After reading the following quotes, I didn't know whether to feel validated in my beliefs, or frustrated that these ideas are not yet embraced. "It is by writing that we inscribe our place in the literate world and all the social systems that depend on literacy" (p.1), and "It is a truism that extensive reading expands one's resources for writing, but it is equally essential that as one writes one becomes more deeply engaged in reading, to enter into dialogue with the literate world" (p.2).
In the article, The Reader, The Scribe, The Thinker: A Critical Look at the History of American Reading and Writing Instruction, Monaghan and Saul have put together a clear historical look at exactly why reading is emphasized over writing. The historical perspective relating how reading was an easy means of social control, was fascinating and a little scary. Equally scary for me is the fact that I have just been asked to pilot a Basal Reading Program that has just been purchased for our district. We have been using the Guided Reading philosophy successfully for the last few years which I have adapted to include even more student choice in reading material and now they want me to go backwards. I am fighting this as much as I can, but I think I'm going to lose. I went for the training and it made me a little ill to hear the publisher rep say things like, "You don't even have to think, it's all done for you." I wanted to run from the room screaming.
So, the content of this article was all too familiar to me and not in a good way. So sad.
"You don't even have to think, it's all done for you." Ugh! I can feel your frustration at this. I'm new to the field of literacy and I only recently realised how writing and reading seem to be split in education today. In discussions with middle/high school teachers, I've heard people say that they cover reading, but don't have time to cover writing - this is unfathomable to me; how on Earth can you teach reading without teaching writing?
ReplyDeleteAs a student reading extensive amounts of articles, your point about the passivity of reading struck me. I have only now decided I need to write more notes on my readings in order to activate my brain and make the process more active - this is the most logical thing to do to engage with the material and retain it.
It seems like writing is undervalued in our educational system, and this is frightening to me.
Karen,
ReplyDeleteI just wrote you a long, lovely comment only to have it all vanish as I tried to open a new window. Thus, I must be succinct. If there are those out there in the field of education who are so quick to abdicate our ability to think to publishers and policy makers, then there is little wonder that education is not treated as a profession. I know how hard it is to plan for each subject, all day, but there are so many questions I would address to this publisher: How do these materials address the needs of all of my readers simultaneously? And since you are doing guided reading, you know just how great of a stretch you have in your classroom. But the publishers are practiced charlatans and shysters; despite the protestations I've heard, they are out to sell books and make money. And when they sell a school district a basal reading series, they've made A LOT of money. I see a place for basals as training wheels (or crutches) for less capable teachers, but why should teachers who know how to teach and differentiate reading be forced to use them? What about value-added education? How does a student who enters fourth grade reading at a sixth grade reading level show a year's worth of growth when she is reading something that doesn't challenge or stimulate her intellect?
In regards to writing: I think the argument for strengthening writing programs emerges from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/) I'd argue a district's students are tested more as readers, but the graduate’s skills (and the district's education) are reflected far more in each student’s ability to write and communicate expertly.