In the first chapter of
Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write the authors explain commonalities that were observed between educators of classrooms that had unusually high achievement rates. One of those that I found to be thought provoking was that "meaning was central and teachers emphasized higher-level thinking skills." I have found that understanding the meaning of what I am doing really affects the amount of effort I put into it. For example if I consider an assignment to be busy work, then I do not work as hard on it. For this reason it does not surprise me that classes of children do better when they give meaning to what they are learning.
In the second chapter of this book I read another interesting piece of information about how a child's gender related to the children's interest in reading. It is so sad that boys often believe that real men do not, but not very surprising. I believe that in general fathers should start taking a more active role in helping to develop their children's literacy skills. Additionally, I appreciated how the writers added a story about how a school gave children male role models. The school in this situation was really taking initiative to help the children gain an interest in reading, and to get the community involved in the school. As well as that I found the story about a teacher who had an epiphany while reading Charlotte's Web enlightening. I have always considered that to be a story that everyone enjoys, and I wonder how many other books I might consider to be gender neutral may not actually be that way.
In the first chapter of Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write the authors explain commonalities that were observed between educators of classrooms that had unusually high achievement rates. One of those that I found to be thought provoking was that "meaning was central and teachers emphasized higher-level thinking skills." I have found that understanding the meaning of what I am doing really affects the amount of effort I put into it. For example if I consider an assignment to be busy work, then I do not work as hard on it. For this reason it does not surprise me that classes of children do better when they give meaning to what they are learning.
In the second chapter of this book I read another interesting piece of information about how a child's gender related to the children's interest in reading. It is so sad that boys often believe that real men do not, but not very surprising. I believe that in general fathers should start taking a more active role in helping to develop their children's literacy skills. Additionally, I appreciated how the writers added a story about how a school gave children male role models. The school in this situation was really taking initiative to help the children gain an interest in reading, and to get the community involved in the school. As well as that I found the story about a teacher who had an epiphany while reading Charlotte's Web enlightening. I have always considered that to be a story that everyone enjoys, and I wonder how many other books I might consider to be gender neutral may not actually be that way.
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