Rcharvet, a retired teacher and regular commenter here, explains how the pedagogy of the Commin Core taught his students to dislike reading. They were supposed to read excerpts of books, not a complete book. They were expected to analyze the meaning of words and sentences instead of following the narrative of the story. Mr. Charvet became a subversive. He explains here.
We had to use a program called Study Sync. The kids called it, “Study Stink.” It was a canned computer program that used excerpts from stories. It drove me nuts. A lot of highly-intellectual processing for kids who were “emerging readers.” I had to “study my brains out” to figure out what the “end game” was and then how to explain/teach it to my students. Once “I” got it (not lying took a lot of study time on my part) I could teach it. It was still boring.
We had “Lord of the Flies” but only an excerpt. None of the kids got it. I found several YouTube videos that reviewed and explained the story. Once I did that, one of my students said, “I went home and read the whole book three times! It was one of my favorites.”
When I taught reading, I would read out loud so kids would HEAR the characters voices (yes I did the voices as well). For struggling readers they typically move through a sentence like they are walking on glass. But, we worked together.
One book that we started was “The Pig Man.” It started out slow (geez I was slow) but started liking the book to the point kids were saying, “Can we read The Pig Man and find out what happened?” They felt the words. They connected to the characters. We could ask questions like, “If you were Tommy what would you do in this case? What should the Pig Man do about the broken statue?” Then because I was making a connection to the book and trying to follow the curriculum I was deemed “moving too slow” and the department head said, “Just collect all the books and move on.”
What did I know?
And then the kids had to take Accelerated Reader tests. This told them what type of book they qualified to read by their AR or Lexile number. When they went to the library the librarian would tell them, “Oh, the rocket ship book is not in your Lexile number range, you cannot read about rocket ships.” I grumbled something like, “This is f-ing messed up under my breath.”
Then, I noticed their test scores all went down. I asked them, “I am curious. You were all doing so well and then I noticed that your AR scores dropped (it’s okay) but I am just curious.” They told me the test added a clock-timer that their eyes kept looking at. “We got anxious because we could tell we only had so much time to answer the question.” Some Kids decided to punch any answer just to be done. Wow, that was fun.
And when we went to distant learning, one little girl asked, “Mr. Charvet, can I read this book because it is not my Lexile number.” I told her, “You read any book you want. Just do what I told you: if you don’t understand a word, look it up or put it on your sticky note so you can keep reading. I will help you later. But if you keep stopping, you will lose the flow and that’s no fun.”
The reading was painful to the point, I wanted to skip it. But, I did find some great FREE programs online that the kids loved as long as they didn’t tell anybody — making reading fun, our little secret.
I printed out all the papers because most kids like to have something they can “feel” when they read. The computer reading hurt my eyes; it created headaches for many of my kids.
When I taught art I had a magazine cabinet for collages. I looked up one day and there were a group of middle school boys giggling and having a good time. “Hey you kids! What are you doing back there?” I reminded them there was no reading, just collecting pictures. Then I said, “Nah, what did you find?” “Mr. Charvet, check out this giant spider egg that was buried in the ground. And look at this old boat they found. And look at this…and this… and this. They had so much fun. I said, “You know I come back here to look for pictures, too. Then an hour goes by after I read all these great articles and learned so much. You know, this is the stuff (by knowing) you can win thousands of dollars on a game show!” For crying out loud, they gave away $250K for knowing that Frodo (LOTR) was not a Pokemon. We all laughed, but that kind of reading didn’t count because they could only read books. You know REAL books.
I loved reading everything from matchbook covers and especially on the back of cereal boxes — to the comics that would take me on adventures.
Nowadays, “Yes we know Spiderman saved the day. But what was the tone of his thinking? What do you think he meant by using this word? In sentence three, he used plethora. How can that be applied in other ways?” Man, we were just happy Spiderman got rid of the bad guys. Peace out.
