You're asking me?

Do you ever look around for an adult and then realize you are the adult? Yeah, that's happening to me a lot lately. Pretty soon we will not only be adults, but also teachers. Talk about responsibility overload. In each of our EDUC classes, we are being prepared to teach the little minds that will one day be in our classroom, but until this week I had not thought about the possibility of teaching "bigger minds." There may be an opportunity when we are asked to lead a faculty meeting, or to share a strategy that we use in our classroom (which, by the way, is something we should strive for because it probably means you're doing something right).
This week we had the chance to practice this. We were able to collaborate with each other and pull together reading strategies that could be used across multiple disciplines. Then, we presented our work to our "colleague(s)." In doing this we practiced multiple teacher standards by: demonstrating leadership in the school and in the teaching profession (NCPTS 1), working collaboratively with other teachers in the lives of our students (NCPTS 2), recognizing the interconnectedness of content areas (NCPTS 3), and taking steps towards professional growth (NCPTS 5).

On a side note, the semester is on that downhill plunge towards summer!

How Do You Read?

"How do you read?" is a hard question to answer. At this point in our lives reading is not something we think about. We just do it. So as (probable) future middle and high school teachers, we expect our students to "just read" something we hand them. Unfortunately, it is not always that simple. It is a scary fact that 19% of high school graduates cannot read (according to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education in 2014). It is quite a possibility that a student will enter your classroom and not be able to read, or read below their grade level. So how do you tend to those students?

After today's guest speaker in (EDUC 316) class, I thought on this question. I did a little bit of research, and found a few ideas to ponder and attapt to fit my future classroom:

• Amend your materials to talking and listening activities
• Design assessments as oral (either for the whole class or just the student who can't read).
• *****Remember! Just because they can't read, doesn't mean they can't learn.
• Get parents involved. Encourage parents to read to their children, starting at infancy.
• If you do organize an activity around reading a text, either plan to devote yourself to helping the illiterate student through the activity, or assign the student a "work buddy." The work buddy should be someone who possesses patience and enjoys helping their peers. 
• You may have to spend extra time with this student, in class and after class. Don't be to busy for your students!
• Find resources for the student that can help them gain the literacy skills they need. 
• Be the teacher that goes above and beyond!

I am also taking ESOL 335 this semester and as I was researching ideas for differentiating for illiterate students, I realized I could also use these ideas to differentiate for ELLs (English Language Learners). ELLs are not necessarily "illiterate" but they too can struggle when it comes to reading academic texts. 

As teachers there will be times when a student enters our classroom and we have no idea how to teach them. That doesn't mean we should give up on that student and allow them to get left behind. Don't be afraid to research new methods. Get creative. Reach out to other teachers. There are umlimited resources out there for you to use. Some of the biggest parts of being a teacher are creating a classroom that is built for the learning of all diverse students (NCPTS 2), facilitating learning for all students (NCPTS 4), and reflecting on what can be done to improve academic achievement for all students (NCPTS 5).