Blog Post
2-September
The Pleasure
Principal
Molly Peake
“…our primary goal as reading teachers is to eliminate, or at least
reduce, frustration”, Atwell states in the article The Pleasure Principal. How often do educators produce frustration in
students? According to this article
students seem to be frustrated frequently when he/she is not satisfied with
their ability. Unfortunately, teachers
do not always pick up on this frustration to be able to lend support and guidance
to these particular students. Satisfaction
in experiences results in the desire to further an individual’s desire to
explore a given task, assignment, etc.
In reading The Pleasure Principal I found myself revisiting this theme
time and time again.
After
reflecting the information from this article I find myself now evaluating ways
to implement Reading Workshop into my time with students. The idea of empowering my students with
self-directed instruction could possibly help with frustration levels that I am
unaware of. Having brief directed,
instructional lessons plays into my current students’ desires. They are eager to learn independently with
different modes presented. My goal, as a
teacher, is to provide a literacy rich environment that promotes my students’
abilities to view themselves as readers holding a “key” which provides him/her
access to many different worlds and experiences. My students need to experience ownership of
this “key” and what he/she could possibly unlock. I would like to see my students no longer
become frustrated as learners, especially readers, and no longer view reading
as a chore or required skill in which he/she finds no pleasure or success in at
all. I would rather have my students
view learning, along with reading, as a tool that allows them to explore
information that takes them into new worlds and unchartered territories.
Great idea to incorporate more reading workshop into your reading time. This approach offers the opportunity to allow students to practice their skills independently. It's also great to see that your goal is for students to see reading as a tool that would allow them to explore more information. A great way to do this is to utilize inquiry in the classroom. The STEM approach we studied last year allows teachers to pull in literacy experiences that help students see reading as a tool for learning instead of a burden. I'd love to work with you on some ideas on how to integrate this inquiry into your classroom!
ReplyDeleteHi Molly,
ReplyDeleteSo much of what you wrote about in your blog post I found myself shaking my head in agreement. You shared how you believe that if your students were empowered to self-direct their learning with support and guidance from you, as their teacher their frustration could decrease. I agree with Heather that inquiry-based learning would support this. Providing students with opportunities to generate their own questions, choose their own texts, within a structured unit of study could provide them with ownership and a sense of agency that could motivate sustained effort that you could teach into and out of. Sincerely, Dawn