Meaning First and Plan with the End in Mind
Many of you remember “New Math!” New Math drove my dad nuts! Why change the way math is taught when “Old Math” was just fine?? 2+2 still = 4, so why the paradigm shift?? Dad went to his grave resistant to the big change and thinking that Mrs. Mayer must’ve been a communist incognito!
Well, I didn’t intend to drive the parents of my students nuts, but I think that sometimes change can create chaos! So, lots of peanut butter was made this past year! I spent a lot of time smoothing out the nutty parents as I attempted to lay the ground work for my Future Readers and Writers of America club.
None of my children came to me concentrating on pictures first. They absolutely stiffened when I covered the text in our big books. They wanted to read the words~~~rather, they wanted to sound out the words and call it reading. After all, isn't that "school reading?" Well, challenging doesn’t even come close to the word used to describe the chore of teaching the children and reteaching the parents to think about meaning first, not sounding out first. One of my main “Ends In Mind” was to guide the children to constantly think while reading or being read to~~~to listen to be sure the text made sense, sounded right. We worked on various strategies to attack unfamiliar words. The last strategy to be used was to sound the word out. The children created a list of things to do to figure out unfamiliar words. First, look at the picture!!!!! Next, bump the unfamiliar word and keep reading the sentence. Go back and reread the sentence asking what would make sense in the space. Does that word fit? Does it look right? Eureka!
It took a little while, but eventually the parents bought into “New Reading!”
Riley said it best when I asked her how in the world she was able to read a book she was proud to have just read to me.
“Well, I wooked at the pitures first. Then, I finked and finked. Then, I just read it!!”
My children left me at the end of the year knowing in their bones and bodies that reading is meaning, and readers think while they are reading!
What a Celebration!!!
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I also want to set high expectations and adequately prepare my students to be more independent thinkers and learners. My students have specific language impairment and deviant development of comprehension impacting their academic success. They struggle to communicate so learning to communicate is vital for my students. Next year as I teach language skills I will also be demonstrating the writing process.
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