Chapter 4

Pg. 49 – “If we focus on meaning and content first with our students, we can’t help but succeed and teach all the necessary skills.”

I often see students associate “good” reading with being able to accurately call words rather than make meaning. It is so important for us to make children realize that reading is supposed to make sense…if you don’t understand what you are reading, then there is no point in reading it!

Pg. 51 – “We always need to be thinking and asking ourselves, Is what I’m doing compelling? How is what I’m doing helping kids become more effective, independent, and joyful as readers, writers, thinkers, problem solvers? Instead, we are often asking, What skills do I need to teach to meet the standards? How can I get my students to write a paragraph? How can we raise test scores?

Isn’t this true for us all? We want to do what is most beneficial for our students. We want them to truly enjoy learning; there is no doubt about that. But when the school year is going, and we have standards to meet, assemblies to go to, programs to complete, etc., we sometimes lose sight of what the right way to do things is because it is oftentimes more time consuming and maybe a little harder for us to manage as teachers. We have to develop a system that allows us to genuinely meet the needs of our students as well as cover the standards and raise the test scores.

Pg. 55 – “By planning with the end in mind, I do mean identifying what we want the learner to know and be able to do; I do not mean teaching one focus, standard, or skill.”

I think it is important to know what we expect our students to be able to do once we have taught a lesson. I think sometimes we do things because it’s the next lesson in the program or because it meets a standard…how often do we actually consider what we want students to be able to carry over into other aspects of their lives?

Pg. 57 – “We can teach everything the student needs to know about reading and writing with a focus on what’s most important to that child.”

This is absolutely essential – especially for reluctant readers and writers. We want our students to be successful, and when they are truly invested and interested in their work, the likelihood of that success is much higher.

Pg. 62 – “We teachers get tired, which can make us complacent…Teaching something with more intention or finding out what students are really interested in is hard. It takes thought, effort, extra hours, but in the long run we save time, because our students are engaged and want to learn.”

We have to be willing to do the work that is going to produce the most success from our students. We want them to grow to be life long learners and to enjoy, take pride in, and appreciate the learning process. We have to, therefore, put in the time and effort necessary to engage and interest our students.

Pg. 68 –“While some English language learners look like they understand because they can read fluently, fluency cannot always be correlated with comprehension, especially for older readers.”

I think this applies to all students – not just English language learners. I have had many students who read beautifully and couldn’t comprehend a single word of it. We can’t let those students get by. We need to make sure that we are monitoring all of our students – even those who demonstrate excellent fluency.