Wonderful observations. And, of course, you did something that was smart, correct, moral, wise, brave (you name the positive descriptor), Rcharvet…you asked the kids what they thought.
It’s what good teachers do.
If only the jerks who came up with the alleged Common Core (and the sheep and greedheads and political hacks who enabled them) had done the same…and then listened.
Exactly! He taught them the love of reading. That is a precious gift.
Oh my God. How disturbing that such ridiculousness is imposed upon you and your students. As I said before on the post about the Science of Reading, I served as a high school reading specialist and Title 1 Reading Coordinator at University City H. S. in Philadelphia for twenty years and as an administrator in several schools for fourteen years thereafter.
What I learned during my lifetime is that authentic reading materials work best. To teach reading, students should be reading authentic stories, articles, books and poems which are of high interest to the students you teach. Students should read widely at their independent reading levels and instruction should be at their instructional reading levels. In older students there is an “instructional range” of levels.
All the stuff that you say does not work with your students, simply, does not work.
During the pandemic, I joked with my grandson’s autistic support teacher that I pioneered computer based reading instruction. She was all impressed. I said, “They did not work then, and do not work now!” She laughed.
Guided reading is what works best conducted by a knowledgable and skilled teacher of reading. Teaching word recognition, reading fluency and factual and inferential reading comprehension is an “art and a craft.”
It is “inspirational” and dependent on a “chemistry between teacher and student.”
“, , ,is that authentic reading materials work best.”
What do you mean by “authentic”?*
I’ve heard that term bandied about in many contexts, being used more as a “selling” description than as (I can’t help myself) an authentic term. That type of usage of authentic seems to permeate educational professional development verbiage of those claiming to have the supposed next best thing, the cure all for the teaching and learning process ills.
*This is an example of the kind of questions that used keep me on the “watch list” of the adminimals with whom I had to deal.
Often I would be standing in front of a room full of kids and saying to myself, “If I were sitting in their seats, would anything I do or say make sense, give them an advantage, or was I just filling them with BS?” So, I opted not to BS the kids and help them learn, adapt, and as Bob Marley say, “Everything’s going to be okay.” I had a sign in my room reminding, “Stand up for what is right, so I did.” I never needed thanks, just looking to make the world a little more understandable for the kids who seemed to have the world stacked on top of them. I did have some outstanding readers, but most were “emerging readers.” I mean nothing was ever for the “love of reading” and there was always strings attached. I know, whatever I did instinctively, worked because my wife comes home from her work (at a local bank) and tells me, “Victor stopped by. He was almost in tears telling me how you were the only one who took time to help him…then she comes home and said, “Jessica was in; she told me all the kids saw the passion in what you were trying to do…” I never asked for a trophy, just know that years later, I have these former students show up and say how I helped them. My son sent me an Instagram post from a former student (I am surprised I have the guts to comment on this blog as I don’t do social media) who suffered from mental illness but I helped heal her through art. She said every time she paints a picture, she thinks of me and how I showed her a way other than drugs and alcohol. Talk about tearing up…So many kids…so much to do…so many just crying for help…I thank you all so much for listening. I just call it the way I lived it. And stay in touch with many. Peace out.
xoxoxo
Diane posting my “From the trenches” post …love of reading…was a total surprise. With that said, reading should take people places, go on adventures, and learn, smile, cry and whatnot — not have a catch. or punitive because one didn’t do their 20-30 minutes of mandatory reading at home (and have their sheet signed — that’s detention). My son HATED IT. I used to love getting the Scholastic Book list and ordering my books. Oh, joy! I still have “Call of the Wild” and even “101 Elephant Jokes.” And, my “In Search of Sasquatch” by John Green. Story time at night was regular. Mother Goose nursery rhymes. I am pretty sure the kids I taught never had this experience, so I tried to give them some of mine. Yes, (especially the kids I taught) all have someone to share and mostly, “I don’t need to prove anything to you of whom I do not know and you do not care about me, so “F-U” and I am not answering the damn test. “Mr. Charvet can we do something real?’ Okay, enough of that side bar.
