Literacy is at the top of the list for all schools. At my school, we have had a literacy initiative. Students are supposed to be reading and writing in every class, every day. Which, my response to was, "duh." Hopefully, students are reading and writing in every class, every day. However, the lingering question was, what does the board and administration want the students to be reading and writing. The answer: material that will prepare them for CATS testing, open response questions and On-Demand writing. My question to this is, what is the long-term benefit for our students under this criteria?
After reading "Teaching English Language Arts in a "Flat" world," I began to realize that we need to teach our children to be literate in the WORLD, not just for testing and on-demand writing. It is our job to prepare students to be citizens, to be literate, to strive for jobs that suit them and to be responsible adults, among other things. We have to do this throughout the disciplines and content areas. We are teaching future lawyers, doctors, governors, gas station attendants, teachers, garbage collectors, managers, servers, etc, etc, etc. We don't know the future occupations for all of our students. It is our job to prepare them to be literate in any of these aspects. These students must be able to live and survive in the modern world, not just answer an open response question. But, I do believe by teaching them to be literate in today's world, we will be teaching them literacy in CATS testing, ORQ's, On-demand writing, etc. I am still wondering.....is one of these more important than the other?
This is a difficult task, but that is what makes our career so wonderful and why it takes a special person to be a teacher. We have to truly want the best for our students and helping them become literate in today's world is a huge commitment.
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Smart, smart thinking... But, thinking like a teacher, what does that mean for the ways in which you teach? Do you change the tools? Do you change the skills? Does this mean lifting something out and doing something completely new/different - but recasting where you already have been? Perhaps this might be an interesting task for your readers/writers project? You've made me think.
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