Using Trade Books in the Classroom

How Do I Add More Trade Books to a Literature Class?          

As a future literature teacher I will be using lots and lots of fiction trade books in my classroom and few textbooks, if any. I want to focus on using more nonfiction and other fiction genres in my classroom to enhance the fiction that will be read. The best way I can think of to use nonfiction is for background knowledge before reading a novel. There are times when knowing what was happening in society at the time a novel was written is helpful, sometimes necessary, to understand the novel. Or, other times it is helpful to see how a novel changed society after it was written. I know using other modern genres, such as comics, graphic novels and even electronic media, can show how a novel influenced these genres. Having small children I know picture books are not just for kids. I often enjoy the books I read to my kids even more than they do. We have many, many picture books in my house and I work in the children’s section in a bookstore and I do not see many that focus on literature. I can see different genres of literature or time periods that have influenced the picture books, but besides Shakespeare I see very little picture books that focus on an author or novel. I think they could be used for other purposed, but depending on the novel or topic it could be difficult to use one to enhance a lesson.

I agreed with most of the problems with textbooks discussed in chapter 11. I remember having teachers in school who rarely used the textbooks because they were so lacking and other teachers who relied solely on the textbooks. You can probably guess which classes I enjoyed more. I was struck by how blunt the authors were about the problems in relying so heavily on textbooks in classrooms when they said students come out with a superficial knowledge of many topics, but little to no in depth knowledge of any topic. They broke down the issue into four parts, inconsiderate texts, inaccuracy, inappropriate reading level and negative student reactions. I have personally had these issues with textbooks as a student. I remember saying in high school that we were swapping out one useless book for a different useless book during our time between classes.

I felt they did a good job describing why trade books are beneficial in the classroom. Trade books focus on capturing the reader instead of just giving the reader information. When the writer is passionate, the reader often becomes passionate. Since there are an abundance of books on singular topics it is easy to find books for all readers at all levels. I liked how the authors stressed that kids do not know how to read to learn because they have only been exposed to textbooks in schools. This causes kids to not want to read on their own. When exposed to trade books they become enthusiastic about a topic because the trade book is written with them in mind, for them. Pairing the nonfiction with fiction is a great suggestion. I think teachers get overwhelmed with the amount of information and feel it is too daunting of a task to introduce so many other books in the classroom. However, you don’t have to read the entire book to get information to your students, or use books at all. There are so many articles, videos, podcasts and other formats out there besides books.

The section on creating classroom libraries and text sets was difficult for me to get behind. In theory it’s a great idea, but with the budgets and focus on standardized testing it doesn’t seem realistic. It would be ideal, but I think it is more realistic to think of ways around a class library. We might have to look at electronic sources and get used to students sharing. I felt the section on SSR was similar to the section on classroom libraries. There are so many outside factors involved in making it work. The part about having the entire staff on board and administrative leadership seems far reaching. It is difficult to get every single person on board no matter how great the topic or solution is. I discovered many great ideas in the sections on read-alouds, group models, reader response strategies and the topics that followed these sections. All of these strategies are great as long as there is a clear purpose and focus for the students. I feel sometimes these are used as busy work for kids and taught without giving the kids the skills needed to be useful for them. I think the sections that discussed dramatic responses should be used as optional or a choice because those assignments can be terrifying for some students while other students would learn more using them. It is one thing to push our students to step outside their comfort zone and another to terrify them. I really enjoyed the section on idea circles. It can be used in so many different ways with different sized groups. It is a collaborative process that every student can benefit from. This is a successful model as long as there is a clear set of instructions and everyone is clear on their roles. Students do not often get the chance to write or discuss topics with their peers as the target audience. Most of the time teachers are the audience and ideas can flow freer when they feel less pressure from their peers.

 

Chapter 2 in Content Area Writing was a short chapter but had lots of information. My biggest take-away was seeing the clear differences and purposes between writing to learn and public writing. Writing to learn is focused on free thinking. There are no correct answers, no correct format, just something to get the ideas flowing so they can be formed into a structured assignment. The focus is feedback and discussion, not grading. What stood out to me was this line, “To get learning power, kids need to grapple with ideas, transform them, and put them in their own words.” This, for me, is the purpose of education.

Reader Response #2: Does being a teacher require you to be a statistician?

Assessing is the main focus of Chapter 4. I have thought a lot about assessments as a future teacher and a parent. I have always thought standardized testing is more detrimental to education than helpful, especially after NCLB. This chapter reaffirmed my opinion that federal government has overstepped its boundaries and has put in place a traditional, formal assessment that is not helpful for students or teachers. I understand the need to be able to measure students’ proficiency; as a teacher you have to test the information learned in a classroom. However, the conditions attached to the outcome of standardized testing are absurd. Losing funding because federal standards are not met is not helpful to schools or students. If standardized tests are needed to assess students and teachers it should be done on a state and local level. Teachers begin teaching to the test and curriculum is narrowed to prep for tests. Students are not learning to apply knowledge, but are focused on memorizing information. Money that is spent on teaching to test could be spent on actual curriculum and other resources to help students learn instead of take a test. I want to teach in a private school where federal tests are not the teacher’s sole focus. Standardized testing also ignores background information a student may need to succeed and can ignore minorities and low income students because of it. The author uses the term “coerced” when discussing NCLB and it seems to me to be a fitting term to describe how our federal government gets states to meet their requirements. Education has been taken out of the hands of educators and parents and put into the hands of politicians who answer to more than their constituents.

