Understandings
Essential qualities of a 21st century student
Ask any adult and they will probably tell you, “Students today are different then when I was younger.” Some may cite a lack of patience due to the instant gratification culture that they feel the Internet and latest technology has created. Others notice that students often multitask or give partial attention to many things, such as completing homework, online chatting, and listening to music all at the same time. Still others might relate how kids today are constantly connected to each other, even when they have never met some of their “friends” in person.
If kids have changed, it’s because the world has changed. Tony Wagner points out three fundamental transformations in his book, The Global Achievement Gap. He talks of a new global knowledge economy, the availability of unlimited amounts of information, and the increasing role of technology and the media in how young people learn and communicate with each other (2002). Students today have had to adapt to a different world than their parents and grandparents. Wagner argues that jobs in the old, industrial economy favored skills such as following directions and conforming. Schools followed suit and taught these skills well. Now, in what Ken Kay, the president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, calls the service economy, jobs are calling for innovation and flexibility (2010). Students may have multiple careers in their lifetime and need the critical thinking skills to learn and adapt as needed. With the types of jobs being offered today and the striking impact of technology on kids and the world, it is no wonder that students will need a host of new skills to compete in today’s market. Wagner sums up the skills needed as the ability to “think – to reason, analyze, weigh evidence, problem-solve-and to communicate effectively” (2008, xxiii). These skills seem easy enough to teach, but there is a national buzz about these seemingly “new” skills. Why aren’t schools adequately teaching students how to think and communicate already?
Wagner explains that teachers are increasingly focused on teaching content due to amplified pressure to raise standardized test scores. He makes the case that it is actually competencies that we need to be teaching, not content (2002). He encourages educators to use content, such as Roman mythology or how to measure the radius of a circle, as a vehicle to teach the more important “survival skills for the 21st century” needed for college, career, and citizenship. The challenge educators face when they focus on skills, not content, is the fact that these skills are not assessed on current standardized tests. With the constant pressure of raising test scores, schools may be afraid to steer away from teaching content knowledge. Even worse, Wagner makes the case that even the best scoring schools are not preparing students for life after high school. If we are trying to educate students for the future, we have to keep test pressure in the far back of our minds and ask business leaders and colleges which skills are essential to 21st century success.
As Wagner consulted with CEOs and college professors while writing The Global Achievement Gap (2008), he began to develop the seven survival skills for the 21st century. These are the skills that employers and colleges are looking for when they hire or accept young people. These skills are rarely assessed on most state tests:
· Critical thinking and problem solving
· Collaborating across networks and leading by influence
· Agility and adaptability
· Initiative and entrepreneurialism
· Effective oral and written communication
· Accessing and analyzing information
· Curiosity and imagination
If these are the skills of tomorrow, what happens to the 3 R’s of reading, writing and arithmetic? Where do they fit in? Is reading still important in the digital age? I say, yes. Just in a different way.
Literacies in the 21st century
As Wagner points out in Making the grade, literacy is not only still important today. It is indispensible. He argues that our changing economy requires even higher levels of literacy, such as the ability to comprehend, synthesize, and present one’s own ideas drawing upon complex material (2002). Today’s students are no longer visiting libraries and checking out stacks of books. Instead they are wading through an infinite amount of information online and trying to synthesize what they find, so they can develop ideas of their own. They should no longer be reading simply to understand and memorize, but to understand and then use. This requires a much deeper level of reading than before.
As Gina Biancarsoa explains in her article, Adolescent literacy: More than remediation (2012), texts become more challenging as students move from elementary, middle, and high school. Text length, words and sentences all become longer and more difficult. There is also less redundancy of ideas as students move on to harder texts, which require closer reading. Finally, students are required to synthesis across multiple sources of information such as charts, graphs, and pictures. The author states that learning to read in earlier grades doesn’t prepare students for these types of challenges as students read not just textbooks but also historical documents, lab instructions, math word problems and novels across each subject area (2012). This begs the question: How can upper grade teachers support reading skills? It is common to use whole class books and essay writing to build reading skills, but are teachers at this level teaching the physical skills needed to read more complex text?
