What do you see as an appropriate balance between reading fiction - literature - and literary non-fiction? Where do you think using a basal series should fall?
I think that in our reading series there should be more non fiction literature. For kindergarten in each unit, there is only about one non fiction book and eight or so fiction books. In the last unit the students were learning about the weather. The one non fiction book that was in the unit provoked more interest and discussion than any of the non fiction books. I would like there to be a balance of fiction and non fiction.
Schmoker seems to suggest that we look seriously at incorporating plenty of nonfiction into our reading instruction. According to pages 99-100, he's a proponent of using lots of newspaper and magazine opinion pieces to stimulate discussion. It would appear that the older the kids get, the more they are best served with discussion that stimulates deep thinking and connecting. As before, the author seems to have a bit of a vendetta against basals, so I'm not sure they should fit into our instruction very much - especially once our kids are reading at suitable levels. Maybe that should be the next discussion point...when should we be moving away from basals and into deep, thought-provoking literature, and how is that practical with low-end readers who struggle with insufficient experience bases and absentee parenting?!
I loved the quote by a University of Virginia professor that explained how literature should be taught, “how it enlarges us and allows us to inhabit and evaluate the lives and worldviews of others as we reflect on our own.” (Schmoker, 96) If each time we handed our students a piece of material to read and evaluated if it helped them in this way, we would be leagues ahead and the student engagement would follow in step. Additionally, with our limited time for science and social studies why not transfer this content into our reading time. In a focused book, Schmoker spends two of the seven chapters discussing reading in science and social studies. Using our time and our student’s time more efficiently would mean using meaningful and pertinent non-fiction text during some reading blocks to not only teach reading in a deep and meaningful way, but also exposing them to more science and social studies material.
I think that in our reading series there should be more non fiction literature. For kindergarten in each unit, there is only about one non fiction book and eight or so fiction books. In the last unit the students were learning about the weather. The one non fiction book that was in the unit provoked more interest and discussion than any of the non fiction books. I would like there to be a balance of fiction and non fiction.
ReplyDeleteSchmoker seems to suggest that we look seriously at incorporating plenty of nonfiction into our reading instruction. According to pages 99-100, he's a proponent of using lots of newspaper and magazine opinion pieces to stimulate discussion. It would appear that the older the kids get, the more they are best served with discussion that stimulates deep thinking and connecting. As before, the author seems to have a bit of a vendetta against basals, so I'm not sure they should fit into our instruction very much - especially once our kids are reading at suitable levels. Maybe that should be the next discussion point...when should we be moving away from basals and into deep, thought-provoking literature, and how is that practical with low-end readers who struggle with insufficient experience bases and absentee parenting?!
ReplyDeleteI loved the quote by a University of Virginia professor that explained how literature should be taught, “how it enlarges us and allows us to inhabit and evaluate the lives and worldviews of others as we reflect on our own.” (Schmoker, 96) If each time we handed our students a piece of material to read and evaluated if it helped them in this way, we would be leagues ahead and the student engagement would follow in step. Additionally, with our limited time for science and social studies why not transfer this content into our reading time. In a focused book, Schmoker spends two of the seven chapters discussing reading in science and social studies. Using our time and our student’s time more efficiently would mean using meaningful and pertinent non-fiction text during some reading blocks to not only teach reading in a deep and meaningful way, but also exposing them to more science and social studies material.
ReplyDelete