Remember, Teaching As A Subversive Activity, is one of my all-time favorite education books. Focus and Readicide (not finished yet) are two, "must read" books for educators. "For those educators who resist the political in favor of the authentic" is the inside jacket quote. My desire is to be that educator. "Readicide is the systematic killing of the love of reading, ofter exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools, (Gallagher, 2009, p. 2). Amen!
Any teacher who is teaching in a failing school (according to NCLB) understands this process very well. We have instituted well-meaning programs to try and jump start skills that students coming out of middle schools are sorely lacking. We beg, we bribe, and we even punish to try and ramp up skills of those students who, for one reason or another, have not learned to read fast enough, close enough, do math, write, or read science. Middle school teachers in Illinois, your day is coming, no more stop everything and teach the ISAT for two or three weeks and then thump your chests because your students met or exceeded. In a short few years you will also be struggling with mandated tests that are now based on ACT college and career skills. These are skills that build not skills that can be committed to short-term memory.
What am I doing? For next year.....more reading, deeper (close) reading, more writing, and more discussion. Increased current events WITH map activities so a student actually knows that Vietnam is not an island when they are a junior in high school. Vanishing will be my best friend for the past twenty plus years, the scan-tron test. Increased formative assessments and fewer, more thoughtful summative assessments. Participation will be evaluated as to level of understanding, empathy, respect for others, and thoughtfulness (formative in nature). Our culture has lost the ability to hold a civil discourse and I will not go into all the reasons for that loss. Suffice to say that one political party is not the sole cause. We have a great opportunity before us and even though it is the end of the year I am optimistic about the future.
