That is easier said than done. The fact is, nothing helps readers more than reading does. Its a skill and, with skills, if you don't use it you lose it. For some reason, this is a recognized fact, but not something that we truly want to address. If we know that students need more time reading in class, then why in the world aren't we offering it? It seems to me that the answer to our troubles is quite simple.
However, educators--most specifically, teachers--do not rule the world. The people that are making decisions that affect our classrooms have often never set foot in a classroom themselves. It seems easy to expect a magic fix to all of our woes. Just do this and it will all click. But those of us in the classroom know that there is no magic fix. Improving test scores is fairly easy, but improving them enough to move drastically up the comparison scale--well, that's something from fairy tales. There is no quick fix. There just isn't. There is nothing that I can do that will drastically lower scores, no matter how badly I want to have that magic answer.
My job for tomorrow: find something that will inspire teachers to fight the small battles. We have to battle illiteracy one strategy at a time. Its all we can do.
This is me, wowing Harvey Daniels with my intellect at NCTE in NYC.
I tried to impress Steven Zemelman, too. (I'm so glad I've lost weight since these pictures!)
And this is the wild group of SC literacy coaches that took NYC by storm!
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