I loved that this strategy wasn’t about your everyday reading strategy/skills. Often times we forget about the social/emotional aspect of learning and look solely at cognitive ability. Beers states, “So, the foundation for success is in improving their comprehension, vocabulary, and/or word recognition skills. What follows are additional suggestions that help students develop social and emotional confidence as readers.” I couldn’t agree with her more. Even sometimes today, as a fourth year college student, I am hesitant to respond in class because I am afraid I may sound stupid. How silly! It is paramount that we consider this aspect of learning, particularly with our adolescence readers who are very concerned with fitting in with the ‘in’ crowd.
Beers gives us several suggestions on how to build confidence in the classroom. One of her suggestions, which I believe is wonderful, is to create a classroom that encourages risk. This requires more effort on the teacher’s behalf, but it is vital to our students confidence that we are not “dumbing down” the work. The success of the students in her example (with Moby Dick) was tied to the work the teacher was willing to do in providing the necessary scaffolds for the students.
Another suggestion that I believe is vital to any successful classroom is to celebrate the diversity found within. It’s often hard for teenagers to embrace differences. If you create an environment that celebrates differences and one in which all students feel equal and comfortable, then they students will have more confidence to participate. I went to a very diverse high school and am so appreciative for that experience that I believe this is an important part of education.
Beers has many other wonderful suggestions, but I must comment on her example of the “ding-a-ling” idea to reduce put-downs. I absolutely love this idea, and would love to try it in a classroom one day. The sound of the bell would be annoying enough for me to keep my comments to myself. However, I am a little concerned this would be very distracting to the classroom. I am curious to see how it would work.
Finally, the last idea that I would like to comment on is efferent vs. aesthetic reading stances. Readers might take an efferent stance toward reading when their goal is to carry information from the text. Readers may take a more aesthetic stance when the goal is to live through the text. It is important to note that most struggling readers take an efferent stance toward reading. It is our goal to move them toward a more aesthetic reading stance. We have to encourage students to bring the text closer, let the ideas and issues, conflicts and contests, triumphs and tragedies become a part of who they are. Once students are able to do this, they will probably enjoy reading much more. This also brings me to the idea of sustained silent reading, where students are able to choice read. If students are able to pick out a text that is right for them, they will be more apt to read aesthetically, rather than with an efferent stance.
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