Sometimes I find it hard to believe Beers' retellings of her first years of teaching, or those of interactions with other teachers. But then I remember the class I sat in last week while attempting to help Jimmy with his work. (Side note- since I've been working at CIS, Jimmy has become the universal name for all kids, usually preceded by "little"). And I remember the teachers I had in high school, and even worse, middle school. I know that it is not only possible, but more likely than not for teachers to not help students, to hinder them even, meanwhile thinking that they are doing their job. Thus, my favorite chapter from this book is the one on vocabulary. Vocabulary is the subject for which I proudly stand on my soapbox, preaching to anyone who will listen. I love what Beers did for that group of teachers who thought 20 item vocabulary lists was the way to go. She didn't have to preach, she just showed.
Also, I was really struck by the "Prompt, Don't Correct" section on page 217. I struggle with this constantly. I hate asking students to sound out words all the time, especially when that's what they've been doing for the 10 laborious words that came before. I need to look at this list daily as a constant reminder that there are other ways to help readers when they get stuck. I can do it!
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3 comments:
I remember the Vocabulary chapter of Beers' book being a huge cause of debate during our English department book study. One teacher, specifically, was already giving her students a list of 20 words on Monday and superficially quizzing them on those words on Friday, and didn't want to change. She simply explained that it was just easier and quicker to do it that way. It makes me wonder how many teachers out there follow this same thinking even when they are provided with a plethora of strategies to use that perhaps could me more beneficial to students.
It is what I do, why change. Teachers being resistant is one of the big obstacles for any kind of meaningful change. I think about how long it took to get teachers, and I know there are still some out there because my own children have had them, but there are still some out there who assign papers, have the students write it at home, then they grade it. There is not even a pretense at process. it makes me angry, but then most things to do with school make me angry these days. Sigh
I think you're right about teachers hindering kids--people tend to blame kids for what's wrong with schools, or testing (like me), or whatever, when really it's the combination of many factors, a big one being teachers. The truth is that a lot of inadequate but well-meaning teachers just aren't getting the job done, because the job is so huge and complex and there's limited support and motivation especially in struggling schools. The hard part is, how to help both teachers and kids? Write a book like this, I suppose.
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