I found it so refreshing to read Cris Tovani’s book, I read it, but I don’t get it. Ms.
Tovani doesn’t pretend to have all the answers to reading problems, just some
of them. She tells us through funny and heartwarming anecdotes, about her own learning
and teaching experiences. Ms. Tovani wants to help students improve their
reading comprehension, to make them excited to read further. Ms. Tovani
explains that she too experienced trouble with reading in school. She worked
hard to be a good student, but reading comprehension was a huge dilemma. The
concept of “fake-reading” is something we all know about! By engaging our
students with texts that are relevant and interesting, we can help them become
avid readers.
This book is filled with real-life applications for those
students who are having trouble with comprehension. Some readers can read the
words, and not understand any of it. Ms. Tovani shows us ways to motivate the
reader into finding those places that cause the disconnect and then addresses
the issue. I love how Ms. Tovani shows examples of modeling by bringing in a current
event that is disturbing, weird or shocking. The teacher makes a copy of the
news report for each student, and a transparent copy to project on the board for
the teacher. She then asks questions while the students make notes in the
margin of their own copy. The students ask questions about the article, allowing
for even more engagement on the topic. “Teaching Point: Good readers are
curious about the world around them. Asking questions and wanting more information
gives them a reason to read” (94). This is such a great tool, because the
student is guided by the teacher’s modeling. She instructs them to ask
questions, but to wait for the answers for the next day. This technique affords
the student time to reflect about the article and the questions they want
answered. By modeling what a successful reader does, these students will become
independent readers of more complex texts.
Part 3 of I read it,
but I don’t get it, is a section of Access Tools including: Double-Entry
Diaries, Comprehension Constructors, and Coding Sheets. These are valuable
strategies to engage any student with comprehending. I will be motivated to use
these ideas in my future classroom, to help make life-long readers out of
students.
“In
order for critical pedagogy, dialogue, and thought to have real effects, they
must advocate the message that all citizens, old and young, are equally
entitled, if not equally empowered, to shape the society in which they live.” Henry
Giroux
This
article expounds on the notion that the ability to comprehend text is the most
important goal of reading instruction, everything else builds upon this skill.
Teachers want their “students to be able to present themselves powerfully and
persuasively across multiple written genres as well as through formal and
informal oral presentations” (4). Critical pedagogy theory means that we should
teach students how to be aware of their own learning. We want them to recognize
when someone is trying to dominate them through education. Teachers and
students should be learning from one another and not just the “sage on the
stage” mentality.
In
1971, Antonio Gramsci suggested that “the ultimate goal of a proletariat
education is to help make students more critical consumers of all information
that they encounter in their daily lives and to give them the skills to become
more capable producers of counter-information” (7). I can’t think of anything
more important to know how to do in life. This very skill can help in numerous
arena’s, from a student’s own classroom, to their future job, to unfair
practices at their child’s school. There are many instances that students will
need to be able to think and act for themselves during their lifetime. It
should be educators number one priority to help their students gain the life
skills to change the world, or just their own situation. We live in a tough
world, by making our students understand that there are injustices in the
world, and that they can do something about those injustices, is a worthwhile
purpose.
I
appreciate the author’s sensitivity when deciding on literature to teach for
their diverse classrooms. The teachers used “classroom units that coupled the
study of film, newspapers, magazines, and music with the study of traditional
novels, poems, and plays” (10). Opportunities were offered for students to
study and incorporate their own every-day culture into classroom assignments.
By doing this, these educators were displaying that they cared about what was
important and relevant to these students lives. The result was that students
were interested in learning.
Theory
of critical pedagogy is mostly interested in asking questions that make
students think deeper and more critically. School should be a place where teachers
understand their students’ goals, passions and interests. If educators take the
initiative and connect student interest to their teaching techniques, more
students would be engaged.
Definition of Critical
Pedagogy by Study.com
Critical pedagogy is based on the work by
Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator, who was once imprisoned and then exiled as
a traitor for his teaching methods which were used to teach illiterate adults. Critical
pedagogy recognizes the influence that the lack of education has on the
oppression of impoverished people. One of the primary goals of education is to
help people develop critical consciousness. Critical consciousness is
the ability to assess the political and social structures that exist and to
empower people to question authority and speak out against injustices.
The teacher can either pose a question or an idea as students interact in conversation about the particular subject selected. A teacher can also pose a problem that exists in their community. The students learn about the idea as they interact in discourse with the teacher, members of community, and between students.
Guided by the Teacher
The teacher guides the students to the objective, that is what they are going to learn through the use of past events in history or current events that are occurring. The activities selected by the teacher promote communication and allows the student to view other perspectives and incorporate real-word experiences. However, the idea or concept they learn is relevant in some way to the students. A possible event in history that impacted their community connected to a world event, similar to the video can be used in the lesson.
Students' Create/Explore/Develop
The teacher allows the students to expand on the idea or point of view the teacher wants them to understand and reflect. This is similar to the exploration and evaluation of the 5 E model. However, students do not use materials given by the teacher. The students input is based on what they think and particularly seeking the right or wrong answer is not the objective of the lesson. Students should feel empowered in learning. The outcome of the lesson depends on the students interest and effort
Here are four dimensions of critical pedagogy (Lewison,Flint, and Sluys, 2002) that can be applied in the classroom.
1. Disrupting the commonplace 2. Interrogating multiple viewpoints 3. Focusing on social political issues 4. Taking action and promoting social justice
A Great Example of incorporating Critical Pedagogy
