Running Head: EFFECTIVE READING TEACHER REFLECTION

Effective Reading Teacher Reflection

Daniel Coffin
Concordia University, Nebraska

Submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for EDUC 630
July 23rd, 2016

Effective Reading Teacher Reflection

EFFECTIVE READING TEACHER REFLECTION

I have had a number of teachers in my educational career, from kindergarten all the way
through graduate school. Many were memorable, some not so much. I developed lasting
relationships with several, and there were a few I was happy to never think about again as soon
as our time together was over (and Im sure the feeling is mutual). Thinking about my
experiences with these teachers, I could tell that there was a certain something to some of them
that I responded to, even if I couldnt put my finger on what it was. Once, I might have said they
were nice or cool, but thats not quite right. Our reading this week has focused on teacher
efficacy and with this information in mind, I feel like I have a firmer grasp on what made those
teachers effective and how I could cultivate those same traits in my own classroom practice.
Richard Allington has codified these traits in what he calls the Six Ts: time, texts,
teaching, talk, tasks, and testing (as cited in DeVries, 2015, p. 22). Allington argues that effective
literacy teachers spend more time having students read and write (time), provide students with
high-interest reading material which they can read successfully (texts), demonstrate and model
strategies which will make students more independent readers (teach), cultivate understanding
with higher-order open-ended questions about the reading (talk), provide students with a choice
of tasks that require the integrated use of reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and listening
(tasks), and consider not only the final product but also the process in grading (testing).
When I consider my practice in light of Allingtons list, I feel pretty good about how I
would measure as an educator. My students spend the majority of the class reading or writing
and discussion in response to reading, I continually model and demonstrate strategy use through
think-alouds, I use higher-order questions to get students to what they feel really matters about a
text, and my grading rubrics do account for process and product.

EFFECTIVE READING TEACHER REFLECTION

Where I feel my practice can be improved is in the area of text and task selection. Im not
surprised by this because I have been thinking a lot recently about student motivation (or the lack
thereof) and how it affects the learning going on in my classroom. It was not uncommon for me
to be sent home with thirty or forty pages of reading a night and it was just assumed that I could
get the reading done. Many of my students, on the other hand, outright refuse to complete my
reading homework and will go through a whole novel unit, if left unchallenged, without cracking
the cover. Similarly, homework and classwork frequently doesnt get completed either and not
because they are too difficult or too numerous to keep up with. Detentions and phone calls to
parents havent done much to fix the problem. These are just responses to the symptoms, not the
disease. The key is to increase student motivation.
William Brozo wrote, The failure to align school curricula with students interests and
outside-of-school competencies is thought to be behind the general erosion of engagement in
reading and learning (as cited in DeVries, 2015, p. 22). I have seen this play out in my own
classroom. The student population of my school in Camden, NJ, is predominantly poor and
Hispanic. The faculty, on the other hand, is overwhelmingly white and middle-class. The
students sense this incongruity and it fuels thoughts like school is for white people or even
more specifically reading and writing are for white people. This is reinforced by a school
culture which openly derides the street culture which many of these students hold affinity with,
and by a home culture which doesnt always place the same value on academic achievement that
the school does. There is a wide divide in some instances between home life and school life for
students who struggle academically.
Not only is being provided with authentic choices empowering in and of itself, it also
provides students with a way to shape their education so that it is less uniform, more personal,

EFFECTIVE READING TEACHER REFLECTION

and reflective of their lives, interests, and values (Schwartz, 2013). I dont know that I am ready
to throw out my lesson plans and completely let myself by swayed by the whims of students, but
I think that there is a middle ground where I can gradually increase the amount of autonomy I
afford my students. I want my students to be able to see themselves in the reading and writing
and thinking that we do. I dont want them to think they have to give up part of their identity at
the schoolhouse door or to be something they are not in order to get an education.
That said, providing multiple options for tasks is a relatively easy change to implement;
I already make use of a centers time which offers students multiple virtual stations to practice
spelling, vocabulary, and grammar. Providing students with a choice of texts is a little more
involved since I would need to justify the necessity of purchasing additional texts to my
administration. Literature circles do, however, have the virtue of not only accommodating a
curated, but still authentic, choice on the part of students, but also being a social and cooperative
learning activity which fosters debate and discussion.
Increasing the efficacy of my teaching practice wont be easy and it wont happen
overnight. I do feel confident, however, that the end result will be worth any amount of hassle or
effort my students will be more engaged, more motivated, and more likely to see themselves as
becoming the kind of adults for whom reading is a daily and deeply fulfilling act.

EFFECTIVE READING TEACHER REFLECTION

References
DeVries, B.A. (2015). Literacy assessment & intervention for classroom teachers [4th Ed.].
Scottsdale, AZ: Holcomb Hathaway.
Schwartz, K. (2013). Choice equals power: How to motivate students to learn. Retrieved from:
http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/11/18/how-to-help-students-develop-the-motivation-tolearn/