I
am still in the beginning stages of understanding the ins and outs of teaching
an integrated reading and writing course, but there are certain skills and
knowledge that I am sure I would want to include in such a course. I would want a good strong unit on active
reading, with time to discuss and practice the skills necessary to be a good
reader, as well as time for the students to think about (and write about) the
metacognitive aspects of reading. I
would want to do lots of writing and reading over the whole course, starting
with topics that are more personal and gradually becoming more academic and
sophisticated—but I would still want the students to be personally invested in
their chosen “academic” topics at the end of the course. More than anything I would want my students
to develop confidence in their ability to read and write and to develop a joy
for reading— or at least to get to a point where they can enjoy reading. To do this I would have students go to the
library to choose a fiction book they would like to read, and give them time in
class to read it (when possible). To
track students’ reading, I would have them keep reading logs over the semester,
and turn in book reports once a month or so.
I like your idea of having students pick a fiction book they'd like to read and then giving them time in class to read it. To me, this seems like a good mix of the independence that we talk about providing for students and making reading and writing not such a chore. If students were forced to complete all reading outside of the classroom, it becomes just another assignment to be completed whereas your suggestion seems to lighten the load of reading and even instill a bit of community ("I'm reading this book and ,look, all of my classmates are reading books they've picked too. We're reading independently but we're reading together").
ReplyDeleteI also like your idea to dedicate a unit to active reading. Would you do that before anything else? Or would you do some reading/writing without discussing active reading and then see how their skill set has changed?
Okay, this comment is getting long. Nice ideas, Michael!
Michael --
ReplyDeleteSounds good. I like that you'll have a solid active reading unit. There's a lot of potential for doing objective and subjective reading. Going back to basics with in class reading time and the book report is a great idea. I think I may have thought this was not possible. Sometimes we overlook the obvious. If we're in the work of developing strong readers then our students should be reading and why shouldn't that be incorporated into instruction time?