Readicide

Some of the problems pointed to in the book were problems we have been made aware of in the past. The biggest example of this is the problem of teaching students to a test. While I had known before about the negative effect this has on students, I did not know about the impact it was having on reading. Most of all, I did not know that students were being denied interesting reading materials because of the focus on tests. I noticed standardized testing having other negative effects when I was in school, but I never noticed a lack of interesting books in English class as a result of that. I found it interesting that the book recommended using books that were "authentic". In this case, that meant books that were applicable to things going on in the real world, things that would have an impact in some way on the student's lives. This goes back to our discussion of the requirements of the TPA in class last Monday, when we talked about how to connect students to their community. It is good to see that there is a way to do this that will also improve their skills as readers at the same time.

I also found it interesting that students are being denied novels in favor of shorter materials because it helps in test preparation while not necessarily preparing them as actual readers. This was something that I did notice while I was in school. Many teachers did not want to bother with whole novels, often telling us that we just didn't have the time, and opting for shorter works that could be printed out. Novels were saved mostly for the AP English classes, which always sounded more interesting to me than our regular English classes. I found it interesting that solutions in the book often centered around teachers taking extra initiative to bring better reading materials to their students. The focus on reading skills also seemed in line with the CCSS.

Differenciated Instruction

The article I used in my research on differentiated instruction was called Teaching Vocabulary Through Differentiated Instruction: Insights from Multiples Intelligences and Learning Styles, by Parviz Alavinia and Sima Farhady. The article focuses on a study looking at whether using differentiated instruction would have a positive effect on the ability of a mixed group of students to learn vocabulary. The participants in the study were all female Iranian learners from the ages of 15-20. All were given a Preliminary English Test, and all those that were included in the study were those who scored one deviation above or below the mean. The participants were also given a multiple intelligences test and a learning styles test. The participants were divided into two diverse groups, one of which received differentiated instruction, while the other did not.

The results of the study showed that differentiated instruction had a significant difference on the ability of the students to learn vocabulary. The authors of the study also cited a large amount of research, mainly previous studies that also supported the existence of positive effects when using differentiated instruction. Together, this study and the ones cited by its authors show that differentiated instruction has a positive effect on learning across multiple subjects and grade levels.

Some teachers are concerned with differentiated instruction because it sounds a lot more difficult than just teaching using a one-size-fits-all approach to instruction. However, included in the information from the other studies was the fact that teachers tend to find classes where they have used differentiated instruction to be more engaging and rewarding. Teachers who prepare to use it are better able to connect with their students, which makes learning more enjoyable, and most importantly of all, it increases student success. Therefore, the rewards far outweigh any potential downsides.

I Read It, But I Don't Get It.

I found this book to be easier to read, aside from its length, than the articles we have read previously. I liked the way the author would make frequent references to real world applications of the concepts she discusses in the book. I found it helpful to see these constant practical examples of what people do when they are failing to really read, and what successful readers do. I also found it useful to see these concepts explored both in the form of real-world stories, and also in occasional bulleted lists. This method of repeating the important information helped make it easier to remember. I also appreciated the samples of actual work the students could see that were provided at the back.

I also liked the way that the author described relating to her students as a former bad reader herself, and how the students responded when their expectations of her and themselves shifted. When I started the book, I thought that her personal examples from teaching would stop as she shifted into a discussion of the teaching techniques, but I appreciated that she continued to use them throughout the book. Often in the course of our education classes, we get real-world examples but soon switch to dozens of pages of educational theory without getting to see the practical side. I think I can speak for many teacher candidates when I say that we often want to know more about what to expect when our theories come into play in actual classrooms.

I also like how the book walked through the different stages of responding to and helping someone who is failing to really read. It was useful to see ways to identify what the exact nature of the problem is, and then go about fixing it. The description of comprehension strategies also caused me, as someone who has never had a problem with reading, to be more reflective about what I'm doing when I read, which will help me to apply those strategies when helping my students.

A Response Based Approach to Reading Literature

This article builds on previous articles in which teachers are encouraged to use discussion as part of a more open-ended approach to teaching which incorporates the voice of the students more than traditional views of teaching. This article focuses on using this method for teaching literature. I think I would prefer this method greatly as a student. When I was in school I always found that I enjoyed reading outside of class much more than reading inside of class, because rather than exploring a book it felt like I was trying to figure out how to arrive at the conclusion the teacher wanted me to. I really like the idea of a horizon of possibilities, which sounds much more exciting than searching through the book to answer the questions about the reading that the teacher had assigned to us from the beginning.

I also think using this method as a teacher will be more interesting because each person brings their own backgrounds and ways of thinking to a piece of art, and getting all the students adding their own approach to the material as part of the conversation could lead to me and other students seeing it in ways we might not have on our own. It will also be another opportunity to learn more about the ways in which each students is unique, and this will also help me to be a better teacher to them by responding to them as individuals instead of just more students. I am also interested in this approach because of the emphasis on helping students to "experience" the reading instead of just reading it and trying to remember it. This will no doubt make lessons more interesting for me as the teacher and for the students, and more importantly this will also help the students to learn about what we are reading. The information will matter more to them and stick with them much more.