Does the way that you view a subject matter affect the way that you teach? Does it affect your students? Does it even matter?
This year I witnessed this first hand, as I worked with some struggling readers in my school. As I am writing this post, I am thinking specifically of one student. This student was struggling, but I really think that the real problem was self confidence, motivation and a loss of the love of reading. She was able to read pretty well, but just did not really know what to do with what she was reading. If she got stuck on a word, she would just stop and look at me. I realized early in the year, that she just needed some motivation, so our journey began... I used a lot of the same tactics that I use daily with my students, but since this group could read fairly well, I started really adding in a lot more (scavenger hunts, interactive graphic organizers, interactive notebooks to incorporate more note-taking and writing), and challenging them to step it up and reach for the stars. It really challenged me as well to think outside of the box, and become even more innovative in coming up with new ideas in reading to motivate these learners. I have to say, that I loved going to this reading group daily, and challenging them more and more. I was so surprised by their accomplishments, and they were surprised by their accomplishments, and it starting showing up a lot. It was not uncommon for one of them to tell me that they read the entire story for homework, instead of the few pages I had assigned, and the little girl I mentioned earlier, always read ahead. I challenged her several times to rewrite ending of stories or to finish a story that left us hanging, and she would every time. As I challenged my students, I was also challenging myself daily and weekly to come up with even more and more for them. IT WAS CONTAGIOUS! Did my decision to challenge my students and get them motivated affect them? Most certainly it did! If I had walked in there and noticed her lack of self confidence and continued to teach reading the way it had always been taught to her, would it have made a difference? No it would not have worked!
As the year came to an end, I came into my office one day and found a note and some chocolates, and you guessed it, it was from that little girl. I cried as I read the note from her, and it is taped on the side of my desk right now. It said, "Thanks for believing in me and making reading fun! Thanks for teaching me all that I needed to know to be successful in reading!" Does the way that you view a subject matter affect your students? It most certainly does!!!! They will walk away with a love of learning, or they will walk away bored and maybe even hate learning. As educators, we have the POWER to make positive effects, or we have the POWER to make negative effects! Which will you make this coming year? No matter, what your school system decides to do, or what you have to teach that you don't like, remember that you are affecting way too many lives to make a negative impact! I challenge you - MAKE IT FUN & MAKE THEM WANT TO LEARN!
Of course, I love to teach reading, and I have no problem wanting to make reading fun! There is so much to do with reading, but I know there are those out there that hate to teach reading, and dislike that they have to do certain things that their school requires, etc. However, no one but you can change that. Challenge yourself to look for every possibility to make it fun and worthwhile, and make your students fall in LOVE with reading this year! Does the way that you teach affect your students? Most definitely, so have FUN, make a DIFFERENCE, and MOTIVATE them to read!!! There are tons of great ideas, skills and strategies that can be inter-weaved to any reading lesson and any reading series! Read that main selection, or the leveled readers, but add in tons of other things to make it all come alive! Good Luck & if you need any ideas or are struggling, feel free to comment and ask for suggestions.
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