Changing Best Practices Into Next Practices

Educators today are faced with a seemingly impossible task of helping the newest generation to develop a love of reading. Why is this task so much more difficult than it was ten or twenty years ago? I believe that technology plays an important role in this challenge facing us today. Students are coming to us expecting instant gratification, for the screen to change for them every four seconds and for there to be a prize waiting at the end of the “game” they call reading. Many teachers state that they “can’t compete with that type of entertainment.” Sadly, children today do not appreciate that the prize at the end of a good book was the simple enjoyment of an escape to another world or an adventure through time. How might we help to overcome this challenge before us and not simply dismiss this generation as “unreachable?”

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Children learn by example. They are a classic case of monkey see, monkey do. Technology being at our fingertips, of course, may be beneficial in many instances, however, more often than not, it is damaging the development of our young people. How often do you go out to dinner in a restaurant and see the children provided with an electronic device as soon as the family is seated, never to be heard from again throughout
the meal? I witnessed a family just two weeks ago where they did not speak to their child the entire meal. They gave him an iPad and did not even expect him to eat his food when it arrived. Technology should not be a babysitter. When I was still a classroom teacher, I had many parents tell me that they had downloaded “educational” apps for their child who was a struggling reader. Each  time, I cringed a little inside, while on the outside, I encouraged them to still make sure their child had a time to simply read each night as well. Reading apps are not
all bad, but they cannot begin to replace the real act of learning: to grapple with words and discover how the sounds and letters all connect to one another, to be so engrossed with a book that turning the page just can’t go fast enough or to share the story with someone after sitting and staring at the cover for a few moments, reflecting on the ending that caught you by surprise. So, why do children rely so heavily on technology? How often do you go out to dinner with your family and see that the parents are on their phones checking social media, playing games, checking the scores of a game, or reading the news? The children do not know what other example to follow other than the one we set.

Students who walk through our doors today have never had to wait or problem solve for themselves. Technology provides them with instant gratification and when they are faced with a problem they can’t solve in a game, they simply google the correct path or solution. Rest assured,
they are always able to find someone else who solved the problem and posted the solution online for them to find. So, when we ask them what they think a character should do to solve a problem in a book, their blank stares aren’t because they don’t know the answer. They are because they have never had to think about how to truly analyse a situation with forward thinking for themselves. We are no longer afforded
the luxury of asking our students to “think about it.” We must SHOW them how to think about it. What we once considered best practices are now transforming into “next” practices. In other words, we must take what we know is best and make it even better.

How then, do we help our students to become independent problem solvers? It begins by teaching them HOW to think. We must not merely tell them that they need to think. Developing their minds begins by sharing ours. Every single lesson that we share must be scaffolded so that
the thinking involved is visible, and then gradually released to the student. We must model our thinking out loud so they can hear our thoughts and our thought processes prior to releasing the students to try out that type of thinking on their own. After students hear our thinking model, they can try with a partner or a group. Once the students have successfully thought through a skill together and heard our thinking model, they are ready to try one on their own. This gradual release of responsibility is not a new trend, but one that must be present in each and every lesson we present.

How is this gradual release of responsibility key in developing our iPad generation to develop the reading skills we need them to possess? First, we must map out the skills we know our students require prior to attaining a skill. We call this a brace map. If I am expecting my students to be able to ask and answer questions as they read, I must first make sure that they are able to utilise context clues to comprehend unknown words. In order to utilise context clues, readers must know antonyms, synonyms and understand that authors commonly use the unknown word followed by the definition of the word in a set of commas. Explicitly teaching these supporting, or prerequisite skills, leading to the overarching skill, is absolutely vital to cement mastery of the topic in our readers.

At the end of the day, educators and parents alike must make sure to fill in the gaps of understanding: never assume that students know all the steps within the learning, whether that learning is identifying theme in a folktale, or making a dessert from a written recipe. One of the best ways to succeed in that endeavor is to simply put away that phone! We have a strict “no phones” policy in our family during meal times. (And, we try to restrict our usage any time the children are awake.) Our children know that the table is a place of fellowship and conversation. Make yours one, too. Meals become the place where conversations about books come alive. Ask your readers what they have read or what they would do differently if they had been the author. With four children, we are blessed with plenty of conversation. Many of these conversations often spurred one child to read a new title through these very conversations at the table (or in the car, when dinner is
on the go due to sports or piano lessons). As teachers, hold your students accountable for their nightly reading, make conversation surrounding it and scaffold your release on instruction. Model both reading behaviours for your students, as well as what good readers do when they talk about their reading when you’re out and about. Remember, someone is always watching you, from somewhere, looking for the right thing to do. Be that model!

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Jessica Youmans


Jessica Youmans
Jessica Youmans is an educator serving the Indianapolis, Indiana, USA community over the last 18 years. She is currently teaching Kindergarten 100% virtually, as the Covid-19 pandemic rages on in the United States. She is happily married to her husband and enjoys spending time with him and her four wonderful children, who range in age from 16 to 10. Above all, she works hard to make sure her students know they are deeply loved and cared for!