M10: Teaching Reading

Teaching reading is fundamental to a students' success.  But reading is also incredibly political and getting more so these days with a resurgence of the reading wars.  Maybe that is why people are so passionate about it.  

In this module, we are going to discuss teaching reading in general, and then talk about specifics for multilingual learners.  As a teacher of students who know more than one language, you may need to know more about the processes of teaching reading & learning to read. 

You also may need to think about the ways that you learned to read may not work for everyone.  That's Okay!  As teachers, it helps us to reflect on our own experiences, learn from other's experiences, and also model our instruction on research that provides us with evidence as to what is effective for many different kinds of students in various scenarios.  

In this module, you will also be presented with opportunities to engage in the issues around reading and reading instruction from various points of view.  Remember, there is no magic bullet and no single "right" way to teach reading. To be an effective teacher of literacies, we need to understand the research and also be willing to be eclectic in our teaching.

Guiding questions for this module include:

1. How have politics including the “reading wars” (past wars and the very recent resurgence of the reading wars) influenced literacy instruction in schools?
2. How does reading promote language acquisition for multilingual students?
3. How can teachers balance their attention to meaning and skills within the context of reading instructions for multilingual students?
4. What does the research tell us about effective reading instructions for multilingual students?
5. How can an understanding of multilingual students' reading strengths and needs inform a teacher’s choices of instructional approaches, methods, and strategies?
6. How can we design high-quality, research based instruction in reading for our students that Is culturally responsive/sustaining and affirming of our students' values, languages and cultures?

What questions do YOU have? Write them down now.