only problem is that sometimes students complain about not using their textbook enough, which they spend quite a bit of money to purchase.
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