Classroom Practices

One of the articles that caught my attention this week was Gay Su Pinnell’s work entitled Every child a reader: What one teacher can do. In it, Pinnell discusses eight things teachers can do to help promote reading in their classrooms and a few of the ideas stuck out to me. First is that teachers have to understand how students learn, and, more specifically, how each of their students learn. If we do not understand how our students learn, we cannot teach effectively. This is especially true for those of us in special education. Secondly, I liked that Pinnell points out that teachers should enjoy reading and writing with their students. Children are incredibly perceptive and they know when their teachers are completely disinterested in something they are teaching. It is only natural that the children assume that if we are not happy about teaching it, it is probably not very interesting or important. I think it is essential that teachers show students there is something to love about each subject, especially reading. Finally, Pinnell states that reading is a right, not a privilege. Every child that can learn to read should learn to read. Moreover, teachers should do whatever it takes to make that happen because we live in a world where the ability to read could mean the difference between life and death.

The other article was Richard Allington’s piece The schools we have. The schools we need.  In this one, two things caught my attention. The first was the section on “Teaching vs. assigning”. He says it is not teaching to simply assign children work to do. Teachers should give student explicit reading instruction through a variety of means. The second thing was that there is a difference between remembering and understanding. It is so important that everything in the classroom be meaningful and help children to understand. Similarly, it is important that assessments be designed to measure understanding and not simple recall.