There is a saying in US public schools, “Don't value what we measure; measure what we value.” Unfortunately, with standardized testing being the most important aspect of all things in public schools, we communicate that is the only thing we value because we place so much importance on these measures. If we want kids to read more, and for leisure, we must realign our values away from testing and more toward literature. It’s easy. Reward reading great literature.
Thank you for continuing to be a voice of reason around this subject. As a former English teacher who was forced to implement some rather silly reading intervention strategies, my administration never could quite grasp the simple idea that giving children time and space to read—without the pressure of a test or a quiz looming over them at every turn—really is a better use of their time.
The best success I had was with a class of 9-12 grade students who were lumped together as "poor readers" and handed to me for a semester to do whatever I could with them, with the expectation that the school would not offer me any resources (nor, conveniently for us, any real oversight). These kids were "reluctant," so-called, because they had been conditioned to dislike reading by their environment and their experiences in the classroom from an early age.
To make a long story short, the students and I worked together to incrementally build healthy reading habits, including plenty of time to think, write, and talk about what they were reading. They primarily read what they chose to read, with some works selected by myself from news clippings, criticism, and short classic texts. By the end of the semester, most of these students would be entirely focused for a full 30 minutes of in-class reading time, and some would become upset with me when I told them that they needed to pause and get ready for their next class!
I used to teach, and one of the things I noticed more and more was that many teachers didn't read. The nearest I saw was a teaching assistant in the staff room with a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey. I once sat in a meeting where a nursery teacher talked about the home visits she did for the new intake, and commented negatively on families with enormous TVs but no books. When I later asked her what she was currently reading, she looked at me askance and told me she didn't have time to read. When I was at teacher training college, many of my fellow students refused to read anything that wasn't going to be in a test, and I was asked why I was reading books that weren't on the reading list.
I love this analysis of the state of education particularly with regard to reading. As a reading teacher who specializes in teaching phonics, I whole heartedly agree that following the data is much more important than making it a political debate. So many studies show conclusively, that phonics foundational and intervention programs lead to higher reading scores. There are other methods of learning to read but all of them involve opening books and actual practice with the skill. The more you do it the better you become, not just at reading, but thinking, analyzing, differentiating ideologies; let’s keep pushing to get our kids reading. Thanks for the reminder and the information.
We don't follow that philosophy in New Zealand. Our kids still read whole books and study them in depth. But some years ago we modernised our teaching methods, and consequently literacy and maths skills also went down dramatically. Now they are rushing to try to return to the old methods that worked so well, leaving a generation of kids, many of whom lack the skills and knowledge to perform basic tasks like writing business letters (email), reports or proposals, to name a few skills I consider basic minimum in business. Or the math to calculate a margin, or understand the basic principals of accounting that I consider to be life skills. Fortunately as a book lover, I passed that love onto my children and now my grandchildren. If I think back to my successful career, the foundation of it was literacy and maths.
There is a saying in US public schools, “Don't value what we measure; measure what we value.” Unfortunately, with standardized testing being the most important aspect of all things in public schools, we communicate that is the only thing we value because we place so much importance on these measures. If we want kids to read more, and for leisure, we must realign our values away from testing and more toward literature. It’s easy. Reward reading great literature.
Thank you for continuing to be a voice of reason around this subject. As a former English teacher who was forced to implement some rather silly reading intervention strategies, my administration never could quite grasp the simple idea that giving children time and space to read—without the pressure of a test or a quiz looming over them at every turn—really is a better use of their time.
The best success I had was with a class of 9-12 grade students who were lumped together as "poor readers" and handed to me for a semester to do whatever I could with them, with the expectation that the school would not offer me any resources (nor, conveniently for us, any real oversight). These kids were "reluctant," so-called, because they had been conditioned to dislike reading by their environment and their experiences in the classroom from an early age.
To make a long story short, the students and I worked together to incrementally build healthy reading habits, including plenty of time to think, write, and talk about what they were reading. They primarily read what they chose to read, with some works selected by myself from news clippings, criticism, and short classic texts. By the end of the semester, most of these students would be entirely focused for a full 30 minutes of in-class reading time, and some would become upset with me when I told them that they needed to pause and get ready for their next class!
It really is quite simple.
I love this!
I used to teach, and one of the things I noticed more and more was that many teachers didn't read. The nearest I saw was a teaching assistant in the staff room with a copy of Fifty Shades of Grey. I once sat in a meeting where a nursery teacher talked about the home visits she did for the new intake, and commented negatively on families with enormous TVs but no books. When I later asked her what she was currently reading, she looked at me askance and told me she didn't have time to read. When I was at teacher training college, many of my fellow students refused to read anything that wasn't going to be in a test, and I was asked why I was reading books that weren't on the reading list.
Sadly the rot runs deep.
I love this analysis of the state of education particularly with regard to reading. As a reading teacher who specializes in teaching phonics, I whole heartedly agree that following the data is much more important than making it a political debate. So many studies show conclusively, that phonics foundational and intervention programs lead to higher reading scores. There are other methods of learning to read but all of them involve opening books and actual practice with the skill. The more you do it the better you become, not just at reading, but thinking, analyzing, differentiating ideologies; let’s keep pushing to get our kids reading. Thanks for the reminder and the information.
We don't follow that philosophy in New Zealand. Our kids still read whole books and study them in depth. But some years ago we modernised our teaching methods, and consequently literacy and maths skills also went down dramatically. Now they are rushing to try to return to the old methods that worked so well, leaving a generation of kids, many of whom lack the skills and knowledge to perform basic tasks like writing business letters (email), reports or proposals, to name a few skills I consider basic minimum in business. Or the math to calculate a margin, or understand the basic principals of accounting that I consider to be life skills. Fortunately as a book lover, I passed that love onto my children and now my grandchildren. If I think back to my successful career, the foundation of it was literacy and maths.
and a Granny ... https://youtu.be/_DyhxwIocak?si=q1qefn8TI1So51Cs