KAndersen
Dec 3, 05 - 12:05 AM |
Teach What They Need: Teaching Students How to Really Read
Novinger, Sue. & Compton-Lilly, Catherine. (2005). Telling our stories: speaking truth to power. Language Arts, 82, 3, 195-203.
Novinger and Compton-Lilly quote a teacher, Mrs. Holt: “Certain things in life you need. Teach what we need” (p 195). This is a naturally understandable statement- after all, teachers are supposed to be preparing students for the “real world,” instilling in them the values of society and giving them the skills to communicate as members of that society. At first, there are millions of things students need to know: they need to know how to read and write, add and subtract, get along with others, run and walk… But what do students not need to know?
The authors make a startling accusation near the end of the paper: “ iewing reading as a skill-based process supports the textbook industry, promotes intellectual compliance rather than dissent, and denies the relevance of difference and diversity” (p 202). While I have always seen reading as a skill everyone needs to know, I have never thought of it as a process that is promoting “compliance.” Our society does favour people who can read, isolating and sometimes punishing those who can not, but being able to read does not necessarily mean that you will automatically fit in to society, nor get along with it. While we comply with the education systems’ standards in order to graduate, reading can also be a way to escape society, and with its companion skill writing, reading can defy a society’s rules and spread dissent.
As a young adult educated in Canada, I have been fortunate to have teachers who have allowed me to explore different issues. In high school, my teachers asked us to examine articles and question whether they were authentic or pieces of propaganda. We were encouraged to make our decisions ourselves and when we graduated, our principal told us to aim to always be informed- about what, it was up to us.
As a teacher now, I strive to have my students make decisions on their own so that they are active owners of their own learning and knowledge. I also want my students to see reading as something important, empowering and relevant to their lives. I do not want to rely solely on tests to tell me about my students or on behaviour questionnaires to tell me if a particular student needs an alternative curricular program. It is part of my job description and responsibility to know my students, who they are and what they can do. And while I am required to assess their reading skills, make them write standardized tests or perhaps follow a district mandated program, the results from the tests should not become the entire knowledge and or opinion I have about that student.
Mrs. Holt was right in her quotation- we need to teach our students certain things. We need to teach them to decode text, extract meaning from text, and look critically at text. We also need to as many opportunities as we can to experiment with language so that they can develop their own writing style and powerful voice.
Karen Andersen
November 2005
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