The biggest struggle for teachers is students that do not want to read or give up because certain lessons are too difficult. Although it is our job to make sure that the students learn the material, it makes if far more stressful and difficult when the students do not even care about learning. So how are we as teachers supposed to motivate students to want to learn? There has been extensive research on this topic, and it has produced amazing results in the classroom. Different strategies such as “building engagement with the text” and modeling thoughtful reading have created new opportunities for students to become more interested in the reading. Chapter 11 also discusses different types of approaches from teachers that have been extremely successful. One example that I found to be more interesting to me was one proposed by Lisa MacArtney in her classroom. She had the students fill out a profile that helped her define the various types of intelligence found in her students. The four types were, “students who are strong on social relationships, those who are well organized, those who are analytical, and those with high energy,” (Daniels and Zemelman, p. 282). She then had them form a “human graph” in the hallway to see where the students fell in each type. Often she would have them work in groups, and it was evident that they encouraged each other and were more patient. It also showed how there different strengths worked together well. I thought this example was particularly interesting because I have never thought of trying to distinguish the types of learning my students might be the strongest at, and I feel like this example as well as the rest of this particular chapter will be extremely helpful with struggling readers in my classroom.
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Hey Carter!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated how you brought the idea proposed by Lisa MacArtney into your blog post. I also thought it was very interesting how she asked her students what type of learners they are. It is also important to note that there are different types of learners and not everyone is going to learn in one, uniform fashion. This idea, I believe, is crucial to know of your students so we know how to best teach whatever subject area it is. Grouping the students together, based on their types of learning, so that they can discuss and learn from their peers will be extremely helpful especially when digesting a critical reading passage in our classrooms.
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Carter,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that motivating students that truly want to learn and read by doing that is hard. So hard that sometimes I think teachers give up also and go for the easy way out or blame it on the student being lazy. However, you are right in that this chapter was full of ways to engage the not so in tune reader in your class. I think it is important to analyze your students strengths because it not only lets them see what they are best at but you as a teacher to know how to truly teach them where they are at. Reading at different levels is such a "meet your students" thing because reading levels in one class can be all over the place and knowing which student learns in what way can change the atmosphere of the classroom.
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