Friday, February 20, 2004
A HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER THINKS ABOUT THE SOLS: THE CHALLENGE OF FINDING MATERIALS
by CATHERINE ILIAN
This paper was written in fulfillment of an assignment for EDIS 770.
I am a former skeptic, I must admit. Before I started the reading program, I taught practical English in High school and also psychology. Being a long-term substitute, and new to education, I meekly agreed with the old teacher’s plans: to plow ahead with the difficult ninth grade literature textbook-in spite of the fact that the kids could barely read five out of ten words correctly in this textbook. Class consisted of reading out loud to them the required literature on the SOLs, letting them read out loud at easy parts. The special ed teacher and I commiserated every day on their lack of motivation and slowness with reading. Now after being in the reading program for only a few months, and still a rookie, I berate my own stupidity at insisting that the kids must read the ninth grade literature book. No wonder they were so disruptive! I would be bored and disruptive, too, if forced to read something I only read with 50% accuracy out loud. If I had to do it again, I would find literature that was written at their level, or easier works by the same author to cover the themes of the SOL in ninth grade. I would find simpler versions of the Shakespeare story.
I would not force students to read something they could not understand or comprehend just to outwardly comply to teaching them the SOLs. These students were not learning anything about the content of their SOLs. The only way to communicate the spirit of the SOLs is to require that teachers use instructional level materials when teaching the content areas of the SOLs.
This year, I am working with first graders who are learning about night and day, nocturnal animals and the earth’s rotation, all first grade SOLs. We approached the topic from a variety of ways. I did a long unit on bats, nocturnal animals, and night and day. We wanted to make the knowledge accessible to children at their levels. So I found a variety of books at different reading levels that all communicated knowledge of nocturnal animals and night and day. I also read books to the children, so the ones who could not read also understood the information. In our learning sessions, each child or group of children had books at their level of reading ability. All children learned about the same subjects, but at their reading level. Now some children had more detailed books, of course, but they all came away with the general idea that the earth revolves around the sun, and that some animals are awake at night, and some during the day. We also shared our findings at the end of each class period, and everyone was able to contribute to the discussion.
After taking part in this teaching activity, I can see the importance of instructional level material for content area subject, even at the first grade level. The next challenge is convincing teachers, especially at the secondary level, especially special ed teachers, of the necessity of instructional level materials for all classes.
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