Knowledge is Power!

Long time, no blog. Yes, we have been slacking, but we are still here - hard at work...

Today it happened.

What is "it," you ask?

As a Literacy Coach, "It" is that moment when things you have been working on and towards with teachers hits home. "It" is that moment of clarity, that special moment, that "aha" moment; "It" is the moment when you can see the lightbulb flashing bright above someone's head. Okay, that's probably overly dramatic, but today, we received an email from one of the teachers we work with as Literacy Coaches. The email said simply, "This is totally what you've been saying for awhile now..." A NY Times op-ed by Daniel T. Willingham called "How to Get Your Mind to Read" was attached to the email.

The op-ed posits that one of the most important factors in the ability of any person to read is the amount of knowledge they have accumulated through their past experiences and exposures. Most people can read - that is, most folks can sound out the letters/words on a page (decode), but the true depth and understanding that one gets from any piece is due to the prior knowledge the readers has brought to the reading. And yes, this idea, the idea that teachers have a responsibility to get kids to read a lot about different ideas in their discipline, is one of the major tenets of our literacy coaching here at SHS. The article has specific examples of what it looks like to move from simply reading (decoding) to a literate, deeper understanding. But essentially, anyone can look at a website like CNN and read the words, "NY Giants Fire Coach Who Benched Eli Manning." Sounding out those words and simply understanding a coach lost his job because he benched a player is simple reading. To truly understand the headline, though, on a deeper, more literate level, one would have to have some prior knowledge. Only a reader who knows who Eli Manning is (he's a quarterback - an injury prone position) and why he's a big deal (he won 2 Super Bowls for the Giants) and what 'benching' is (taking him out of the starting line up) and why benching Manning was a big deal (it ended Manning's unbelievable streak of 210 consecutive starts) fully comprehends this headline completely. The bottom line is, the more a reader knows, the more likely that reader can connect and comprehend reading on a deeper level. And so, today, it was clear to us that our teachers (or at least this one) are hearing us and understanding the need to help our students gain more varied knowledge through experience, exposure, and wide-reading. Spending more time on wide-reading and less time on literacy instruction may seem counter-intuitive, but if we want our students to read more deeply and successfully, we must work to build their knowledge!! Knowledge is power! Help our kids improve their literacy by broadening their knowledge base whenever you can.