Heather Register-Blog Post 2-Regie Routman-Chapter 4 Teach with a Sense of Urgency

Teach with a Sense of Urgency-Routman

Routman defines teaching with urgency as, “making every moment in the classroom count…ensuring that our instruction engages students and moves them ahead…using daily evaluation and reflection to make wise teaching decisions,” (41). She goes on to focus on an optimal learning model that utilizes a workshop approach. Teachers first provide a demonstration, engage students in a shared demonstration, relinquish some control in a guided practice setting and ultimately release control to students during independent practice. This learning model is one that I used in my reading and writing instruction. There were two reflections on this approach that occurred to me as I read this chapter. First, Routman focused heavily on making the demonstration explicit to students. They need to know why we do what we do as readers along with the skills that we use. In my early years teaching, I know I didn’t focus on the why. I would be frustrated when students weren’t able to apply their learning to new contexts. My “whys” became much more explicit when I had the privilege of teaching the gifted students in fifth grade. If you didn’t give them a why, they wouldn’t see the point in the skill or assignment. If they didn’t see the point, the work they submitted would often be subpar. I found that I was more conscious of making my whys obvious. This approach is obviously beneficial to all students and I wish I had used it more in my early years. Bouncing off of this idea, Routman mentions that if learners are to become fully engaged they need to find tasks interesting and worthy of their attention. Logically, we know every concept isn’t going to enthrall all students. However, it is a reminder that we can’t coast through our lesson planning, we need to see what connections can be made and make the learning relevant to our students.

            A second reflection on this teaching approach was the idea of integrating skill instruction in meaningful curriculum. It coincides with the frustration I felt when students couldn’t apply new understanding in new situations. If we teach skills in isolation, students won’t always see the connection. They won’t be able to use that skill when it comes to new content. Instead, we need to be sure to use our content to teach our skills. This holistic approach has always made the most sense to me. I’ve seen it in practice in multiple classrooms. Students are engaged in reading and learning about reading through that process. Teaching the skills independently and providing worksheets for them to practice doesn’t seem to produce the same results. Instead, having them recognize the use of skills as they practice reading would result in more permanent learning. That’s how I learn...by doing.

            A last component of this chapter that left a lasting impression on me was the idea of using students’ writings as reading material. My kids have made classroom books before but not to the extent that each student would have a copy to read. It makes sense that a student who is struggling to read would be able to read his or her own writing with greater ease. I wish I had this understanding when I was in the classroom. Using student created texts as reading is not only a great way to motivate, but offers excellent opportunities for meaningful skill instruction.