Education Portfolio
Receptivity Intelligence Knowledge Experience Expression
WRITING AND READING IN THE CONTEXT OF LANGUAGE ARTS
I think the goal of writing is to communicate information - to others/outside and to ourselves/inside. "Curving back on myself I create again and again." (Gita) This is said to be the information age and as such, it is filled with writing in the symbols, alphabets, and languages that people use and which we read or decode in the form of books, newspapers, magazines, and of course on the internet.
I personally write to know myself better, to reflect on myself, to discover new things. The author of a text book might write to teach/impart certain information to his readers, to entertain, convince, persuade, to cry out, to mourn, to express outrage. I think we all want to make meaning of our world and to share the meaning that we have discovered with others. These days we do it with writing and reading. In days past, people did it with their oral traditions, with telling stories, which written language mostly takes the place of now.
The goal of reading is to find out things, to learn more about our world, the universe and the natural laws that structure it, and to learn more about ouselves. The goal might be as simple as entertainment, play, having fun, re-creation.
Reading and writing are related to each other as different sides of the same coin, like listening and speaking. it is all the process of communication.
AND HOW TO HELP OTHERS READ BETTER
You have to want to read and be able physically to read, to decode the symbols on the page, and at a pace that is reasonable (not too slow). A new reader decodes slowly in small chunks (letters) and then progresses to bigger and bigger chunks - words, phrases, paragraphs, even whole pages. But also important is motivation, interest in the content of what one is supposed to read. If it has no relevance or meaning, the person is going to have a harder time making himself read.
A good or effective reader is one who has learned how to read, has various strategies for decoding and making meaning out of what he reads. To be an effective reader able to enjoy a piece of writing one must be able to do it (know how to read) and be interested in the content or meaning of a piece of writing. People are more likely to be interested if it relates to them, nourishes them and their growth as a human being. Some people like to read because their brains learn well that way; it is a medium that comes easily to them - that is their type of intelligence or learning style. I think the main reason students don't enjoy reading is because they're not good at it.
To assess reading effectiveness I would give a student some reading tests of various material to see where he was (grade level) which would include number of sight words, speed of reading and also understanding what he read, being able to paraphrase a story for instance, in sequence. (See Summer Literacy Program)
In summary, to encourage and enable effective readers teachers could:
- give them material suited to their reading level
- give them material they had an inherent interest in
- give them material relevant to their personal lives
- give them successes, not failures in reading, decoding
- encourage them to write about what they know, what they are interested in and then share, read each other's material.
- expose them to different genres of writing, such as poetry, autobiography, fiction and nonfiction, encourage them to develop affinities and opinions as to their favorite. I.E. a less adept reader might find he did like to read comic books.
- Encourage love of language and its richness, through poetry, rap, stories, songs, contemporry texts that also incorporated a variety of vocabulary.
- Systematically increase working vacabulary, learning new words.
- Give them knowledge of Maharishi's level's of mind and levels of speech
- Give them the ability to transcend - Maharishi's TM technique and TM Sidhi programs.
A definition of literature from the point of view of Maharishi Vedic Science (MVS) would necessarily include the ideas of levels of mind and speech. It would also relate to why we write, read literature in the first place. It would be a similar reason to the study of history as described in Maharishi's Bhagavad Gita - that is to uplift, evolve mankind, to nourish, to educate, as in 'educare' - leading back to the source. Great literature would uplift us, help us gain higher states of development, levels of consciousness. It would not horrify, shock, depress, or discourage us.
My favorite kinds of books to read now are usually by women, often nature writing or autobiographical writing, a lot of science fiction and poetry or poetical writing, books that have a holistic view of life and evolution and the Big Picture. Books that help me spiritually, that resonate with me and where I am personally at in my quest for knowledge and truth.
In middle and high school I read a lot of the same kinds of things that I like now, such as science fiction . I basically read everything I could get my hands on, voraciously, in every genre. My taste changed in that I tended to like more uplifting things, be more careful over what I metabolized. The benefit of my reading has always been to expand my mind about the possibilities of life, to learn more and more about the universe and its peoples/creatures. It was also a bit of an escape since I was shy.
The issues that most concern adolescents are being liked by their peers, having a group of people they can feel safe with, discovering their own identities, getting ready to leave home and be on their own in the world. Repeated themes are the quest for acceptance, approval, identity. These might be classified according to Maharish's levels of mind from gross to subtle, traversing physical or outer needs and moving inward to mental, emotional and spiritual needs.
As a language arts teacher, I would have available a wide variety of genres of literature, with subject matter that was interesting to teens and helped them do what they needed to do, that is, individuate and get ready to be on their own in the world, while at the same time preparing them to be useful and productive citizens of their society. I would want to encourage and nurture them in the idea that "The world is my family."
I would access the reading list at MSAE for each of the grade levels as a starter. I would look at award winning books and read the reviews for them and read them myself if possible. I would talk to other teachers and to students to find out what they liked the most (and didn't like) so as to be able to recommend to each student. I would talk to librarians for suggestions. (See Enlightened Children's Literature)