Educational Rituals: Questioning How We Educate Our Children
2007; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 88; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1177/003172170708800513
ISSN1940-6487
Autores Tópico(s)Educational Challenges and Innovations
ResumoIT HAS happened again. The teacher has walked to the front of the class and announced that you are going to read the next section of the textbook aloud. She starts with the first person in your row. Luckily you sit near the back in a large class. The first person stands up for her turn in the torture chamber, and you begin to count the paragraphs, looking for the one that will be yours. Darn! There was a really short one in there. wonder if she'll count that as one paragraph, or will she throw it into the one above it? guess I'll have to practice two of them to be sure. You quickly start to go over your two paragraphs and feel fairly ready when the teacher calls on you (turns out she counted the short one as a paragraph and you practiced the second one for nothing). Your palms sweat and your voice quavers as you stand and deliver your little recitation. Whew! That's over with. Now you can lean back and look out the windows or make fun of the other kids as they face the music. Your time to read and listen is over. Life is indeed good! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How many of us can recall such a situation in our school careers? Be honest, now! Among educators, this little exercise is called down the rows. Many of us had a similar experience when we moved to the circles. You remember those? Almost always three circles? The teacher went to great pains, sometimes, to try to ease our suffering by disguising the nature of the circles with clever names (Blue Birds, Red Birds, and Robins), but we always knew them as the dumb kids, the average kids, and the smart kids. No fooling children. How many of us intellectually dropped out during these periods of public humiliation? How many of us began to think of ourselves as stupid, slow, dumb, or whatever name we could come up with? Why did teachers do it? Why are they still doing it? These are good questions that lead to many other good questions about our education system. The reasons for reading down the rows seem to be varied, or at least have heard several explanations when have discussed the practice with the teachers work with every semester. I want to hear the students read so that can assess their fluency and plan lessons for them. they don't read the assignments out loud, they just won't read them at all. Oral reading is a valuable skill for people during school and after they graduate. Let's look at I want to hear the students read so that can assess their fluency and plan lessons for them. As a reader, would you read the same way in front of an audience, especially one made up of your peers, as you would in front of a single person who you knew wanted you to do well? If you want to assess my fluency, then place me in a situation where can orally reproduce print and not have to pay for my miscues with a piece of my social flesh. If am a marginal oral reproducer (I won't call this reading, as no comprehension is required), you force me either to become the fool or to act the fool. If given this choice, I'll act the fool every time. Then can be the class clown. That is a safe, and socially acceptable, place to be. If you want to hear me read, do it with me alone! trust you not to laugh ... at least not too hard. Now think about they don't read the assignments out loud, they just won't read them at all. To consider this one, go back and look at the scene that opened this article. Count the paragraphs. Practice mine. Lay back and relax. Kids aren't listening, or at least wasn't. And have a hunch wasn't alone. How about Oral reading is a valuable skill for people during school and after they graduate? This is a true statement. No question about it. The question is, Does reading down the rows get this done? Do you become a good public speaker doing unpracticed recitations in an environment that can cost you your reputation and social standing? …
Referência(s)