Learning to Read or Loving to Read?

It's the last weekend of Spring Break. I love these breaks because it affords me an opportunity to catch up on my reading - not just for professional growth but for enjoyment as well. (Hooray for authors like Michael Connelly, David Baldacci, and Lee Child!)

I don't know when I bought Life's Literacy Lessons but I found it this week in a stack of books at home. (Spring Break is also a great time to do some spring cleaning.) I loved that Steven L. Layne shared his views on reading instruction in humorous, nostalgic, and sometimes-blunt anecdotes and poems. I found myself nodding my head, smiling to myself, and basically agreeing with the author's message.

When I began teaching reading many moons ago, I wasn't aware of all the scientific research behind reading. I was not on either side of the reading wars, and for some reason, I missed the political debate over the best way to teach reading. ("The Reading Wars") For much of that time, I was teaching Head Start, and I was shielded from that debate (thankfully). Teaching preschoolers who were from low income families gave me the experiences I needed to understand that hands-on learning was crucial to help students make connections. When I became a teacher in elementary school, I was lucky. The principals I worked for weren't micromanagers, so I was able to teach reading using a variety of strategies; after all, our students were all different, at different levels, and with different interests. 

Here are few of my beliefs about reading, gleaned after over 45 years as an educator:

• Reading instruction is not one-size-fits-all. Everyone is different and what might work for one student might not work for another. As Steven L. Layne shares in his poem "For the Balanced Instruction Advocate" (page 14),  "Balance is a difficult state to achieve. It takes dedication, perseverance and equal support from all sides. Teachers come equipped with these first two qualities. Why doesn't everyone just stop bickering and help us out with that last part."
• Students need to be surrounded by a variety of reading materials. We learn to read so we can read to learn. There are those who say that students in grades K-2 are learning to read so they can read to learn later. That is why the reading curriculum is heavy on phonics instruction in the early years. I don't buy that. Kids can learn from the time they are exposed to books and other reading material, and if their interest level is high, they just might surprise you with their knowledge.
• We need to make time every day to read aloud to students. (Listen to Steven L. Layne read his poem, "Read to Them.") Truthfully, reading aloud to my students was one of my favorite times of the day. I loved holding my kids captive with a great story. In his poem, "Priorities," (page 62) Dr. Layne shares that "It is easy to become convinced that there are more important things to do than read to the kids. I really doubt it." I agree.
• I don't believe in inundating students with homework, but reading every day should be an expectation. It should be something the student has chosen to read, not something that is assigned based on Lexile levels or to complete a book report. 
• As the mother and grandmother of boys, I am concerned that many of our boys are turned off to reading because we don't always allow them to read what they want to. I am reminded of a conversation with our school librarian last school year. Some of the kindergarten boys were in a section of the library that was "off-limits" for younger students. (I'm not sure who called me in to intervene; it wasn't the librarian.) Mrs. Colte shared that she needed to rethink the "rules" in the library. Why couldn't kindergarten boys borrow books about football if that's what they wanted? I told her that when I spoke to the boys and told them to put the books back, they knew exactly where they got the books from, and they knew the players and their teams. Let's not force our boys to read what we think they need and let them choose their reading material. 
• I am not a fan of grade level standards for reading. Students come in at different places as far as reading is concerned. Expecting every student to achieve grade level standards does not take student differences into consideration. I would prefer using a continuum and starting where the child is and then planning next steps in the progression. 
• There is no reason why we can't use available technology to help our students who need the most help with decoding and fluency. In this article, "The Goal of Phonics Instruction is to Get Readers Not to Use Phonics When Reading," the author shares two strategies that have been successful in producing gains in reading fluency and comprehension: assisted reading (listening to a text simultaneously while reading the text) and repeated reading (practicing several times until the reader can read the text fluently.) Students can independently use technology to help them self-assess their decoding and fluency. They can listen to another person reading the text while following along; they can time themselves to see how many words they can read in a minute, practice reading the same passage a few times and time themselves again to see their progress.  We should teach students these strategies to help them become more fluent readers which will lead to automaticity and hopefully, better comprehension. 
• My final thought - when I read Life's Literacy Lessons,  "Aliteracy Poem" hit home for me. One of the reasons for going into education was because I wanted students to realize their potential and to realize that we can learn something new every day of our lives. Reading is essential if we want to be life-long learners. Dr. Layne (page 16) states, "Aliterate individuals are those who can read but choose not to do so. I often ask my graduate students, 'If we teach the children how to read, but none of them want to, have we done our jobs?'" I recently asked a 10-year-old who read voraciously when he was younger what he was reading. "Nothing," he replied, "I read in school, but that's it." It puzzled me. When this boy was 7, he asked for the set of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books for  his birthday and finished reading all of them within a month. What happened to his love of reading?  Sometimes in our zeal to get our students to be better readers, we tell them what to read based on their reading level. But  if students don't have the life experiences to relate to a book, they won't find that book enjoyable. Let them choose what to read.

So here I am on this dreary last weekend of Spring Break. Now that I've finished this blog, I'm going to snuggle up in my warm bed and read my Michael Connelly book. 

Science is a Verb

I learned science through textbooks. Suffice it to say that I don't recall much from my classes. When I was studying to become an early childhood educator, I was introduced to a new way of teaching science through hands-on experiences. Dr. Pickens from the University of Hawaii provided an "aha" moment for me that I never forgot: "Science is a verb," he shared, and that changed my views as an educator about science.

Our Hawaii schools are expected to transition to the Next Generation Science Standards by 2020, and if implemented correctly, students will be actively sciencing rather than just learning science concepts through books. It will not be easy because many of us who became elementary educators do not have strong backgrounds in science.

Recently, Alvin Lin (@teampueo), a Science Resource Teacher funded through a DoDEA grant. "introduced" the shift to our complex area principals.  As an administrator, my professional development generally focuses on leadership issues or mandatory trainings. This presentation was a breath of fresh air! We were scientists, making observations about "Mystery Fish." I loved the time spent working with my partner, exploring, discovering, and taking notes on our observations.  As I looked around the room, I noticed that all of us adults were absorbed in what we were doing and having FUN! If anything, the time for exploration was much too short!

Alvin then shared a "Tale of Two Classrooms." The results were surprising but at the same time, not surprising. (If you want to read the Bertelsmann Foundation study, here's a link.) The main point of this study: Make learning stick! Stand and deliver is not enough; learning must be student-centered, relevant, and process-based.

I am definitely not an expert in science education, but I do know that it is important for students to explore and discover about their world through sciencing. Kids are naturally curious and ask hundreds of questions, if we let them. As a mom as well as an elementary school teacher, I loved opening up worlds for my children by building on their natural curiosity about the science around them.

Back in 2012, I blogged about an exciting project our students were participating in.  ("Science is an Adventure") Unfortunately, the sea urchin project lasted for just two years, but this is an example of the kind of sciencing that makes learning stick.  With guidance from experts like Alvin Lin, and by collaborating with their colleagues and learning from each other, I am optimistic that our teachers will make the shift to NGSS and teach students to science.