The authors of the article The Challenge of Challenging Text (2012) argue that teachers should purposely use complex text to help students build skill and stamina, similar to the way weights or resistance helps build muscle. In the past educators worried that overly complex text would impede learning. Students should read books at their level. Yet, new research suggests that by building skills, establishing purpose, and fostering motivation and persistence, teachers can help students to successfully comprehend more challenging text (Shanahan, Fisher and Frey, 2012). I also wonder how peer collaboration fits into this model, and how peers can help each other to more fully comprehend complex texts.
This adds another challenge to the growing list. How can teachers facilitate the understanding of complex text for all learners? Although many schools are still tracked by perceived ability level, some schools have made the decision to create heterogeneous classes that contain a mix of ability levels. This creates the challenge of finding text that all students are able to read and understand, or bringing everyone up to a high level together. With so many levels in the classroom can one teacher differentiate for all? And do they need to? Will building authentic purpose and motivation to read guide students to choose higher levels of texts than they normally would?
Finally, is understanding even enough. If students need to think to succeed in today’s global economy, they need to go past simple understanding. We are no longer teaching students to restate the facts or messages in their reading. We are now asking them to synthesize ideas across many sources. We are requiring them to use the information they find to create new innovations or new knowledge. The world needs adults today who can analyze and evaluate relevant information in order to problem solve and innovate. To compete, students need to use higher order thinking skills and abstract knowledge. How then, should teachers teach these skills? Is teaching how to think different than teaching to understand?
Ask any adult and they will probably tell you, “Students today are different then when I was younger.” Some may cite a lack of patience due to the instant gratification culture that they feel the Internet and latest technology has created. Others notice that students often multitask or give partial attention to many things, such as completing homework, online chatting, and listening to music all at the same time. Still others might relate how kids today are constantly connected to each other, even when they have never met some of their “friends” in person.
If kids have changed, it’s because the world has changed. Tony Wagner points out three fundamental transformations in his book, The Global Achievement Gap. He talks of a new global knowledge economy, the availability of unlimited amounts of information, and the increasing role of technology and the media in how young people learn and communicate with each other (2002). Students today have had to adapt to a different world than their parents and grandparents. Wagner argues that jobs in the old, industrial economy favored skills such as following directions and conforming. Schools followed suit and taught these skills well. Now, in what Ken Kay, the president of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, calls the service economy, jobs are calling for innovation and flexibility (2010). Students may have multiple careers in their lifetime and need the critical thinking skills to learn and adapt as needed. With the types of jobs being offered today and the striking impact of technology on kids and the world, it is no wonder that students will need a host of new skills to compete in today’s market. Wagner sums up the skills needed as the ability to “think – to reason, analyze, weigh evidence, problem-solve-and to communicate effectively” (2008, xxiii). These skills seem easy enough to teach, but there is a national buzz about these seemingly “new” skills. Why aren’t schools adequately teaching students how to think and communicate already?
Wagner explains that teachers are increasingly focused on teaching content due to amplified pressure to raise standardized test scores. He makes the case that it is actually competencies that we need to be teaching, not content (2002). He encourages educators to use content, such as Roman mythology or how to measure the radius of a circle, as a vehicle to teach the more important “survival skills for the 21st century” needed for college, career, and citizenship. The challenge educators face when they focus on skills, not content, is the fact that these skills are not assessed on current standardized tests. With the constant pressure of raising test scores, schools may be afraid to steer away from teaching content knowledge. Even worse, Wagner makes the case that even the best scoring schools are not preparing students for life after high school. If we are trying to educate students for the future, we have to keep test pressure in the far back of our minds and ask business leaders and colleges which skills are essential to 21st century success.
As Wagner consulted with CEOs and college professors while writing The Global Achievement Gap (2008), he began to develop the seven survival skills for the 21st century. These are the skills that employers and colleges are looking for when they hire or accept young people. These skills are rarely assessed on most state tests:
· Critical thinking and problem solving
· Collaborating across networks and leading by influence
· Agility and adaptability
· Initiative and entrepreneurialism
· Effective oral and written communication
· Accessing and analyzing information
· Curiosity and imagination
If these are the skills of tomorrow, what happens to the 3 R’s of reading, writing and arithmetic? Where do they fit in? Is reading still important in the digital age? I say, yes. Just in a different way.