Serendipity is wonderful.
This morning, I get a text from my son and a short video.
There is my beautiful soon to be two-year-old granddaughter. Dad is in the other room fixing breakfast. There she is. Her little body sitting up straight with her legs, tiny feet and toes stretched out. In her hands is her book. She reads to herself (the best she can, but damn if she isn’t get it!), turns each page, and has a huge smile. She is engaged. Dad enters the room, “Reading your book?” A huge smile. And then she goes back to reading her book. That’s reading.
lovely!
(((That’s reading indeed))) – I have a photo I treasure of my 9-month-old sitting in her backward-facing carseat, “reading” a board book upside down. Why not? That’s reading too.
My kids’ ES librarian-teacher used to have a poster with the “set of reader’s rights” which I thought a little silly at the time. But, that was before all this insane intrusion and coercion and – reading-fascism all over the place.
I amended my intolerance when I actually – haha – read the strictures. One was the right to throw a book you weren’t liking away (well, as in stop reading it – the wording was all better than mine, lol). Until that time I would in fact feel ‘beholden’ to the book, in case maybe it got better or I was at fault for somehow not reading deeply enough to understand, etc. So that book would just pile up and you’d be displaced from reading the next, better, book. It was incredibly freeing to recognize that it was OK to stop reading a book, that this was not shameful. It was actually your “right”. I actually felt the need to “confess” my epiphany to this teacher and she had the good grace to smile and nod and agree and understand. It really truly was an epiphany; that you aren’t blessed with infinite time on this earth to read infinitely (unless you’re Diane Ravitch who seems to have read every word there is out there, lol!), and that it is your actual right to choose, and even responsibility to attempt to choose wisely. Previously I’d actually felt sort of “managed” by the books I’d arbitrarily started to read – they were a bit oppressive. This teacher helped me to understand what could happen, why it shouldn’t be that way, and to take my “right” into my own hands.
And at that moment, too, I also learned why librarians truly are “teachers” in absolutely every conceivable sense of the word.
Dear Diane Ravitch, Everyone,
First, Diane, my condolences on your loss of Richard Ravitch. R.I.P. (Rest in Paradise) Richard Ravitch,
With Richard Charvet’s article, last year I had the great fortune of him reaching out to me, that he (and his art group) was touched by one of my writings, and since a friendship with Richard Charvet has blossomed.
I strongly suggest for everyone sending sometime, an evening for it really will take you that long to go through his Linked in page. It is by far the most impressive page one could ever encounter. In it you learn about how he carries himself with a beautiful spirit and grace, that he has endless patience, cast-iron reliability and a massive heart that does not distinguish between the needs of one person and the next. His love knows no hesitation, no start and no finish.
Richard Charvet:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-charvet-61965329
I call Richard Charvet, ‘RC.’ RC, can you share with everyone what you shared with me yesterday? Can you post that image?
For me I’ve experienced the best teachers and the worst teachers, and I write about both sides here:
Teach Our Children Well:
https://salmonstudio.wixsite.com/yohnke/post/teach-our-children-well
School’s Out?
https://salmonstudio.wixsite.com/yohnke/post/school-s-out
RC, congratulation’s for being featured on this most needed blog. Diane, you to have cast-iron reliability and a massive heart that does not distinguish between the needs of one person and the next. Your love knows no hesitation, no start and no finish.
Everyone let’s throw kindness around like confetti.
Thank you for reading, for your time. With time, Jack Kornfield once wrote, “The trouble is that you think you have time.”
Jay Conrad Levinson said, “It is certainly not money, as many people have been falsely led to believe. Instead, time is life. Time is opportunity. Each second of time is precious. The more you are aware of that, the more likely you’ll be to never waste your time. Unlike other resources, it is non-renewable, available in limited quantities, and substitutes are not possible.”
