Critical Lenses

 Introducing critical lenses in my classroom can help me meet my teaching goal of creating more informed world citizens. In order for students to become what bell hooks calls “enlightened witnesses” of the world around them, students must first understand the workings of ideology. ELA teachers have the task of making ideologies in text visible to students, and literary theory helps readers uncover these ideologies where they may be hidden in the text. Teaching multiple literary theories also helps students to learn the power of multiple perspectives, and providing students with many perspectives and exposing them to new perspectives is another goal of my teaching.

When students learn critical lenses, they practice skills needed to critically view the world around them. Studying theory also helps students evaluate the ways in which the texts they have consumed have shaped their own world view and perspectives. The concept of using multiple perspectives can be introduced by having students tell well known stories (like nursery rhymes) from a different perspective. 

During my experiences as a learner in ELA classes, the reader-response framework was most often used, even if I didn’t realize that my teachers were utilizing it. In higher grades, teachers brought in other ways to respond to texts. Most often, the lens we used in the class would largely depend on its relevance to the themes in the text. Additionally, my teachers often contextualized texts before we read them, preparing us to better understand the issues of class, race, and gender within them. 

In my own teaching, I see myself most likely to begin by utilizing a reader response framework, then gradually including other lenses, especially those of class, gender, and race. This helps students understand their own relationship to the beliefs present in the text. In using these lenses frequently, I can ensure students have the opportunity to explore issues of social justice within some of the texts we read and connect these issues to the state of the world in the present day. 

After Reading

 After reading strategies continue the work of before and during reading strategies and focus on constructing meaning from the text. As with all scaffolded reading experiences, teachers need to model for students how to use these strategies in order for students to utilize these strategies for comprehension. After reading strategies work with before and during reading strategies to enhance comprehension, as comprehension is a process, not a product. 

Using scales, like the Likert scale, helps students move beyond simply summarizing the reading. In these activities, students are encouraged to look beyond the text and connect ideas from the texts to their own lives. Having students retell the story in their own words, with proper modeling from the teacher first, can help students better understand the components of a summary or retelling of a story. Retellings also helps students improve their writing and better organize their thoughts. Text reformulation provides another way for students to revisit the events of the story while analyzing and evaluating the text as they write the story in a new form. Each of these activities works to help students grasp the deeper meanings in the texts they consume. 

Before, during, and after reading strategies all help students to build confidence in their understanding of texts when they are properly modeled and utilized in the classroom. Students who know how to process the text, actively read, and make inferences about the text show greater confidence in their participation in the ELA classroom. 

The Importance of Scaffolding

 When creating scaffolded reading experiences, teachers must teach students how to utilize specific comprehension strategies, as telling students what to do is not enough for them to benefit from the strategies. Explicit and direct instruction involves deciding which specific strategies to model, telling students the strategy you will model, reading and modeling the strategy, and giving students the chance to participate in the process. After students understand how to use strategies, they can begin to use them independently. Similarly, teachers must teach students how to make inferences about texts step-by-step. 

Spending extra time teaching comprehension strategies may make it seem like less time can be spent on content. However, taking the time to teach comprehension at the start of the year ensures students will be able to strategically read content later in the year and more effectively analyze it. This also means teachers can spend more time having deeper discussions about content instead of having to teach students how to understand it. 

Using before reading activities helps students frontload their knowledge of a text and helps them to be more engaged while reading texts. Teachers can use strategies like anticipation guides to help students preview the themes of texts before they read and begin thinking about them prior to seeing the text. While it’s important to use pre-reading activities to frontload knowledge, students should also engage in during reading activities. Teachers should encourage students to appropriately find ways to “talk” about the text as they read. Using the “Say Something” strategy, teachers can have students say something about what they’ve read after reading a portion of the text aloud. Students can respond to each other and aid each other’s comprehension of the text as they work through it. If students are reading independently, they can use strategies like bookmarks and Post-it notes to track their own thoughts as they read the text. All of these strategies ensure students actively think about the text in the process of reading, as comprehension is a process.

Engaging Students in Reading

 When attempting to engage students in reading, it is important to consider their interests. The first step in providing texts that fit students’ interests involves getting to know what students enjoy. Teachers should find ways to gauge students’ interests, such as providing an informal survey, collecting information at the start of the year, or simply engaging in everyday conversations with them.

Once teachers have an idea of the type of texts students like, they can begin using strategies to sell books to students, like reading aloud a portion as part of a “read and tease”, creating book jacket bulletin boards, and taking trips to the school library during class time. Teachers can also ask students which texts they’d recommend to others and create a good book box in the classroom with books recommended by peers. 

While teachers want students to enthusiastically read books, they also need to remember that students consume texts of all kinds. Students are actually reading more than ever before, just not in the formats typically associated with reading. With this in mind, teachers should practice multi textured teaching. The texts used in the ELA classroom should be layered across units with the diverse needs of students in mind, and these texts should take a variety of forms. By using a wide range of texts, students will be able to better critically read texts and make connections to their own lives. 

Teaching Vocabulary Well

     When teaching vocabulary to students, it is not enough to simply provide a list of words and their definitions and ask students to study them. This approach all but ensures students will only learn the words for an assessment and them forget them after receiving the next set. Instead of giving words to students and expecting them to learn on their own, teachers must promote word consciousness. Students should be able to understand why learning the words matters outside of a good grade on an assessment. 

