I’ve often wondered why different sections of the same class would read different literary selections.\u00a0\u00a0It didn’t occur to me that as an undergrad, my job was to learn HOW to interpret the text, but to learn enough about the author and the text in order to regurgitate it to\u00a0future students.\u00a0Sure, we discussed the text, defined unfamiliar words, and listened to what others had to say, but then waited for the teacher to tell us the point or real meaning of the assignment. (And high school was so long ago, that I just can’t recall if any English\u00a0teachers felt it was their job to teach us how to better understand what we had read).\u00a0In looking back, I feel\u00a0cheated; and although I enjoyed most English\/lit classes,\u00a0I wonder how much more\u00a0satisfied, and less deflated at times, I could have been.\u00a0 But as the saying goes, that’s all water under the bridge.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Blau, I’ve reached that Aha moment!\u00a0I’ve always been a voracious reader but would encounter texts that I just” didn’t get.” Of course, I thought it was just me and was too shy to ask for further help, but then I wouldn’t have known what to ask anyway.\u00a0 I feel so much better now. My confusion represented an advanced state of understanding!<\/p>\n
But what to do about the teachers who are not engaging the students to become the producers, especially students that are average or in the general ed. class?\u00a0 As a parent of a son labeled LD, I know he is capable of understanding this process.\u00a0 He loves looking through and\u00a0reading books, and still allows me to read to him.\u00a0 My fear is that because he reads on a lower, slower\u00a0level, a teacher may overlook his cognitive\u00a0ability since he’ll always be in the inclusion or general ed. class.\u00a0 Some past teachers seemed more concerned with his lack of fluency and speed and yet continued to push him onto books that were beyond his reading comfort zone.\u00a0 So I felt relieved (and a bit smug) when I read that weaker readers need extended exposure to easier texts, which is what I have been doing. Another thing is that I make sure to expose\u00a0him to anything and everything I can since he has this terrific memory.\u00a0 There have been many, many times were he has surprised teachers with his intertextual literacy.\u00a0\u00a0In these cases, I’ve looked at the teacher with wonder, but would reply with a simple,” of course.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I still don’t know what to do about the differences I see in the\u00a0classrooms using the same curriculum.My son’s classes tend to be of the teacher- lecture\/student- highlight type.\u00a0 While another class may be more hands-on or interactive, I see this more so in the GT class.\u00a0 As a parent, I’m quite frustrated at times by how and what he is being taught; but as a future teacher, I relish the opportunity to employ these collaberative strategies that Blau speaks of.\u00a0 I just hope I’m not creating a disillusionment for myself.<\/p>\n
Group work has always been a mixed bag though.\u00a0 Once, in American lit., we were placed in groups of three to discuss\u00a0T.S.Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land.”\u00a0 Well, one student hadn’t read it and the other hadn’t reached the part that we had to analyze and present informally to the class.\u00a0 Our interpretation time was practically\u00a0wasted with them reading it for the first time.\u00a0So perhaps by\u00a0instituting this concept to younger students, they’ll learn\u00a0the value of the exercise itself and the importance of being prepared.<\/p>\n
Susan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve often wondered why different sections of the same class would read different literary selections.\u00a0\u00a0It didn’t occur to me that as an undergrad, my job was to learn HOW to interpret the text, but to learn enough about the author and the text in order to regurgitate it to\u00a0future students.\u00a0Sure, we discussed the text, defined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}