Literacies in the 21st century
As Wagner points out in Making the grade, literacy is not only still important today. It is indispensible. He argues that our changing economy requires even higher levels of literacy, such as the ability to comprehend, synthesize, and present one’s own ideas drawing upon complex material (2002). Today’s students are no longer visiting libraries and checking out stacks of books. Instead they are wading through an infinite amount of information online and trying to synthesize what they find, so they can develop ideas of their own. They should no longer be reading simply to understand and memorize, but to understand and then use. This requires a much deeper level of reading than before.
As Gina Biancarsoa explains in her article, Adolescent literacy: More than remediation (2012), texts become more challenging as students move from elementary, middle, and high school. Text length, words and sentences all become longer and more difficult. There is also less redundancy of ideas as students move on to harder texts, which require closer reading. Finally, students are required to synthesis across multiple sources of information such as charts, graphs, and pictures. The author states that learning to read in earlier grades doesn’t prepare students for these types of challenges as students read not just textbooks but also historical documents, lab instructions, math word problems and novels across each subject area (2012). This begs the question: How can upper grade teachers support reading skills? It is common to use whole class books and essay writing to build reading skills, but are teachers at this level teaching the physical skills needed to read more complex text?
The authors of the article The Challenge of Challenging Text (2012) argue that teachers should purposely use complex text to help students build skill and stamina, similar to the way weights or resistance helps build muscle. In the past educators worried that overly complex text would impede learning. Students should read books at their level. Yet, new research suggests that by building skills, establishing purpose, and fostering motivation and persistence, teachers can help students to successfully comprehend more challenging text (Shanahan, Fisher and Frey, 2012). I also wonder how peer collaboration fits into this model, and how peers can help each other to more fully comprehend complex texts.
This adds another challenge to the growing list. How can teachers facilitate the understanding of complex text for all learners? Although many schools are still tracked by perceived ability level, some schools have made the decision to create heterogeneous classes that contain a mix of ability levels. This creates the challenge of finding text that all students are able to read and understand, or bringing everyone up to a high level together. With so many levels in the classroom can one teacher differentiate for all? And do they need to? Will building authentic purpose and motivation to read guide students to choose higher levels of texts than they normally would?
Finally, is understanding even enough. If students need to think to succeed in today’s global economy, they need to go past simple understanding. We are no longer teaching students to restate the facts or messages in their reading. We are now asking them to synthesize ideas across many sources. We are requiring them to use the information they find to create new innovations or new knowledge. The world needs adults today who can analyze and evaluate relevant information in order to problem solve and innovate. To compete, students need to use higher order thinking skills and abstract knowledge. How then, should teachers teach these skills? Is teaching how to think different than teaching to understand?
One way is to use the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy chart to assess levels of critical thinking. Understanding is in the lower levels of the chart. The verbs at the top of the chart indicate higher levels of critical thinking. When students are required to invent, critique, and examine they are practicing the thinking skills they will need as citizens of the 21st century. Many traditional teaching strategies do not push students to these levels. Answering multiple-choice questions about a chapter or summarizing a book fits in the lower sections of the chart. Even more creative ideas like illustrating a scene or using a graphic organizer to show information in a different way is still only in the “applying” category. How can we allow students to learn in ways that consistently use high levels of critical thinking?
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According to the Buck Institute for Education this type of teaching requires an emphasis on inquiry. Students need to be questioning, searching for answers and arriving at conclusions in order to create something new such as an idea, an interpretation, or a product. In addition, when teaching how to think, a teacher’s focus should be on how students are learning, not what they are learning. Certain teaching strategies such as project based learning, can lead to deeper thinking.
As Larmer and Mergendoller reference in the article Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning (2010), a well-designed project needs to be meaningful to students and have an intriguing driving question that can be answered in many innovative ways. It needs to offer enough room for student voice and choice that it allows for students of all learning styles and levels to thrive. A project should require collaboration and offer opportunities to communicate with and present to an authentic audience. With all of these structures in place, students cannot simply regurgitate information found on the Internet. They have to analyze, evaluate and synthesize in order to complete the project. In addition to pushing students to think deeper, projects may also be more intrinsically motivating.
As Larmer and Mergendoller reference in the article Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning (2010), a well-designed project needs to be meaningful to students and have an intriguing driving question that can be answered in many innovative ways. It needs to offer enough room for student voice and choice that it allows for students of all learning styles and levels to thrive. A project should require collaboration and offer opportunities to communicate with and present to an authentic audience. With all of these structures in place, students cannot simply regurgitate information found on the Internet. They have to analyze, evaluate and synthesize in order to complete the project. In addition to pushing students to think deeper, projects may also be more intrinsically motivating.
