“There are no BAD children- there are simply children PROBLEM-SOLVING to the best of their abilities”.
This is the first thing that my MT told me when I walked into her classroom and I have found it to be solid advice that challenges me to change my perspective on students that fall under the broad umbrella of ‘disrupting class’. Instead of looking at the student that is bent around in his chair doodling on the paper of the student behind him or the group of girls who can’t seem to stop giggling in the corner as an annoying tick, I have instead tried to look at them as students who were trying to draw attention away from a bigger problem. They are problem-solving.
So in the past 2 weeks, my MT has started pulling students that are disrupting class into the hall and asking them how we can help them stay on task better. (As a note- in the middle school, when students need a cool-down period from their disruptions, they go stand in the hall so this time is being capitalized on, not pulling students out of class for the exact purpose of having a talk with them.) There have been a few good answers: one student said he couldn’t see the board and so he was moved forward, one student didn’t want to sit next to the person that they were currently, a third was hungry. However, most often when a student is asked why they are struggling in the class and how they can be helped, the generic answer is “I don’t like to read”. Follow up questions regarding what books might entice them to read more, what they struggle with while reading, if they have time to read independently at home, or if they understand a story better when they listen to it usually results in answers like ,”I don’t know”, or “reading is stupid- this class is stupid”. There is a definite diversion to reading.
In an adjoining Teaching Core Class, we (the student teachers) are reading a text by Kylene Beers, “When Kids Can’t Read”, and I can’t seem to put it down. In the first three chapters, I felt that this author really understands what I was only starting to see in the classroom, “These kids can’t read” (Beers 4). I don’t mean that all the students are illiterate- I mean that these kids lack the skills to be independent readers. Reading is a skill to be enhanced over time but most of these students view it an inherent trait and not liking to read is as much apart of them as their name. This is not good news for a future English teacher and makes planning future lesson plans around books seem a little impossible. However, according to Beers, “...moving beyond ‘These kids can’t read’ to defining what they could and couldn’t do helped focus instruction” (34). I read the list that Beers established as characteristics of dependent readers over and over, with each bullet point a face or a name coming to mind. In the coming weeks, I am going to take my list of students and establish with my MT what I think makes them dependent readers and how would be the best way to reach them where they are and build up from that.
As I’ve looked over the classes that I get to observe and teach under the tutelage of the MT- I have developed two professional research questions that I plan on pursuing through the course work of the teaching program and the lessons I get to design and teach. The first research question I plan to pursue is this: What if all behavioral issues in the classroom can be solved by establishing better reading skills in the students that are exhibiting the issues? This is not an unique question or one that I feel I can adequately answer in just one short school year of student teaching; however, I hope to establish a foundation of thought that I can carry into my first years of teaching as I continue to test my theories in the classroom.
My second research question is this: If good reading skills are established like classroom protocol is established every year and teachers make helping students find a favorite author or genre of books apart of their curriculum, will the students who quip ‘reading is stupid’ decrease through the year? What if not reading for enjoyment or reading and being miserable isn’t a personal trait that differs between individuals but is a lack sufficient skills and knowledge to become an independent reader? This is such a broad question and it piggy-backs off ideas brought forth in Beers text, but as I start to design lengthier plans and units for my class, I am going to keep this question as the foundation of my teaching strategy.
Because for everything- there has to be a starting point.
Sources:
Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do. Heinemann, 2003.
