I think that this chapter was by far my favorite because I related to those students who never want to respond or participate in discussions. I was and still am always afraid I'm going to get the answer wrong and look stupid, or say something I think makes sense but no one else understands. I think that it is a really good idea to make your classroom atmosphere a safe place for all students to be able to speak and voice what they think and how they feel. If teachers don't make their classrooms available for this kind of activity, they aren't going to get very many responses from students and it's going to make it more difficult for them to learn.
I also thought that the Stages of Literacy were interesting because looking at the grades and levels of understand, it made sense why some kids of literature didn't make sense until later in high school and college. I think this is important to take in mind when choosing literature for our classrooms. We as teachers may understand all sorts of literature, but we have to remember that our students are at all different levels and may not be able to understand even what we understood when we were their age.
Good points... We have to remember not all students feel comfortable talking in class. This highlights the importance of the learning environment - students need to feel supported.
ReplyDeleteI agree that recognizing the stages of literacy is very important. I remember being 10 years old and my dad recommending The Hobbit by J.R.Tolkien! Do you think I could understand that book at that age? No way! To this day I haven't read it because I remember getting so frustrated just trying to get past the first page!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that Beers brought this up so we could remember that we're older and have had more exposure than most of our students to reading. We have to remember that we're going to be able to understand a lot more things than they.