Middle School Science teacher teaches students how to read

News flash: middle school and high school teachers all become certified reading specialists. Apparently, it is in fact true, according to Cris Tovani. I have found myself having difficulty this quarter maintaining motivation for all these classes that I see as irrelevant to my chosen career path: middle school science teacher. Every day I spend with my fourth grade class, I am more and more certain that all I want to teach is middle schoolers, and all I want to teach is science.

I chose to pursue a K-8 certificate with Middle Level Endorsements so that if I could not find a job in middle school, I would be able to work in an elementary school. I don't particularly want to teach high school, primarily because science in high school is very discipline-structured. You either teach biology, chemistry, or physics--not any ecology, geology, soil science, or other earth science which is where my passion is. Anyways, as someone being certified to teach K-8, I have to be able to teach all the subjects, so I am taking lots of classes that are not science classes. With my growing certainty that all I want to teach is middle school science comes a disengagement from math and, sorry, literacy.

I must be honest: I did not complete all my readings for literacy this past week. I carpool with two cohort-mates, one of whom is utterly fascinated by language and literacy, and I was discussing my disengagement from school with her. She told me that if I read any of the literacy readings this week, I should read Tovani, because Tovani talks about how all teachers, even middle school science teachers, are reading teachers. So, I took her for her word and read Tovani today.

I must be honest, her book is really relevant to me. I had more of a purpose for reading Tovani (as Tovani herself says, if a student does not see the purpose of the reading, than they won't act as a good reader and find all the meaning). I was surprised by her information, but at the same time, reflecting back on my dyad experience in the junior high school, I can visualize many fake readers and I also remember hearing teachers complain about how the material is too hard for the students and they have to tell them the nuggets, because kids can't get those on their own.

Well, looks like I'll be a reading teacher after all. I will need to show students how to make sense of the nonfiction content science text. I will also need to seek out engaging science writing. I have one dilemma with this--how do I know that something that I enjoy reading about a topic is not too hard for my students to read? Most of the science text I find interesting is targeted at adults--National Geographic articles, PCC monthly newsletter, nonfiction books about science, environmental articles at sightline.org, journal articles from researchers, case briefs from appeals and Supreme court cases, etc. How can I know if it's too hard for my students? I heard multiple times from teachers of science who have been teaching middle school science for 10-20 years that regular National Geographic and other science magazines are written at an inaccessible level for students. Are they really, truly, inaccessible, or are they just inaccessible because students do not know how to read for meaning? Do I really need to pay for kid versions of articles?

Another thing I found very interesting in Tovani's book was the bit about resistant readers: readers who know how to read for meaning but choose not to because they know that teachers will tell them the stuff they need to know anyway. I myself was a resistant reader at various times in my life. In college, I never read the assigned text before biochemistry class, I waited for the professor to tell me what I needed to know and took good notes during lecture. I only consulted the text when I was studying and reviewing for a test and I had not taken good enough notes to feel like I understood a specific part. Often, the science text in college, if I read it before class, it just confused me and made lecture really confusing. It was stressful, not helpful. For my law classes, on the other hand, I read the cases before class, almost always. Why did I choose to do this? I have no idea. It is kind of strange to read a text for a class in school and recognize yourself in the text.

Actions speak louder than words

On p. 43, Routman says that one of the five foci for reading instruction is demonstrating that the teacher is a reader. I think this is important because children learn by example. Most of the important things in life can only be taught by example. A child learns to have integrity, faith, courtesy, and other positive morals through example. You can talk at a child all you want, but if they never see you acting the way you want them to, the way you are teaching them to act, then the message will ring untrue. If a child does not see an adult teaching them to read as a reader, we have no right, as adults, to expect them to become readers.

The best teacher I remember having, the one who truly made me love the subject matter, was my AP Biology teacher in 11th grade. She had a BS in Microbiology. She knew her content, but she also appeared to consider herself a scientist. She loved her subject. She told us numerous stories about her experiences doing research and labs as a college student. She demonstrated to us that she was a scientist, and we loved the class and her all the more for it. Plus, I learned a lot more information--probably 10x as much as I learned in "baby biology," Ms. Keller's pet name for freshman biology. I believe the same thing is true for K-12 readers--if they see me as a reader, than they will learn more and see themselves as readers, and hopefully enjoy reading more, just as I enjoyed science more.

