Blog Post 3: Reading Literacy

Hi Everyone,

Katic, K. (C) (2014). My sister and I at my cousin's wedding.

I have currently been engaged with a discussion regarding Reading Literacy within our Ontario school system. You can check out the Ontario Curriculum here.

As I am writing this blog post, I am in the depths of Chapters, surrounded by books. For me, books are so important for not only gaining more information, but it is critical for expanding my creativity and life experiences. Reading is such an important skill that is required within our society, and it needs to continuously be practiced throughout life. My favourite memories consist of my sister, my dad and I going to the library every week to pick out books to read at bedtime, and as we got older we were able to go to Chapters to spend our Christmas and birthday money on books we so desperately wanted to read, we still can't get enough of reading! Blue Spruce, Silver Birch and Red Maple were book clubs my sister and I actively participated in throughout our Elementary School career; reading is a critical element to my fondest memories, and it is a skill I practice daily.

Asher, Jay (2011). Thirteen Reasons Why.

While I didn't know it back then, learning to read fluently from such a young age completely benefitted me throughout my education, and I can now recognize that I was meeting the reading requirements within the Ontario Curriculum without even realizing it! Within the Curriculum, there are four overall expectations expanding to all grade levels: Students need to demonstrate an understanding of a variety of texts, recognize a variety of text forms and demonstrate how they help communicate meaning, use the knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently, and reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement and the strategies they found most helpful before, during and after reading. I cannot emphasize enough how important these strategies are.

Reading is indisputably a complex process that involves applying so many strategies before, during and after reading. It is so important to know that the specific expectations for each grade focuses on a variety of strategies, and teachers need to use their professional judgements in deciding which strategies to model and teach, based on the needs of their students.

Anderson, Laurie Halse (2001). Speak.

There have been a few key books that I have identified to use within the novel study unit for my grade 8 students. As shown in my previous blog post, Borderline by Allan Stratton is one such book I wish to use, however after consultation with my advisor and mentor, we agreed that Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson are critical books for our students to read during this unit. They address such important issues prevalent in society today, and the experience of reading, extracting information and lessons to last a lifetime is all part of the process. I am a strong advocate for reading that demonstrates insight and thoughtful reflection, especially for my grade 8 students. I believe it is extremely important to choose insightful books, especially for a novel study unit, however I will give my fellow student teachers a word of caution: when dealing with books that have mature subject matter, it is important to pre-teach about appropriateness and having a mature attitude and perspective when reading these books. Quite obviously students are exposed to mature adult topics from what feels like an early age, so it is critical to have an open discussion regarding such issues so the students feel comfortable enough to ask questions and consult the teacher if they feel unformforable about any subject matter.

I really hope that the topics I discussed above is helpful to my fellow pre and in-service teachers. Feel free to leave any comments or questions below. Keep warm this fall season, the cooler weather is quickly approaching!

References
Anderson, Laurie Halse. (2001). Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/439288.Speak?from_search=true&search_version=service
Asher, Jay. (2011). Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1217100.Thirteen_Reasons_Why
Stratton, Allan (2010). Borderline by Allan Stratton. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6618155-borderline 
The Ontario Language Curriculum (2006). The Government of Ontario. https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/language18currb.pdf