 

After reading the section Standardized Testing: What Teachers Need to Know, I was thoroughly confused on how to interpret scores. I felt I needed to hold a stats degree to decode how the scores are transformed. It felt to me that any score could be twisted and molded to fit any outcome. The author listed reliability and validity as two important characteristics of standardized testing. I agree with this idea, but I am curious who gets to decide validity and reliability. As educators and legislators, we might have very different ideas on what comprehension is and how to measure it.

 

The quote, “In a high stakes approach to assessment, the test is the major tool; in an authentic approach, the teacher is the major tool,” really stayed with me. I think this idea is what is argued over in education today. People tend to look at test results as being indicative of a good teacher, but this is not always true. Good test results are not necessarily the outcome of a successful teacher. Almost anyone can teach test prep, even a poor teacher. If all we are looking at is test scores we could be rewarding subpar teachers and disciplining exceptional teachers.

 

I had a lot of questions about the frequency observation form for bad behavior. When I looked at it the items being tracked were behaviors that I didn’t necessarily find as being classified as bad behavior. Most people, not just kids, tap desks, hum and make other “unnecessary noises” without realizing it. I know I click my pen persistently while thinking and most of the time I don’t even realize I’m doing it. If we are labeling kids as ADHD because they move out of their seats, drop things and make noises nearly every child would be labeled ADHD. I know I can only sit still for an amount of time before I start fidgeting. Also, maybe we need to look at the material we are covering in class and the lessons we are teaching because maybe the kids are bored. It is possible to lose a child’s interest. I felt this form to be lacking and the need for it as something to simply show a parent who wants to see proof their child is behaving badly. Have we gotten to the place where we expect kids to no longer act like kids?

 

The section discussing the portfolio assessment was very helpful for me. I took away a lot of idea on how I could utilize this in my classroom. I especially like the aspect of the students having a say in their educational plan. Expectations are raised by making the student be a part of how they are learning and giving feedback on what works for them. It is always a good idea to have someone be a part of how they are learning and forcing them to think about what their goals are. This is beneficial for both student and teacher. It does seem like it would take up a lot of time, but even if the portfolio isn’t used every day in its entirety, pieces can be used throughout the year or the whole can be used over the course of one lesson plan. The portfolio can be useful as a tool to help students understand how they learn and how they can apply it in all classes.

 

This chapter gave me much to think about and helped me understand assessments in the classroom.

Reader Response #1

Reader Response #1

The main idea I took away from Content Area Writing is that today’s students write more than any other generation because of their access to technology. However, what they struggle with is writing to learn and the need to know how to appropriately write in different environments. Today’s students have difficulty writing to learn, but their ability to write publicly can be used to improve on their writing skills in the classroom. Teacher’s need to ask themselves if what we are teaching is engaging to students before we can teach them to become better writers. Asking students to take notes while a teacher lectures or write the five paragraph essay is no longer effective teaching. The author says that writing is needed in education because it helps students be more actively engaged in the subject matter, but techniques need to be improved on. I like the idea that teaching content writing is not added work, but an alternate process. Many of the techniques used in the classroom create quiet compliance not active participation. The reason I want to teach is because I want to engage my students to critically think and have ideas. Writing is a way for students to communicate their ideas and if their writing is clear and concise so will be their ideas. Ignoring and downplaying the amount of writing students do in their social lives is a mistake some teachers make.  We can create better, more effective learners by taking the writing skills students already possess and building on them. One of the problems addressed in this chapter is that students forget most information taught in the classroom because we teach them too much information. It is difficult to be clear in your ideas if there is too much information to sort through. The idea of deeper not wider curriculum stuck with me. The author discusses selective curriculum with active engaged learning activities to replace the stagnant current curriculum. I find this relevant as a new teacher because there could potentially be a lot of push-back from administration and other teachers if I want to change how my classroom works.

After reading Content Area Reading I was reminded of the amount of testing standards that schools and teachers are held to. These standards, which are outlined by the state and federal governments, are hindering teachers and are forcing “standards based instruction” on our schools. Teachers are teaching to test instead of teaching to learn. Curriculum has turned into students repeating information instead of critically thinking and understanding materials. This current way of teaching has not helped our students’ reading abilities at all. Teachers use textbooks to assign reading and then have students tell them what they read by way of questions at the end of chapters. There is not engaging students in what they are reading and comprehension is no longer a priority as long as students can find the answers by skimming the chapters read. The most relevant part of the reading for me was the different types of literacy discussed in the chapter. With access to technology literacy has expanded to include computer literacy, digital literacy, information literacy, media literacy and health literacy. Students are no longer tied to books or other printed words, but information is coming at them from all directions. This idea forces teachers to look at their content area in a new way and look at alternate ways of teaching students how to read and comprehend the materials. The idea that stood out the most to be was how we need to exploit technology instead of ignoring. I have often gotten into discussions with other parents about the use of technology in schools. Some parents feel it shouldn’t be brought into schools and that we should continue with the tradition tools we use in the classroom. I feel this is a huge mistake. Technology is part of our culture and it is a skill that is need in college and then in the professional world. As long as we teach responsible use of technology I feel technology can only enhance the educational experience for teachers and students. The author builds on this idea by pointing out how reading in print and digitally is processed differently. Text is read in a linear way, while digital reading can be non-linear depending on where a person starts and stops reading the information. This requires a new set of knowledge for students and new way of teaching for teachers. The authors also touched on schema which is something I have come across many times in classes discussing reading comprehension. Students must have vocabulary knowledge and background in the content area they are reading about to understand what they are reading. This is a concept most assessment tests miss out on and students are improperly evaluated. Overall I felt the messages in the first chapter were enlightening and thoughtful and I am eager to discover what techniques will be discussed in future chapters.