My Teacher Doesn’t Let Us Talk
Teacher Stories
Joy of Teaching, April 9, 2012
I often work with students in small groups providing strategies for improving reading. One of the activities I ask students to complete is a word sort that directs student focus on word features to improve decoding skills. Part of this activity involves students working together to decide how a group of words can be sorted. They must reach a conclusion and describe for me their thinking behind the word sort that they created.
Recently, I was observing students during this process, when one of the students shared that she thought this was fun. I asked her why she thought so and she replied “My teacher doesn’t let us talk!”
It reminded me that, in our classroom lives of school reform, so many important things have been pushed out of
Joy of Teaching, April 9, 2012
I often work with students in small groups providing strategies for improving reading. One of the activities I ask students to complete is a word sort that directs student focus on word features to improve decoding skills. Part of this activity involves students working together to decide how a group of words can be sorted. They must reach a conclusion and describe for me their thinking behind the word sort that they created.Recently, I was observing students during this process, when one of the students shared that she thought this was fun. I asked her why she thought so and she replied “My teacher doesn’t let us talk!”
It reminded me that, in our classroom lives of school reform, so many important things have been pushed out of