'Melodies and Rhythms of Language Echoing in their Ears'

First, let me thank you for welcoming Elise, "Miss Elise" as the kids call her, as we shared our experiences with you last week.   I remember being in your shoes and hearing about some inquiry experiences happening in schools and feeling totally overwhelmed: "How in the world could I plan that ON TOP of everything else I have to do with my students?" You should take a deep breath and realize that there are people within your own school and community that care about designing exceptional educational experiences for students today. You don't have to do it alone! Collaboration took the weight off my shoulders in some ways --even just the fact that I could share ideas with another adult helped me feel less overwhelmed. Working with Elyse, I learned about myself that I might generate 101 ideas about what our students could do with owls, for example, but that I need to constantly return to my big questions and be very critical of my components in my project. The right activities would allow for student engagement and would cover the necessary content but would also allow students to practice strategies and develop skills (especially in Reading and Writing, I think!) Being very picky about what we do in our inquiry investigations will pay off; in the end, those activities will seamlessly incorporate those higher level thinking skills and comprehension pieces that our students need to experience. So while it might seem overwhelming to plan these sorts of units, consider how it will make  your life easier after all. You build in the practices, rather than have to add on later, that the students need in their learning. I hope you left class on Wednesday with a few ideas and some motivation to develop even just one short inquiry unit in your own content areas in the future.

What were you thoughts as you read this week's readings? 

I was reminded of a wonderful teacher I worked with named Karen Hull. She was the sweetest teacher in the world who welcomed me into her classroom the last year I was an aide. Sadly, she had to retire early near the end of the year, plagued by issues with diabetes and hearing and vision loss. She had a reputation, though, for taking the kids who struggled to read, hated to read, and had no confidence in reading, even by 5th grade, and transforming them into READERS! In the short few months we worked together, I saw her use her magic every day.  Those kids read, read, and read all day, and when they weren't reading, she was reading to them! She read classics, stories that would make us cry, or books that made us laugh so hard that the teacher next door would have to ask her to pipe down! She was a Social Studies teacher who loved the textbook because it challenged the kids, she told me, but she also made History a little more colorful with book studies and storybooks. She used records and music; I inherited that record player and I love to use it to surprise the children with "technology" of old. When I read the Ivey article and the student said,"When other people are reading to me, they can explain it better or something. And they got a better accent or something," I could not help but be drawn right back to Mrs. Hull's room. When she read, her voice boomed and she read with anger, tears, and laughter. Those kids listened, and they soon read the same way: "Oh! That's how to read!" A part of me believes those kids, now freshmen in college, were forever changed because of those read-alouds.  Her reading showed the children not only how to read, but just how powerful and exciting reading can be. Her love of all reading helped bridge the gap in many of the student's developing literacy skills.

I share similar concerns about the struggling readers in my own classes as the teacher whose thoughts were shared in Alvermann (page 141). I loved her question: "How can I help my students read with the melodies and rhythms of language echoing in my ears?" The comparison of the chicken-or-the-egg dilemma to our student's fluency and comprehension connections in literacy is such a powerful message to me. I see great efforts in schools toward comprehension of texts but, beyond first or second grade, little or no efforts towards fluency. Thinking about it, though, it does make sense. We need to be able to read and write without thinking about it (automaticity) in correspondence with the comprehension of text.  

What stood out most to me in the week's readings was the need to help our students become more fluent as readers and writers. How do you envision this happening in a content area classroom? This week's reading has forced me to reflect on my own teaching style and comfort levels. At first sight, I argued with the authors of the textbook and articles that there isn't much time for Timed, Repeated Readings because I have concepts to cover, investigations to explore, and discussions I want to have with my students. I am reconsidering my argument, though, as I recall how Mrs. Hull's efforts transformed many of her students. Also, Repeated Reading using poetry is presented frequently this week, but I just needed a little nudge to remember that  poetry presents itself in many forms. I plan on experimenting with Repeated Readings using songs as part of my Language Arts and Science classes, along with bringing some of the same magic Mrs. Hull used with her read-alouds to her students.