THE WORLD’S WORST READING STRATEGY

THE WORST READING STRATEGY IN THE WORLD—and one of the most common—is round robin reading. For decades, literacy experts have warned against this method; yet teachers continue to practice it. Sadly, building leaders fail to challenge them when they do. What is round robin reading? You probably remember it from your own school days. The class will open a book and Miss Chilblain will ask a student to read aloud. Johnny will read a page, stumbling over many words as Miss Chilblain supplies the correct pronunciation of each. Meanwhile, the other students are doing one of the following:

• Daydreaming
• Reading ahead to examine the page they’ll read when it’s their turn
• Complaining that they can’t hear or can’t understand Johnny
• Causing trouble (anything from spitballs to fistfights)

As a staff developer, one of my lifelong goals has been to put an end to the use of this most useless of pedagogical strategies. I have failed. Round robin reading is alive and well—and it’s hurting our kids.

When teachers use this method, they labor under the illusion that something productive is happening, but students are not gaining comprehension strategies, decoding strategies or content knowledge. They’re tuning out.
http://web.wm.edu/education/599/06projects/carrubba.pdf?svr=www

If round robin reading is being used in your school, I recommend that you gather other PTA members, visit the principal and throw a fit. Round robin reading is a waste of instructional time and a waste of taxpayers’ money. There are alternatives.

GUIDED READING

Teachers (or parents) model comprehension strategies by giving a child a book to read and then assessing how well he/she is using the strategy. Predicting is one such strategy. Adults can use a model reading passage to demonstrate how they use characters’ words and actions to predict what will happen later in the story.

SHARED READING

The teacher reads aloud as students follow in their own texts. Periodically, the teacher “thinks aloud” how he/she interprets the text. For example, the teacher can demonstrate how to interpret a characters’ feelings by saying, “The hero said (fill in the blank) or did the following (fill in the blank) so know I know he must be feeling (fill in the blank).” Later, young readers can try the same type of comprehension strategy in texts of their own.

ECHO REDING

The teacher reads a short passage, demonstrating how he/she uses punctuation marks as cues to modulating his/her voice. Students then build their fluency skills by reading aloud the same passage.

SARAH PALIN, CREATIONISM AND EVOLUTION

Remember the scientific method?  You probably learned about it in school.  Let’s review.  These are the basic steps:

 

• You observe the world around you.
• You raise questions about what you see.
• You form a hypothesis (theory) about how something in nature works or will work given a specific set of circumstances.
• You conduct an experiment to see if your hypothesis is correct.  If it’s not, you revise your hypothesis.

 

So: creationism: 

 

Does it fall within the parameters set by the scientific method?  Is it scientifically measurable?  No.  Creationism is the idea that the world and all the creatures in it were created in six days by an invisible deity.  This is not directly observable; you cannot make direct observations about the process of supernatural creation.  You cannot do experiments on God or ask Him to fill out a questionnaire about His involvement in the generation of all things.

 

Evolution, on the other hand, can be subjected to experimentation through direct observation of the fossil record and a host of biological and biochemical experiments.  Can these experiments be faulty?  Of course.  But they can be criticized by scientific peers through further observation and experimentation.  Evolution, unlike creationism, is a topic of study that belongs squarely in the world of science. 

 

So when Sarah Palin (as “W” before her) suggests that creationism should be taught alongside evolution she’s just plain wrong.  A discussion of creationism does not belong in scientific circles and it doesn’t belong in the science classroom.  Should creationism be taught in public schools at all?  Certainly.  There is a place for it: the social studies classroom.  World mythology is a topic often discussed in social studies classes.  If the Christian myth of creation is placed along side other myths, such as the Iroquois tale of the earth being created on the back of a turtle, then creationism is a proper topic of study in the classroom.

 

This is no trivial matter.  Last year, the Washington Post reported a study that showed that American students are falling behind many other industrialized nations in math and science.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/04/AR2007120400730.html

 

Falling behind in science and math will prevent young Americans from competing with their counterparts around the world; and it will lower their chances of prospering in the global economy.  To encourage American students to confuse mythology with science is to endanger their economic security in years to come.  In the glory days of America, we prided ourselves in being the leaders in scientific innovation.  The rest of the world may surpass us if our leaders continue to show disdain for science.  Those who advocate teaching evolution in science classrooms are short sighted in the extreme and may endanger the livelihoods of their children—and ours. 

SARAH PALIN: THIS PREGNANCY IS POLITICAL!

Senator Obama is taking the high road, refusing to use the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s daughter as political fodder. If he did so, it would be a “no win” situation, making Obama look like he’s attacking an innocent girl. The Senator’s decision is admirable; but still there is a political dimension to this pregnancy and someone’s got to talk about it. So here goes.

Governor Palin is an ultra-conservative and such people don’t just oppose abortion. They oppose birth control of any kind including the form of birth control known as information. Ultra-conservatives disapprove of any sex education that includes references to condoms, the pill or any other kind of birth control. Sex, they believe, is for reproduction only and only when one is married to a person of the opposite sex. Ultra-conservatives will fight funding for any program that focuses on anything but abstinence.

So it’s likely that Governor Palin’s daughter never received sex education beyond “just say no.” Is it a surprise that she got pregnant? Palin told the world: “Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned.” With proper counseling, Bristol wouldn’t have had to grow up quite so fast and become enmeshed in a marriage that she might bitterly regret some years hence.

And what of HIV? If my theory is correct and Bristol received no information regarding protection, an unplanned pregnancy could have been the least of her worries. By denying her information, Bristol’s “loving” parents may well have condemned her to death. Is this God’s will? I submit for your consideration the Sixth Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.”

Denying one’s child information that might prevent her early demise is moral, if not legal murder. If the Palins did indeed take an “abstinence only” approach, then they have broken God’s law. If Governor Palin supports a political agenda that forces all government programs to follow the same “abstinence only” plan, then many “beautiful daughters,” not to mention handsome sons, may lose their lives for lack of information.

Do we want our children to die before their time? If the answer is “no” then Bristol Palin’s pregnancy becomes an issue that is gravely political.