I realized recently that there is a huge discrepancy between when I first taught this unit and now. The discrepancy is that my students then could read, and if they couldn’t, they sure had me fooled.
As I stood at the front of the classroom with my copy of the article in my hand and the one projected on the board, I looked out at all of the confused faces. Even the journal prompt had stumped them when I asked them to “define” bullying and what is “unintentional” bullying? The words “define” and “unintentional” were lost on them. If these words confused them, how could I manage to get them to understand what it was that they were reading? Even my honors students struggled with some of the vocabulary.
In the long run, it set me back in my plans. I needed to find a way to unlock the skills needed so that they could understand. I needed them to know that reading word-for-word wasn’t always necessary if you knew what the questions were or you were given a set task. In this instance, I asked them to find some facts in an article. We even made a list of what facts would look like. Skimming through to find those facts should have been easy, but they gave up quickly.
Is this the trend? If it seems too hard, you just quit. We will be reading a novel soon, and I need to know that they can push through. Their stamina is at an all time low when it comes to reading. Their motivation is non-existent. It’s time to teach some new skills that will help keep them motivated in the long run.
