Group
|
Initiators
|
Summarizers
|
Responders
|
Illuminators
|
1
|
Michael Gillis
|
Karin Logerquist
|
Molly Nelson
|
Ian Gorton
|
2
|
Nicholas Gaudette
|
Jesse Vavreck
|
Nancy Nair
|
Laura Mayo
|
3
|
Kaylee Wiens
|
Kris Latcham
|
Paul Garlock
|
Jonathan
Reeves
|
4
|
Sara Stein
|
Erik Krueger
|
Michelle O’Connor
|
Sean Johnson
|
A. In the "Who are you as a reader? What is your reading identity" Discussion Area (comments section directly below this post) on the Day 2 Blog, please post: YOUR PERSONAL READING HISTORY.
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
After viewing the welcome video your first online assignment is to introduce yourself as a reader. Everyone has a "reading history." For some, reading has had mostly positive associations, with supports from which to build an even stronger identity as a reader. For others, being able to reshape a negative reader identity often depends on reflecting on personal moments or experiences that created reading barriers. When students reflect on AND SHARE their personal reading histories, they have an opportunity to view themselves and their classmates more generously, as "readers in progress," with reader identities they can understand and change. I am inviting you to introduce yourself in a new way. I know that you have been working together as a learning cohort for at least this semester and already know much about each other; however, I am inviting you to learn more about each other.
DIRECTIONS:
Create your own personal history of some key moments or events in your development as a reader. Respond to the following prompts, being sure to include both positive and negative experiences:
1. What reading experiences stand out for you? High points? Low points?
2. Were there times when your reading experiences or the materials you were reading made you feel like an insider? Like an outsider?
3. What supported your literacy development? What discouraged it?
Please post your reading history on the DAY 2 BLOG SITE, located under "useful links" in the comment section (located on the left side bar) for the members in your KSP 669 group to see. PLEASE HAVE READING HISTORIES POSTED ON OR BEFORE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30, 5:00 PM.
4. Read ALL your group members personal reading histories posted.
5. RESPOND with questions, clarifications, or general comments to at least 3 other colleagues IN YOUR GROUP. Your online response should be a discussion. Some questions that might direct you are: What did you learn about each other? What were some similarities in the barriers and supports you experienced? What were some differences or surprises?
Please post your response ON OR BEFORE SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3 11:59 PM
As I grew up, I had no issues with reading and was normally placed in the higher reading group. We were assigned books to read and would have to complete book reports and reading comprehension tests. My fourth grade year stands out the most as I was placed in the high reading group which brought special privileges and harder reading. As long as the story was of interest to me, I could comprehend with no problem and complete the required work associated with the reading. As I moved to junior high and was required to do more reading out of science text books and math books, I found that my comprehension was slim at best. The subjects didn't interest me and often there were scientific terms or math formulas that I didn't understand. I had a horrible time memorizing the information for tests yet if we had class discussion, my chances of success were much higher.
ReplyDeleteIn senior high, we were required to read and report on specific articles found in the Newsweek magazine. These articles were hard to concentrate on and therefore, unless we had discussion, I didn't get a lot out of the information.
As an adult, I went back to school and was fearful of not being able to understand or retain information. I love to read for entertainment, but the books I choose are light, or murder mystery type books. There was that stigma hanging over me and I needed to overcome it. I learned that if I was reading a text book or article for a class, I would comprehend so much more if I took notes as I read. Then, I would read my notes and be able to easily summarize the information. (If only I'd had that tool when I was younger...)
I think we learn as we go, what works best for us, do we need quiet? does it depend on the material we are reading? I know for me personally, if the information is not of interest, I need to concentrate on note taking. Through the years, I've never really had teachers point out how to make things better. They would say that I needed to concentrate more... no brainer, right? I needed to (and did) figure out what worked for me. Now as a teacher, I will take this into consideration with my own students so that they feel comfortable and gain the most information possible.
I think we have similar reading histories. I do agree with you about losing some confidence with reading as I began reading things that were of no interest to me. I have found myself needing to have more quiet so that I can concentrate better when reading something that is harder to comprehend. It is good to remember how we have progressed in life so that we can keep that in mind as we begin to work with students that may have similar feelings. Sometimes that might mean that we have to help them as they are figuring out what works best for them to learn how they need to.
DeleteLooking back at my reading history, it’s hard for me to pinpoint specific memories, because they were almost always positive. Being the youngest of five kids, I always had someone reading to me. Whether it was my mom/dad reading to us before bed, or an older sister/brother sitting down with me and helping me learn new vocabulary. Our house was always rich in books and literacy.
ReplyDeleteI remember in fourth grade when we had “library day”, my friends and I would check out the same book and talk about it. It was the earliest of book clubs (substituted the wine for juice boxes), and I’ve been in many since then. As I grew older, the material changed as well. Reading wasn’t just for enjoyment anymore, but consisted of difficult academic material as well. Since I was a perfectionist, I always did my homework and read what I needed to, even if I didn’t enjoy it. I spent summers waiting in line at Shinders, waiting for the next Harry Potter book to come out and would then read it within a few days. Up until college, I always had a book on my nightstand, being able to read for enjoyment as well.
