SED 407 Reading Response: Daniels & Zemelman ‘Subjects Matter’ Chapters 5 & 8

Once again D&Z have lots of good stuff to offer…

The wealth of strategies in chapter 5 is great, but before getting into those, it’s important not to overlook the idea of the gradual release of responsibility that D&Z state is the key to teaching the strategies. The “I do it, you watch; we do it together; you do it with my help; you do it alone” model reminded me of the “Main Idea; Example (I do); Group Practice (we do); Independent Practice (you do)” model of direct instruction we learned in SED 406. This model is tangible to me in the sense of a single lesson plan, the gradual release of responsibility over a class period. However, it’s interesting to think of the gradual release of responsibility over a more significant amount of time and spanning multiple lessons. I see the value in thinking of gradual release of responsibility at this scale, but it’s less obvious to me how this plays out in the classroom. It obviously requires a teacher being very tuned in to where her students are with particular skills. I found this brief overview of gradual release by Douglas Fisher, Professor of Language and Literacy Education at San Diego State University. Fisher says, “Importantly, the gradual release of responsibility model is not linear. Students move back and forth between each of the components as they master skills, strategies, and standards.” I find this idea of students moving between the components of gradual release helpful in visualizing the model in the classroom.

I can see using all of the strategies in chapter 5, depending on content and learning objectives – it’s comforting to have so many to work with. I think ‘Think-Alouds’ are great for modeling the thinking processes of a skilled reader and the way of thinking within a discipline and I agree that this is something a teacher should be doing on a regular basis. But as D&Z point out, despite how simple a strategy this is, it takes a lot of planning to do it well (though they do offer the variation of thinking-aloud with text you have never read before which is great too). Thinking-aloud is not a natural process, as so much of what skilled readers do when they read is subconscious – I think this is a strategy that will take some practice. There is more to it than there seems, so I am glad to have D&Z’s tips for doing it effectively

Reading workshops is another seemingly simple strategy that involves a lot more than just giving students time to read on their own. Minilessons, student journaling, one-on-one conferences, recording observations of student understanding, student sharing … these are all important to making sure that students are getting the most out of independent reading time. I think it’s interesting that D&Z refer to reading workshops as not only an instructional strategy but also as a “classroom management structure” (225). When reading workshops are done well, students are engaged, self-motivated, getting individual attention and differentiated support – I can see how this leads to a well-managed classroom in which meaningful learning can occur. I think this gets at the concern of making time for reading workshops as well. If students are engaged in independent reading in the content area, I think they will be more engaged in the content in general – so while reading workshops may take time, they support and deepen other instruction.

Here's a teacher who knows how to think aloud!