What motivates 21st century students?
In Drive (2009), Daniel Pink explains that scientists have long known about two motivational drives, biological and extrinsic. Humans are biologically motivated by things like food and water and extrinsically motivated by rewards and punishments like money and grades. In the middle of the 20th century, however, a third drive, “intrinsic motivation” was explored. This third drive showed that people are also motivated by their internal emotions like having fun or mastering a puzzle. The three elements that lead to intrinsic motivation are autonomy, mastery and purpose. |
Essential Elements of Intrinsic Motivation: · Autonomy- the desire to direct our own lives · Mastery-the urge to get better and better at something that matters · Purpose-the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves |
If we want to build intrinsic motivation in students, we need to offer opportunities for students to direct their own learning. Self-directed learning, or autonomy, is probably the easiest of Pink’s elements to achieve. By offering open-ended tasks, students can make choices that fit their learning style or interests and therefore be more motivated to learn. Mastery and purpose may be harder to build in the educational climate today. In the age of standardized testing, students are rarely given enough time to practice something for mastery. Teachers feel a need to keep moving so that they can get to everything by the end of the year whether students have mastered it or not. If we slow down and allow students time to deeply understand topics, will they begin to reach mastery and find purpose in their learning? How can we move from a model that emphasizes learning for extrinsic motivators (i.e. a high grade) to learning for its own sake? Will projects built around inquiry achieve this? And if inquiry driven projects for a real audience are the key to motivating today’s students, how does reading fit in?
What motivates 21st century readers?
As Richard Allington (2009) points out in the book Reading More, Reading Better, intrinsic motivation is rarely studied in reading, but extrinsic motivation is. I have seen grades and prizes entice students to read, but what happens when you take that incentive away? Will students still read if there isn’t a grade or prize attached anymore? Daniel Pink would probably say no. In Drive, he cites a study by Edward Deci in 1969 to explain why. In the study, Deci had students solve a block puzzle and then timed how long they continued to play after he gave them a break and left the room. One group of students was paid for puzzle completion on day two but not paid on the first or third day. The other group was not paid any of the days. On day three, the non-paid group played with the puzzle during the free time significantly longer than the paid group did. Deci found that when people are engaged in complex tasks, external rewards like money or grades actually decrease intrinsic motivation and performance in the long run. Pink writes that Deci found:
“…rewards could deliver a short-term boost- just as a jolt of caffeine can keep you cranking for a few more hours. But the effect wears off – and, worse, can reduce a person’s longer-term motivation to continue the project.” (2009, 8)
If this is applied to reading for grades, students will read during school when it is assigned, but will not continue after the grades are taken away. I want students to be motivated to read and learn for life, not for the short term that Deci suggests. So, how can educators build students’ intrinsic motivation and create a drive to learn? More specifically, how can reading become intrinsically motivated? Educators must create reading opportunities that are guided by the same three essential elements listed above: we must provide autonomy, pursue mastery, and be purposeful.
Autonomous reading: Allowing opportunities for voice and choice
Autonomous reading would mean that students have some control over task, time, technique, and team (Pink, 2009). If a student needs to research the civil right’s movement, for example, autonomous reading might mean students choose which and how many websites or books they would read, how long to spend on their search, how to search, how to demonstrate their learning and who to work with. In a traditional history classroom a teacher might give students the information through a lecture and offer them little choice in the learning process. In contrast, a classroom devoted to autonomous learning would be focused on structures that support student voice and higher levels of critical thinking.
Reading for mastery: Building engagement and desire to become a better reader
According to Pink, personal desire and engagement are required to produce mastery (2009). This implies that to reach mastery in reading, students have to want to get better and have to be engaged. This lends itself to a “rich get richer, poor get poorer” argument. Students who are already highly skilled readers often want to read and are already engaged. Readers who struggle most likely don’t want to read and are not engaged. How can we provide opportunities for engaged reading and build a desire to read in all students?
