Questions for Practice: Reading, Writing, and Student Choice

Today I interviewed for the second time with one of my preferred schools. While the interview went well, I walked away once again with more questions than answers. In spite all the things I know for certain about education, young adults, and my own teaching philosophy, I realize that I have yet to work out exactly how these things will play out as I am confronted daily with a classroom of real teenagers. My student teaching has helped prepare me for this to an extent, but very soon it will be my sole responsibility to prepare daily lessons within cohesive units under an overarching theme, all of which meet the standards and guide students in their journey to becoming thoughtful and capable adults able to read, analyze, evaluate, and communicate effectively. I know that I will continue learning and growing as I engage in reflective teaching practice in my own classroom, but now is the time for me to start thinking about more of the specific goals and finer details for my first year of teaching. Below are two of the questions brought up at my interview today.

·      For a number of years, our ELA instruction has focused more on literature and less on writing. What percentage of class time or lessons do you plan to dedicate to each of these areas?          

This was difficult for me, as I do not tend to think in numbers. It also turned out to be a bit of a trick question. I thought this meant that the school prefers a focus on literature with less writing, but, while I allowed that reading and analyzing literature is important, it is at least equally important to have a strong writing component in an ELA classroom. I pointed to the fact that students need to learn to read, understand, and analyze for life beyond school but that they would also need to have writing and communication skills even if they are not college bound. 

Reading adds knowledge and gives us new perspectives, but writing helps us to work out the ideas we have read or heard or thought and formulate those things in a way that others can understand. At both the high school and college level, I have seen that students frequently do not know how to formulate coherent thoughts and put them on paper. Whether their writing mechanics are good or bad, their content and their ability to fully develop and support their ideas is too often lacking. Many times I am not sure exactly what I think until I begin to write about it. That process of writing helps me to sort out my thoughts and make sense of them, and it can do the same for my students if they are shown and have plenty of guided practice.

Reading and writing go together naturally. Students write in response to what they read, building on what they have read, or model their own writing on techniques they see professional writers use. I am still uncomfortable with the idea of nailing down an exact percentage for each (and I don’t think that is what my interviewers wanted), but I feel committed to a balance and interplay between the two that flexes to accommodate my students specific needs.

·      How do you determine what literature selections you will teach? How will you make sure that students engage with the texts you teach?

I admitted that this is a question I have been considering a great deal lately and that I am not entirely sure of the answer yet. In my student teaching I have seen that many students do not read the book selection, even if it is a newer young adult novel chosen specifically to appeal to them. If they aren’t actually reading it, why go through the motions of doing dialectical journals, class discussions, activities, and essays based on these novels? These things are meaningless unless students are actually reading the book. Without students reading, all of these things are a waste of their time and mine, and continuing to go through the motions ensures increased student failure and apathy toward the class. More and more I am reading and hearing about teachers who advocate allowing students to choose their own novels and keeping whole class reading to shorter texts. It sounds good in theory, but I have yet to see it in practice. I’m willing to give it a try, though. I’m sure a lot will depend on the school where I work, what they require, and how open they are to new ideas.

As I finish up my student teaching and move closer to graduation, I am excited to consider all of the possibilities ahead. I pray that I will find the right school where I can be of the most help to students and where I will be able to continually learn and grow into the best educator I can be for those students.