Assignment for September 13, 2011 Class

     I read the blogs of Dr. Tim Shanahan (http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/) and also watched a clip of an interview on you tube about text difficulty.

     Texts should match grade levels not reading levels. The difficulty of texts has decreased for children while it has increased for adults. This has widened the gap between the reading difficulty that is expected beyond school. It has poorly prepared students for the SAT. Long term exposure to simplified texts has created a lack of rigor in domain specific knowledge. Students learn more working with challenging texts than with low readibility/high interest texts.
     The common core teaches reading through more complex texts. The belief is, "The more you do, the more you will be able to do."  This comes from the need for students to be better prepared for the demands of reading beyond school.  The Common Core's  focus on  challenging text is central to development and maximizes learning.
     Learning to read depends on the interaction between learner, text  and teacher. Teachers then must be wlling to give more guidance and support to their students in the classroom. Students and teachers must become more involved in hands on, interactive  learning/teaching which is much needed in many classrooms today. It is going to force teachers to provide more quality instruction to better prepare our students for the future.
     I do not give "busy work" in my classroom. I try to find meaningful activities to relate to the text. However, the more challenging texts will bring change. In my classroom, it will mean more preparation and  more one on one. It will mean even more research, discussion, projects, and experiments. However, these are the things that make text meaningful for students. If we don't challenge them, they won't reach their potential.