Reading is a skill necessary to be successful in life and
with many students struggling with this skill, it is very clear that this is an
issue that we all need to join hands and come together to fight against. After
reading in Subjects Matter, it seemed
like the two biggest things we can do for kids are equipping them with skills
and encourage them. To me, the second one is much more crucial, but the first
one is also very important.
Once students have skills and are equipped to read and
comprehend more challenging texts, our biggest job as advocates for adolescents
is to encourage them, to cheer them on every step of the way. At Hilsman Middle
School, we were talking about kids that aren’t on level for reading and someone
said something along the lines of this—Kids that struggle with reading are very
aware of this. Yet they are coming to school everyday, a place where reading
determines success—kids that read well are celebrated, and kids that don’t read
well fail. These kids are brave and we need to celebrate and encourage
them—when I heard this it really helped put into perspective how this would
probably feel. You walk into a classroom and are expected to do assignments and
whether you understand the material or not, you are unable to do it because you
cannot read. That would be a really hard experience but it is a really cool
opportunity to get to celebrate and encourage the kids that are likely ready to
give up on school. Kids in middle school dealing with this are not a lost
cause, and as advocates for these kids we need to lift them up and walk
alongside them cheering them on as they grow in confidence.
299 Words
Grace,
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with this!!! I think teaching can definitely be a job that gets routine and mundane, which could make it easier to be lazy. But, our students will need to be encouraged!! And definitely to show them compassion, like you mentioned in your example- the students that know they can't read probably get nervous about walking into to the classroom, so it is definitely important to go the extra mile to make sure they know that we, as teachers believe in them!
WC:85
Our jobs as teachers is to be our student's biggest supporters. I feel like some teachers kind of brush that idea off and just focus on teaching. But there is so much more to teaching than what it seems. Like you said, equipping students with skills is important, however it may be more important for them to know that we will be there for them right or wrong. Confidence is a huge part in anything really when you're helping someone else. We are starting our literacy mentoring program at Hilsman Middle School, and one of the main things that they told us was that we just needed to be there for them. Just our support can go a long way with many of these kids.
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