Summer is here and it's time for teachers to thrive! Along with rest, fun, and odd jobs around the
house, I'm honing my skills in the teaching of reading. Currently, I'm reading Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, from the authors of
Notice and Note. The biggest draw for me
was that the book promises to address the "importance of media literacy
and tips for teaching kids how to identify fake news."
A book by respected authors that would explore solutions to
a very current, timely problem was absolutely worth my time. I couldn't help but think about my first
fourth grade class from 12 years ago.
"Did I do enough to teach those kids, who are now adults, to help
them seek out the truth and think critically about it?" As elementary teachers, I guess many of us
don't find out how the majority of our former students are doing 10 years
later. But reading this book became
urgent for me so that I could feel like I'm doing my best to do right by my
current and future students.
I was also given the opportunity to spread the word of Disrupting
Thinking. Scholastic gave me a
second book to give away. If you're
interested, please join the discussion and leave a comment that relates to one
of my pain points in red. I'll choose an
answer using a random number generator on July 5th. It's a good summer read; there are enough
anecdotes of classroom visits to make it feel relatable and humorous. There are reflection questions at the end of
each chapter, so the authors make you practice what they preach in terms of
active engagement with their ideas. And
it's divided into 3 sections. This contest is now closed; winner will post tomorrow morning.
Section 1: The Readers We Want
The major takeaway for me in this section is The Struggle Is
Real. As teachers, we struggle with
standardized tests and canned responses.
If a test is standardized, the publishers are looking for a specific
sort of response, and often have a rubric to assess it. So creative thinkers are sometimes
penalized. Students struggle with an
overabundance of boring texts as well as the conditioning that their initial
response is not answering the question on the test.
In order to bring new life into reading instruction the
authors explore the idea that are aware of their reactions
to a text (or film, or news report); they don't ignore them. They make inferences, question, look for more
information, all in a cyclical manner, but it starts with a reaction to
something in the text. Texts need to be about topics they are unfamiliar with, or disagree with, or be novel in some way. In order to be better readers, students need to struggle. So yes, the struggle is real. But that's kind of the whole point. If it was easy, why "teach" it?
That being said, the authors acknowledge that there is a
fine line between bringing one's background knowledge and feelings to the
reading and dismissing the author's message!
It made me think of practicing MCAS using an old reading and writing
prompt about storms. I've seen kids
write about hailstorms and earthquakes when those were not the storms mentioned
in the text. Obviously they didn't get enough new information out of the text to
write coherently about it, so they stuck with what they knew. Fortunately, the book offers very specific
prompts for conferring with students to help them recognize when an author
confuses them, earns their trust or distrust, or changes their minds. This way they are recognizing how they
respond to a text without adding or deleting information. And it's funny; in the past I've seen
students write total wrong answers to open response questions and assumed it
was beyond their reading ability. This
text makes me wonder; is it the fact that it was so contrary to their beliefs
that it was just easier for them to write what they knew, or thought they knew,
because they are inexperienced with formulating a difference of opinion? We also need them to accept that changes in
thinking, in the wake of new information, is normal and often the goal of reading.
So having read the first section only, I went back to my
class and started using the term "disrupting thinking" in relation to
reading. (Spoiler alert: the second
section actually gets into a different "hook," as opposed to the
title of the book, so this is my own personal spin on the ideas of the author,
but it worked for my class in May!) We
were about to read a nonfiction piece about animals in our anthology. This tends to be an introduction to a science
unit on animals that culminates in a written report from each student. Now, in the past, I've done an KWL chart
about animals because most kids have some knowledge of animals, favorite
animals, and generally enjoy learning about animals. But this time I changed my introduction.
I did record facts about animals that they knew prior to
reading. But then I told the kids,
"We read nonfiction for new information.
Now, some of you already know things about animals. But when we read this article, prepare
yourself for it to disrupt your thinking. Maybe you will learn a new fact about an
animal. Or maybe you'll learn something
that goes against what you already thought you knew!" Then, after reading, I asked students for NEW
information that was in the text. If there was any information that contradicted
their prior thinking, I planned to guide them to see how their thinking would
change (but there wasn't any).
In the next post, I will talk about the second section of
the book which promises to help me teach kids to pay attention to how their thinking
has changed after reading a book. It
sounds like my lesson on finding new information is an important start, but
only the tip of the iceberg. And at
this point, I'd love to hear your thoughts about the book if you're reading it.
Disclosure: I
received compensation for a fair and honest review in the form of 2 free copies
of the book (one to keep and one to give away to one of my readers). Again, if you'd like a chance to win your own copy of this book, please leave a comment below that addresses one of my pain points in red. This contest ends on July 5th 2017 at noon. This contest is now closed, but feel free to post a comment to join the discussion!