Once I hit college, all of my reading was academic focused, for I didn’t have time for anything else. I missed escaping away to my leisure books, but after all of the time I spent reading textbooks, I didn’t want to see anything else. After undergrad, I was able to read for fun once again, until I hit grad school. This past summer I probably read 8 different books, because I had the time. Currently I’m in a book club with family and friends, and have convinced them to pick only books I have read so that I can join the discussion…but have ZERO time to read. With 21 credits under my belt, I hardly have time to breathe, let alone read for fun.
Molly I feel the same way about reading for pleasure. During the school year I can't justify reading anything "for fun" because I have hundreds of pages to read for class, work, etc. I managed to read more books on my personal reading list during the 3 months of summer than I had during the entire school year. Obligatory class reading is frustrating to me, because even though I'm able to make connections and understand the importance, I know I'm more than capable of picking out valuable reads on my own, that would have just as much, if not more, impact on my life (career-wise AND socially). Good luck with the rest of your jam-packed semester!
DeleteMolly, the positive reading experiences you had growing up clearly have an influence on you today, if you read so much for personal enjoyment and are even in book clubs, too! Reading about what you and Karin have said about the effect assigned reading has on your personal reading makes me wonder how much that affects students who have few (or no) positive experiences with pleasure reading - if all reading has been a chore, how can we engage them with it?
DeleteI can't believe you read 8 books this summer. I have trouble getting started with books, so I don't read that many in a year. This past summer I think I read two novellas, but I guess I read a fair amount of blog posts and news articles, along with a lot of kids' books. I am sure your passion for reading will be easy to share with your students, and I hope that it will instill the desire to read in them as well.
I had to think long and hard to come up with the reading experiences that stood out for me. Reading has been a part of my life for so long that I think I have taken it for granted. The foremost high point for me is probably the fact that I was able to read pretty early in life; I was one of the few children in my kindergarten class who was able to read before starting. The low point of that was somehow I was “opted out” of the in-class reading time with my classmates, and was able to independently read in the classroom’s reading area or even down at the “IMC,” which was the name for the school’s library. I think that those letters stood for “Instructional Media Center,” but it’s been a long time since I knew with any certainty. Anyway, that was a high point because I received a fair amount of praise and self-satisfaction because of being able to read so early, but it was a low point because of the isolation I experienced. I enjoyed it having the time to myself, I felt special and I am naturally inclined to work independently, but knowing what I know about myself now, over thirty years later, I definitely wonder if I would have benefited more from being part of the group.
ReplyDeleteOther high points include the time I spent reading about reading while my wife was pregnant with our oldest, and getting to read aloud to a sleeping baby after he was born. The importance of reading to infants and toddlers really stuck with me, and I tried as often as I could to read to my boys.
Finally, another high point is being able to spend a lot of time reading about reading and reading instruction for my classes as part of this entire experience. I have never thought about reading in the metacognitive sense to the extent that I have in the past year and a half. I think all the preparation I did when we were expecting our oldest was a good introduction to this topic, and I enjoy learning more about it now, because there is so much overlap with reading instruction as a teacher and as a parent, and all of it ties into our own, personal reading as well.
As far as feeling like an insider or an outsider, I think I covered this in my discussion of high points and low points, but I can repeat it a bit here. I have felt like an insider whenever I have had to discuss reading to my own children, and many of my content area and KSP classes overlap when it comes to the topics of reading and literacy, so that helps me to feel like an insider, too. I feel like an outsider when I read texts that don’t “speak” to me, either because they are incomprehensible or because the viewpoints and experiences they describe are so different from my own that I can’t make a connection with the text.
I received a lot of early support for my literacy development. I can remember reading with my Grandma, and I attribute a lot of my early success to the time spent with her. I know I talked about books with my older brother, because I looked up to him and was interested in a lot of the things he was interested in. We went to the library a lot as a family, and my mom and dad both were involved in taking my siblings and me there, although I probably went the most out of all the children in my family.
I don’t know that I experienced any discouragement in my literacy development. The only think I can think of – and maybe this is reaching – is that there was little active teaching in my school experience (K-12) about reading in the metacognitive sense that we have been reading about throughout this program and especially for this course.
Mike, I think you touch base on a really great point. You said, "Reading has been apart of my life for so long, that I think I have taken it for granted." It wasn't until last year when I realized this for myself. I volunteered at the Adult Basic Education Center in Bloomington where I helped out in the reading room. There were ESL adults trying to learn how to read in English, but I also had experience with a few individuals were English was their first language, but at age 50, they were learning to read for the first time. Their whole lives, teachers looked beyond their skills, somehow slowly being pushed along.
DeleteThe low rate of literacy is a scary thing, especially since many of us haven't thought twice about the idea of not being able to read. Thanks for sharing your story.