As always, love is the way,
Miles Patrick Yohnke
Thank you, Miles.
I knew right away that Richard Charvet has a big heart and a gift for writing.
Dear Diane, Everyone,
Stanley Hanna from Blowing Rock, North Carolina reached out to me that he wanted to do a life drawing of me and to send him my favorite head shot.
I was honored that anyone would ask. Picture a young Miles Patrick Yohnke coping with the worst case of dyslexia in the early 1970s and paid professionals, Christian elementary teachers telling you you’re a retard and you’re not going to amount to much and here you are 50 years later and someone 1957 miles away from you wants to invest his time doing a life drawing of you.
I pictured the beautiful Stanley Hanna, who lost his dear wife, Tammy a year earlier with his own mind, hands laboring over every nuance of a person he has never met, only spoke to once over the phone and he is providing this for another human.
As I waited for it, I thought of a post that I read that Diane put out found below:
I thought of Richard ‘RC’ Charvet who lives in Gilroy California and emailed me. I asked him to write me a poem on the matter. I didn’t give him details of why or anything.
That same morning, he sent me a beautiful poem. I knew he would as he has cast-iron character. I told him I loved it and if he could write me two more. He did. Then I told him what I was up to and if he could write me three more poems to finish off the series and to write me an introduction for it. He did.
It will be officially released Thursday, July 13, 2023, but it is now available to read on my blog at:
Ars Gratia Artis by Richard Charvet:
https://salmonstudio.wixsite.com/yohnke/post/ars-gratia-artis
Richard Charvet has made it is lifetime commitment to be there no matter what. With wage or without wage he never wavers from his fellow human.
We must be like him. We must stop random outbursts towards the world for this gets us nowhere.
It is time that we start loving one another, no matter of race, gender, national origin, religion, physical or mental disability. It is time that we stop all this discrimination. It is time that we build a place where we are all equal. It is time that we put down our firearms and open up our loving arms.
Diane, again, my condolences to you with Richard.
Life is precious. We must learn to articulate our mind for the individual peace and mental health of ourselves and our planet.
To see and hear each day as a new one. A new beginning. With new hopes and a heart that feels the peace that the clouds shower upon you and beautiful rays of sunshine, to light the path to knowledge.
The birds say it so beautifully, so much so that if you are really listening, you will run out of words to say.
Treasure all the beauty that you see and hear. Treasure being able to see and hear your family and friends. Treasure being able to communicate with them. Treasure everything before you. Treasure life. Treasure you.
Soul to soul and sole to sole our shadows walk. Our souls bloom like flowers. We must treasure all of these precious hours.
We must learn to live. We must learn to forgive.
As always, love is the way,
Miles Patrick Yohnke
“Some Kids decided to punch any answer just to be done. Wow, that was fun.”
Fun indeed.
I suspect this a lot more commonplace than most test proponents will ever admit.
And how can one even begin to estimate its impact on student “performance”?
It may actually not only be highly dependent upon the details of the test (timer clock etc) but also on less obvious factors like when the test is administered (eg, during a pandemic)
My guess is such a factor might have played a role in the NAEP score declines which occurred during the pandemic.
To ignore such factors simply because one cannot accurately quantify their impact is actually unscientific. If one does not at least mention the possibility of such factors and make an effort to estimate their impacts one is not even doing science.
Some of my students started purposely answering wrong on one reading program test set-up. If you kept answering correctly they kept asking more questions. You had to get three in a row wrong for the test to end. When someone asked me how many more questions there were, I knew that the test would be over sooner rather than later.
“Kids have excellent crap detectors.” –Neil Postman, Teaching as a Subversive Activity
Amen.
This is what my son used to do on the MAP tests. He would play along for a bit and then get bored and decide to make it end….nap time! It wasn’t too long before most of the kids learned to “game” the test. The problem with these kinds of tests is that twice exceptional children will sit there for hours on end because they become addicted to the test set up….and that is cruel and abusive for ALL the children.
