[MOSAIC] critical concern

[Sandra Stringham]

Leslie writes:
 
new critical concern.  I teach third grade in a school that is
all  about teaching reading strategies.  We have been told not to  teach
novels - better to have quantity than quality - and we have been told  to
stick to teaching the strategies from grades K-4, often times using  the
same texts!  We have even been told that it is not our job to  make
children like reading. I am now noticing that my children can recite  the
strategies and even apply them and write to them but they are  missing
the book.  They aren't looking at the book as a whole  anymore.  It has
been delivered to them piecemeal and they are reading  it that way.  Many
of them  are missing the entire point, theme,  lesson, importance, etc of
the story.  I am trying frantically to  correct this before the year is
over.  Are any of you experiencing  anything similar to  this?

This is confusing...the reason for the reading strategies is so that kids can understand what they read and enjoy what they read.  Something has gone wrong here.  I never read a book piecemeal....I read it in its entirety so we can enjoy it.  I don't even have a problem if you are using the same texts K-4, because as kids grow..they should get more out of it..take it deeper, or even need an easier text to learn from (and many more reasons!)  But you always look at the book as a whole.
 
Either something has gone wrong with the message....OR...something has gone wrong with the teaching OR both.
 
Since I began focusing on each strategy and then build on each one, my kids LOVE to read.  I even got a note today saying thank you for teaching their child to read because they can't keep her out of the library!  I hear from students years later how much they love to read.   
 
Sandi
1st/2nd
Elgin IL