Mike I LOVE that you shared your love of reading to your little boys. I've been nannying for a little boy for the past 2 years and have been reading to him since he was 5 months old. It's been amazing to watch his attention and response grow. He's currently at the stage where he recognizes pictures that relate to certain points in the books he's familiar with, and is able to recite the correct part of the story to me. I think this relates to what you said about the "overlap with reading instruction as a teacher and as a parent" and how this directly relates to our personal reading experiences. Thank you for helping us see this connection; I think it's an important one that I would have glossed over had you not drawn attention to it!
DeleteReading has always come naturally to me. It’s really hard for me to think of specific reading experiences, because whenever I think about “reading” early on in my education, I think about the librarian and the silly games we had to play where we had to answer questions about books none of us had ever read. I do remember learning about reading and writing simultaneously, specifically when I was about 10 years old and read the book Holes, by Louis Sachar. Holes is the first book I remember analyzing in depth because it was one of the first books we read together in class that was written in a different style than many of the books we were used to reading, especially for school. Since the story switched back and forth between several different time periods and characters, it required a lot of sequential understanding, inference, and connection skills (of course I had no idea that’s what we were doing at the time, I just remember really liking the book!).
ReplyDeleteI also remember the point in school when reading became “hard”; more appropriately, when reading became more of a chore. It was 10th grade AP US History, when the textbook was the written word, and it was boring as all get out. Of course I’d read plenty of things that I was less than interested in, but APUSH was the first time school demanded me to read something I had no interest in, and since the curriculum was centered around the book, I struggled. Reading several chapters every night had become critical to understanding what was happening in class; it was at that point where reading became less fun, and more of a burden. I struggled with reading through high school after that. Mechanically, I had no trouble, but I suffered from that all too familiar teenager symptom: complete disinterest. I even somehow managed to get through my entire AP Lit and AP Comp courses without fully reading Frankenstien, The Great Gatsby, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, even though they were assigned, picked apart, and tested on at length (SparkNotes, for the win).
I’ve since overcome teenage-disinterest-syndrome and have read all of these classics on my own, because there has been less pressure to fully analyze; in general (like many people), it’s easier for me to read when there’s no threat of a deadline, or worse, a test. I prefer taking my time, learning, and absorbing. Unfortunately, face paced high school and college courses seem to have less time for absorption, and focus all too closely on getting through material – fast.
In general, my literacy development was supported hugely by my parents, and honestly, I have a natural ability for understanding language (math, logic, and numbers on the other hand…no). My sister grew up in the exact same environment as I did, with the same amount of support and love of reading, and she physically cringes every time we talk about reading for pleasure. It’s not her thing. She can read, and comprehends well, but she has a much easier time learning and interpreting things through hands on learning, visual, and verbal demonstration. Her reading style is simply different than mine.
Reading is also hard for me to talk about because, like we discussed last class period, “reading” often means something completely different in the art classroom. “Reading” art requires the same kinds of critical thinking and development skills as processing written words. You need to be able to make connections and apply what you already know to your interpretation. Finding interest and inspiration in what your reading is important too. If you can’t find relationships, the content become meaningless. I think ultimately, being able to process what I’m reading at my own pace so I’m able to find those connections, has been one of the most important parts of my personal literacy development. I’m admittedly a MUCH better reader now, when I’m learning about becoming an art teacher and able to find those personal connections and relationships, than I was as an undergrad taking psychology 1001 with no interest in the material.
Karin, I love that you talk about using Sparknotes for the classic books in English high school, due to high levels of disinterest. I had the exact same experience, not wanting to read those classic books because I had other things on my teenage mind, but still wanting the grade. I too, have come back around to read those specific books and because I wasn't required to analyze so deeply, enjoyed them far more. It's funny how as we become more experienced and more mature, so do our interests/insights.
DeleteKarin, thanks for sharing your background with reading. I was glad to read about the insights you've gained from being an artist and an art teacher as well, because that is definitely going to influence how you approach working with reading in your classroom.
DeleteThe main theme I seemed to notice in your post is the importance of time - of being allowed the time to really "digest" a text and make personal meaning of it. That is a point that seems to be missed so much in education. I completely understand the importance of getting through material quickly, but I wonder what the cost is. Maybe if we took our time with one text, and made it meaningful, our students would get more out of it and be able to achieve more on tests, too.
Mike it's interesting that you immediately mentioned tests. "Test" means something completely different in the art room than it does to most content areas. There is very little in the realm of traditional multiple choice, true/false, and even essay responses. There are projects, presentations, and critiques (and critiques only work well with older students). I think this is another important component for us to consider when we're thinking about literacy and how to teach students to be literate in our classrooms: how will we be evaluating? I wonder if this variance in how literacy is "tested" plays a significant part in how successful students are at finding meaning, connections, and inferences in the material.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, digestion time is SO important. I've also recently learned this in my field experience. My mentor teacher is helping me focus on evaluating/developing one specific component in each lesson, rather than trying to combine too many ideas (even if they are all related). I need to remind myself that students may not even have the right vocabulary, let alone the inferencing skills, to actively participate in academic reading.