At the turn of last century Henry Ford mastered the art of the moving assembly line. With it came Model T and cars were now available for the masses. The masses were improved because now they were mobile, there was only one option to choose from.
American Chopper has turned the Ford model on it head. Now assembly lines make many parts, and you can put them together anyway you like. This sets up for you to have exactly what you want.
Readicide states that the elephant in the room is the standardization of test, making reading boarding and shallow. We need to have a standardization of classrooms, but we need to move beyond.
It is time to have reading exactly how students need it and like it. Since each student is different, we will need to have a custom made reading plan for each student.
The standards will be needed to make individual plans work, they will just have to be flexible enough to work for each and even student. Student will then fell they have the custom plan just for them.
This is an interesting thought. I wholeheartily agree with you that we must change our idea of literacy and how it is taught. But I am afraid in teaching elementary literacy somewhere we threw threw the baby out with the bath water. The sight word movement has now taken root and the students aren't able to decifier words pronunciation or meaning. While there is some merit to students mastering advanced vocabulary students should be given the tools to be indendent learners.
ReplyDeleteCustomizing the reading to the needs and the desires of each student is one of the strategies I see is needed in the classroom. I think it behoves the teacher to carry out a survey at the beginning of the year to find out from each student the subjects and books that may excite interest in each student and then try to figure out how to work these subjects or books into your content. If just one student out of your class finds a new interest in reading that is one more that will look into understanding knowledge for themselves on down the line. Will find ways to figure things out for themselves. Customize not standardize!
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