SIP

On Monday our SIP committee met.  The majority of the meeting dealt with a discussion of how our students are performing in terms of reading achievement, and the vision we have to keep reading achievement levels high – and move them even higher.  So many of the SIP members offered valuable insights – your voices are much needed.  Together, and only together – we will move the needle further and further. 

Several solid books/authors that I am trying to absorb – piece meal, I have to admit. I have earlier mentioned Notice & Note with a subtitle Strategies for Close Reading by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst – and Mike Schmoker’s Leading with Focus. All three educators share common insights about reading i.e., what we are teaching and what and how we need to teach and also what we are doing that is sometimes counterproductive to equipping our students with the literary skills they need to become better readers.

Their work offers us promise – and a roadmap of sorts on how to improve our teaching of reading.  And, I know you are saying – we have the curriculum – and we have Jan Richardson – and we do – but sources such as the ones above give us a window –windows – into the necessary questioning and decision making we all make as we consider the needs of a given group of students sitting in front of us.  

Such educators show us ways we can teach kids who to understand more complex passages – we can develop reading habits in our students that will help them delve into complicated passages and build meaning.  We have to show them how to do it. 

Here’s an interesting idea I keep coming across.  Select an “Article of the Week” and then once a week teach your kids how to take notes on that article – i.e., to respond, to question, to analyze; and, eventually build a writing prompt in response to the article.   “Article of the Week” idea isn’t earth shattering, but it holds great promise to put some rigor into our reading block.  

Coming up with good, appropriate articles is challenging, for sure.

Below is a poem that I annotated to model what I was thinking.

My notes in red reveal what I went through as a reader – how I thought about the words – the phrases – the characters.  Beers, Probst, and Smokers argue that helping kids to see how to construct meaning from a passage will empower them – give them the skills to deal with difficult passages.  I took a way a negative tone away from this poem, but I could see that another reader – especially a reader who has little exposure to problem drinkers -  could take away a positive tone– that is, a scene that describes the relationship between a hard-working father who is tipsy – coming home from work and having a light-hearted moment with his son. 

Can you see bringing an idea like this into your reading block?

“My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke

The whiskey on your breath       The child recognizes the smell of liquor

Could make a small boy dizzy;   Why would the boy be dizzy? I wonder if the dad offered him some whiskey

But I hung on like death:   “Death” is a strong word here – is the boy dying with fright?

Such waltzing was not easy.  I’ve seen drunk people act crazy – dancing and carrying on – my uncle dances when he’s drunk

We romped until the pans   It sounds like the father and the boy did dance and everything got scattered

Slid from the kitchen shelf;   

My mother’s countenance Not sure what “countenance” is -  

Could not unfrown itself. I bet “countenance” is face and the boy’s mother was sad – little to smile about when dad was drinking

                                                                                                                 and maybe she is the one who would have to pick up the pans- the mess

The hand that held my wrist usually friendly people hold hands – not a wrist - the boy couldn’t get away from the dad when he was drinking

Was battered on one knuckle; “battered” could mean that the father got into fights or hit others when he was drunk. Battered – is the boy battered as well? By the father’s drinking?

At every step you missed   Could the father be trying to hit the little boy?  Was the boy always trying to get away from dad?

My right ear scraped a buckle. Looks like the little boy’s ear took a blow from the father. Scraped makes almost hear and feel the wounds on the little boy

You beat time on my head   I think the little boy is dodging and ducking the blows from his father

With a palm caked hard by dirt, Was the father someone who worked with his hands, or just dirty because he didn’t clean up when                                                                                                                 he was drunk or maybe dad was so lost that there was no cleaning him up

Then waltzed me off to bed  Looks like father took the boy to bed.  “Waltzed” – maybe father doesn’t realize his impact on son

Still clinging to your shirt. Even though the boy was in bed, the reality having an abusive father is still in his head and probably in his

                                                      dreams or maybe boy is clinging to the idea that his father will change – he still wants a father