    Choosing words that best benefit the students ensures vocabulary instruction will stick. Selecting words that appear in text across the curriculum or belong to a morphological family of words will help ensure the vocabulary proves helpful and meaningful to students. 

    To ensure relevant vocabulary sticks with students, teachers should employ a variety of strategies when teaching the words to students. Teachers can help students learn words through graphic organizers or using context clues from the text. In my experience as an adolescent learner, vocabulary words tended to stick in my memory when teachers taught the words in creative and relevant ways. When teachers found ways to connect vocabulary to aspects of everyday life (particularly day-to-day life at our school), I was more likely to remember the words. Assigning students a focused, narrowed list of words and teaching students to use the words in their speech and writing means the vocabulary will more likely stick with students long after the unit ends.

From Decoding to Fluency

     When teaching reading skills to students, especially word recognition, we need to show students how cueing systems, like phonics, work together. We can do this by teaching them how to use multiple cueing systems simultaneously. This ensures that students know not only how to say words, but it also helps them learn how to use context and background knowledge to confirm their decoding. Regardless of the word recognition strategies we choose, it is important to be confident in our students' ability to succeed and make this clear to them as we work with them to improve their reading skills.

        Students can improve their word recognition skills more when the words they need to learn are seen in various contexts. ELA teachers can work to integrate vocabulary instruction into existing curricula. This might involve working with teachers across content areas to include instruction of new words as part of lessons. For example, words that are related to science might be taught in the science classroom, since they have the most relevance in that context, even though those words could be seen in literature outside of the context of science. 

    Improving cognitive aspects of reading, like decoding and word recognition, does not mean that students will automatically become more motivated and engaged readers. To ensure students become independent readers, it is important to address each of the areas where students may have reading problems: lack of cognitive abilities to read independently, negative attitudes toward reading, and not knowing what types of reading they might enjoy. Though teachers can address each of these areas separately, when teachers work with students on one of these problem areas, students' confidence in other areas also increases. 

Literacy Public Narrative

     In 2017, I graduated college and entered the adult world in an unprecedented political landscape. I regretted having chosen to study Political Science of all subjects in college only to no longer want any part of politics. Though I loved my home community and many family members hoped I’d return, I stayed in the Twin Cities, as job opportunities were few and far between in my rural hometown. Frustrated and unsure of what career options I had, I began working as a barista in the meantime. 

I remained directionless for a while, putting on a happy face six days a week as I poured lattes. Though it wasn’t my favorite thing to do, it quickly became a job I could do well. My boss took notice, and she asked me to train one of the new employees. After this, I found myself consistently scheduled to work alongside the newbies on training shifts. I asked my manager why they were always scheduled to work with me instead of being trained by her, as it usually happens. 

“Because you’re great at it. You’re a good teacher,” she told me. 

I was flattered by her kind words. I couldn’t say this was the first time I’d been told this. The first time I heard it was in a note home from my kindergarten teacher, praising me for my patience in helping a classmate with a number game. My high school chemistry teacher recognized me for the work I did to assist my classmates at our quarterly awards ceremony. At first, I didn’t see these as signs that I would make a great educator someday. Helping my peers with their work was just something I always did. It was as natural as breathing. 

Every sign pointed toward me becoming a teacher, but the older I grew, the more I thought I could never succeed in the profession. As a person on the autism spectrum with high anxiety, I assumed I would succumb to all the pressures teaching entails. After hearing my manager praise my teaching skills, I began considering teaching for real. 

A few weeks later, I received a Facebook message from my former high school principal. Back at home, community members posted racist comments about my charter school, and she simply said, “I know you have a passion for writing, and I would love to hear your perspective on this”. I knew this was more than a two person conversation. She was asking me to share my writing to speak out against hate and injustice. That English minor I picked up “simply because I loved the subject” came in handy as I hastily wrote some thoughts online. 

While it felt great to see my writing being shared across Facebook and praised as a powerful voice, it was in the process of writing that piece that I reflected on my own education. I felt privileged to have gone to a diverse school, where teachers strayed from the typical textbooks and reading lists and encouraged us to explore different perspectives and use our voices for good in the world. After publishing the piece, it became clear to me that I wanted to do what my teachers did for me and equip students with the skills to share their unique perspectives with the world. Though all my teachers encouraged this, none did this more than the English teachers who pushed boundaries and challenged the traditional structure of the classroom. It finally clicked for me that teaching is inherently political work. My Political Science degree didn’t seem meaningless after all. 

Before the end of the year, I took the leap and started working as a substitute teacher, just to see if I could handle the stresses of the classroom environment before fully committing to the profession. It wasn’t easy, but I surprised myself in how well I handled stressful situations. After taking assignments at the same few locations, I got the chance to get to know the students, I loved the job even more. I left my job as a barista and subbed as many days as possible. Every time I subbed for an English class, I felt at home with the material. With my desire to teach English solidified, I applied to the Master’s in Teaching program at Augsburg, and I am learning how I can create a classroom environment that empowers students to explore diverse perspectives, ask critical questions, and use their voices as forces for good in the world.  

The letter from home in Kindergarten. I'm glad my listening skills improved.