Bonding

"You must bond with my child if you want to teach her anything" Regie Routman quoted a speaker she had heard in her book, Reading Essentials. Before a child can learn anything from someone, that someone has to be established as a person to admire, a person who respects the child and who cares about the child. So often in classrooms of the 21st century, teachers are so caught up in meeting the standards that they forget about the very important human element that is part of educating another being.

This rings especially true for me because in my job at the MSEEC, I rarely got to know the children. Schools came on field trips and I taught kids for three to five hours, and there was really no relationship. In the summers, while conducting summer camps, I was able to bond with some of the campers, but especially those that came back to camp week after week. That was one of the reasons I wanted to go into school-year teaching with the same group(s) of kids--I wanted to know them better so I could more effectively teach them.

Another quote from Reading Essentials was about how we all find some children hard to love, but that does not mean we cannot bond with those kids who we clash with. In fact, no matter what kind of distress a child causes us, it is imperative to bond with them. In my field placement, I know there are certain students who I or my MT just don't really get along with, but I see that she has bonded with all of her students regardless. I hope I can do the same before my time with them is up.

A colleague also discussed bonding here.

I love my lab

Why teach tech

I support integrating technology into your teaching, but I also think that not everything that is valuable for students to learn must be taught via technology and I argue that some things are learned best without the presence of technology. However, tech 2.0 is very powerful for many students, and I do plan to integrate it the best I can in my instruction. However, I also know that many lessons I teach will not have a technology element because it is not my favorite thing in the world and sometimes, I will not have the energy to find a way to incorporate the use of technology in a valuable manner.

The middle school experience

Well, my middle school dyad experience is almost over, and I have mixed feelings about leaving. On one hand, I spent more time grading than interacting with students, which I think is less helpful to my personal growth. I am glad I am moving on to a different MT whom I see more eye-to-eye with. On the other hand, I wish I could spend more time in a middle school science classroom of a different teacher at the school, since MS science is my planned destination.

Next year, when I look at my 6th, 7th, or 8th graders and try to figure out what the heck to do about their behavior, I will be practicing trial by fire. Maybe I'll get really lucky and whatever district I am working for will have lots of extra helpful middle school behavior management. I plan to have engaging lessons so as to avoid behavior problems, but between now and next September, I need to figure out how to act tough and confident, cause if you show adolescents any fear or nervousness, they will milk that and make your life miserable. Not all of them, but a high enough percentage of them to make your days extremely difficult.

I know I want to teach MS science, the content, and I am OK to deal with the negative aspects of adolescents in order to get the positive interactions as well.

Making Assessment Count

Routman says, in CH 10, that "unless teachers know how to teach writing well, student writing will not improve." Her point, I think, is that no matter what kinds of assessment teachers do, if the teacher does not teach writing well, there will never be any improvement.

Routman emphasizes assessment FOR learning and improved instruction rather than relying solely on assessment OF learning. She makes valuable points when she states that most (80%) of student writing needn't be graded. She also argues that just as students need to practice reading without pressure to improve reading skills, they also need to practice writing to become better writers. I do not think my education gave me enough practice in writing. I agree with the principle of not all writing being graded, but at the same time, some students, without the pressure of grades, won't do anything. They'll say, well if I'm not getting graded than why do it when I could be doing something else more fun. Some people have intrinsic motivation to do well at schoolwork, and they don't need the grades, but some people never developed that. How do you teach students the importance of delayed gratification? I hope I can teach it to my kids, but I do not know how I will teach it to my students. Probably, like many things, something one has to learn by making many mistakes along the way.

Routman argues that too many teachers focus on only what will be tested rather than teaching the underlying skills and strategies that result in writing competency. I agree with this statement, but I also appreciate her paragraph later in the chapter that states teachers still need to teach students how to write to prompts, because although it is unnatural, it is also very common. Students will have to write to many prompts in their life: on standardized tests, on college applications, on job applications.