I REFUSED ALL standardized tests for both of my children for as long as I could, but in MD there are 4-5 state graduation standardized tests that are required in order to receive a HS diploma. Child #1 graduated out of public school, but I pulled child #2 for private HS because the testing (along with the ridiculous Common Bore curriculum) was not making for a very happy time with teachers and administration having to deal with his behavioral (boredom and class clown don’t mix well) issues.
Teaching students to read should be engaging, interesting and motivating. It is best accomplished through human connection, building relationships and peer interaction. What is motivating to students is making the process seem like a shared adventure. It should always be an encouraging, positive experience. Bubble tests delivered on a screen are drab and unmotivating. Reading should be inviting and satisfying. When it is, students will move from learning to read to reading to learn seamlessly, and they are much more likely to become life-long readers with curious minds.
What is the final goal of the libertarian fascists funding (Koch, Walton, Gates, ALEC, et al.) and managing the destory public education movement in the United States?
To insure that only the children of the wealthy grow up as lifelong learners and avid readers and the rest of the children are broken and programmed to be obedient and subservient to the extreme-right wealthy families that want to rule the country … their way.
This is what MAGA means to someone like Traitor Trump:
That’s what the United States was like in 1900, when about 40% of Americans lived in poverty, 7% of the children graduated from high school and 3% from college, while the poor working class families, to make ends meet and not starve, could sell one or more of their children into indentured servitude (factories, coal mines, whore houses — as young as seven), a fancy name for slavery, until they became a statutory adult and were cut lose to survive any way the could with few if any skills and no safety net.
Progressive education has been killing the live of learning for decades!! Classical education and homeschooling is the way to go. It has been fascinating to watch teachers discover the tried and true methods of learning as if they are new, including the Science of Reading. 🙁
I don’t think you know what progressive education is.
Diane, thank you for posting my thoughts. I have held them in for too long because, well, no one listened and it was such an emotional waste of time explaining myself. My goal was to help kids feel they could accomplish their dreams with hard work, help, and luck like all of us. The best advice for my kids was to make them “owners of their education” and remind them WE ALL LEARN TOGETHER and I would always be there for them if they wanted. As I stated, I planted seeds and my wife tells me of the “flowers” that stopped by her bank office. I am no expert, but I have a passion to help others.
I’m a victim of progressive education. I recommend your book Left Back and The Language Police to everyone I can.
Four of my children went through Accelerated Reading and they all got into trouble for not reading on their “level.” They were punished for not playing the game, except for just reading lots of books. The questions that went along asked for meaningless and irrelevant facts. Now (my grandkids) it is all graphic organizers and bits and pieces of reading text to support a contrived thesis. No imagination and no critical thinking. This and the Science of Reading is all nonsense. Make reading fun again.
The StudySync app is a disaster. As with all Common Core era materials, it was put together like one of Elon Musk’s rockets, rushed, error ridden, doomed to fail, and a poorly thought idea in the first place. Teachers who use the app usually tell me in meetings they’re teaching their students to be proficient. Bunk.
StudySync is 100% test prep. You read a meaningless snippet, use the highlight text feature that techies think is so advanced, and answer confounding questions. Read another snippet, repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Reading snippets, the students learn nothing. The students gain no knowledge of the world whatsoever. They just practice answering confounding questions. And they’re not even gaining reading skills to become proficient!
Using StudySync instead of books is like drinking soda, just unhealthy, empty calories. Use StudySync, and your students will learn nothing from your class. It’s just a waste of time. So is Accelerated Reader. So is Scholastic SRI. Mr Charvet, you are spot on.
Throw the darn Accelerated Reader, iReady and more away! Rid our children and schools of standardized testing, and Common Core!
Bring back the love of reading for information, understanding and sure pleasure!
Then you will have life-long readers!