Believe me I have many more than just one, but there is one particular thing that bothers me and that is the misappropriation of proven techniques for learning.  It is really frustrating to see professionals and whole schools say they are doing “reading workshop,” for example, and then nothing they do in class really fits that model except for….well the reading part.

I know good teaching.  I am myself a great teacher (this is me being honest) and I know great teaching.  I work with pre-service teachers to help them become better teachers.  I am not say that these teachers are lazy or inept or that the schools are lazy or lack real leadership–that is a blanket statement and I don’t think it is as simple as that.  While I think this might play a role, what plays a larger role is the bastardization of research-based great practice.  Reading and writing workshop models are what work and often work best for the teaching of critical thinking and the construction of learning.

I have been observing two reading teachers who use the “workshop” model and I say that loosely because there are many things they do that are not and can’t be called reading workshop.  Reading workshop is pretty specific (as is all good teaching) but just to call it workshop doesn’t make it workshop and this irritates me and make me want to scream from the rooftops “This isn’t the way you do it–you are cheating these kids of the education they deserve, need and are expected to get.”  But I can’t do that. That is not why I am here–I am not here to evaluate teaching and to tell the school they are doing it wrong.  I wish I was, I wish I could.  I could fix this–and maybe this make me a hypocrite–but my dissertation rests on me not intervening in the teaching.  You don’t just give kids books, turn on a timer and have them read–that is not reading workshop–that is SSR.

Reading workshop requires thinking and keeping a reading journal, and/or using sticky notes to ask questions of the text and to make predictions–to react to what someone did, said or experienced.  Reading workshop is about teachings students how to interact with texts.  Not just to read and keep track of their reading minutes.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I think that students should be able to read in school for fun and not always as work–but in class for reading workshop–they should be working.  They have many other opportunities to read for pleasure build into their school day and I think that is awesome.  Too often schools don’t focus enough on nurturing a love for reading; but there needs to be a balance between the two.  Just reading doesn’t help students to develop critical reading or thinking skills.

I read very differently depending on the purpose of my reading–shouldn’t students be taught how to determine the purpose of their reading? All reading isn’t just for fun.  When they get to their social studies class or their science class or to high school, they are going to be expected to know how to read texts for different purposes.  I am not saying that this responsibility falls onto the reading teacher or English teacher, but how to read in English class needs to be addressed and taught and just giving kids books doesn’t do that.

I think this irritates me most, because this is happening in an urban school that struggles with student achievement and it seems to me that this is a bit of a cop out on teaching.  These students need to be pushed and challenged and taught–not just left to their own desire to push themselves.  Yet I hear how students are able to do things, they don’t do homework, etc.  Well give them something meaningful and teach them why it’s meaningful.

What this all leads to is the false feeling that we are doing the right thing because of what we label something.  Teachers and administrators needs to hold each other accountable to make sure teaching practices are being implemented the way they are needed and intended to be implemented.    Students deserve us all working at our best and with their best interest at heart–not what is easiest.