Good Readers? Or just Readers?

          One of the things we talked about a couple of weeks ago in class was that we aren't necessarily trying to make good readers, we are trying to make readers.  Oftentimes as a teacher we use the phrase, "you are such a good reader" and we don't think about what the long reaching consequences of that phrase are.  We need to focus on "you are a reader" instead.  What a boost of confidence that can have to a student.  Maybe a student who has had difficulty adjusting to a typical way of learning.  To be told, one time, that they are a reader may be just enough to have them open a book and try on their own.

          The same can be said for writers.  I discussed in my last blog about how we can use social media to help struggling writers.  Anderson discusses in his book "Assessing Writers" the need to link our assessment with our instruction.  As educators it is important to figure out what the student was already do and then go from there.  If we have struggling readers, struggling writers, let's find a way to help them on their level.  It is much easier to teach a student when we get on their level and push them up versus pulling them up right away to ours. 

          I would like to leave with one of my favorite quotes from the Anderson book.  "If we see students' errors as something bad, we overlook what some of these errors are telling us about the ways that students are growing as writers."  What an awesome view to teaching.