One way to encourage students to build a personal desire for mastery is to help them cultivate a growth mindset. In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck explains that individuals who have a growth mindset believe they can get better at something with practice. Their intelligence is not a fixed quantity. Those with a fixed mindset believe their qualities are carved in stone. Great teachers, according to Dweck, create an atmosphere of challenge, love, and trust, not judgment. They set high standards and, most importantly, teach students how to reach those standards (2006). By holding everyone to high expectations, such as using complex text, but at the same time, offering tools and structures to support all needs, I could begin to cultivate a growth mindset in reading.
Another similar theory is the study of Grit, by Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews and Kelly (2007). They found that the largest indicator of future success in life is grit, a mix of perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Gritty students are those who keep working hard toward challenges, despite failure, boredom, or disappointment (2007). If our curriculum is built on inquiry and students are using critical thinking to find potential answers, problems and failures are bound to happen. Showing that failure is learning and helping students navigate through these challenges will build grit and help cultivate a growth mindset. This, in turn, can lead to students who are intrinsically motivated to become better readers.
Reading for Authentic Purposes
What does purposeful reading look like? If you subscribe to Daniel Pink’s definition in Drive, a student would read, not for a grade or to prove to the teacher what they know, but “in the service of something larger than ourselves” (2009, 204). This implies that students might read fiction to see patterns in human nature or might read to get the necessary information to then help others. The challenge as teachers is to either help students see the purpose in their reading or allow students the space to find texts that fit their own purpose. Instead of thinking of reading as an isolated skill, reading should be seen as a vehicle for allowing students to reach a higher purpose in their work. Students shouldn’t just read, they should read to use the information in some way that is larger than themselves.
Authors Hall, Burns and Edwards point to a deeper purpose for reading in the book Empowering Struggling Readers (2011). They believe that we should read to make meaning of human nature, to understand how society works and to build a respect for diversity. If this is our purpose, how do we interact with texts in order to build these understandings? In a traditional classroom the class would read together or independently and then discuss. But then what? Students may leave with a better understanding of the world, but they aren’t interacting with it in any way. Projects may be the vehicle to allow a real world connection outside of the classroom. By doing something with the knowledge gained, students will achieve deeper learning experiences. This way, reading becomes a tool needed to create new ideas or products.
Collaborative structures to support 21st century learning and reading
If reading is to become a tool for students to complete projects with a larger, more authentic purpose, collaborative structures need to be in place to allow all students to succeed. Working together allows students to come to deeper understandings of the literature by discussing in structured and unstructured ways. Protocols – structured, timed and focused small group conversations – offer an equitable way for students to discuss books. By allowing all voices to be heard in a safe environment, the groups can come to an even deeper understanding of themes than students would have individually.
Teachers can help build supportive relationships for all readers by implementing group projects. Groupwork, as defined by Elizabeth Cohen in Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom is:
“students working together in a group small enough so that everyone can participate on a task that has been clearly assigned. Moreover, students are expected to carry out their task without direct and immediate supervision of the teacher” (1994, 1-2).
Besides support, Cohen also cites increases in problem solving, higher order thinking and pride at producing something that is more than what any single member could create. When a project is designed well, it needs all members of the group, therefore building authentic purpose and opportunities for mastery. The challenge for teachers, however, is to create tasks rigorous enough to truly require every member. Each group member should be invited to contribute and thus, share in the learning rewards mentioned above.
Opportunities for students to have the freedom to choose who to work with or even to switch around are also important. Choice in team leads to intrinsic motivation, as mentioned earlier, but also to more creativity and innovation. By allowing students to move around freely and collaborate as needed, students who don’t normally work together may end up having a chance encounter that leads to new ideas. In Groupthink: The brainstorming myth, Lehrer describes physical workspaces such as Pixar and an M.I.T. building that proved to be creative breeding grounds as people were thrown together in unpredictable ways (2012). Critiquing, or helping each other revise work, in groups such as this can also lead to deeper thinking and a more creative end product. Protocols designed specifically for critique should include a mix of students who have different talents and interests in order to push each other’s thinking.
If projects involving reading are designed with these types of dynamic and equitable collaborations in mind, all students will be using the 21st century skills that Tony Wagner, Daniel Pink, and business and college leaders across the country are calling for. Students will be thinking and communicating. If the tasks given are challenging and connected to the world outside the classroom, my hope is that students will be intrinsically motivated to read and will be thinking at higher levels.
What motivates 21st century readers?
As Richard Allington (2009) points out in the book Reading More, Reading Better, intrinsic motivation is rarely studied in reading, but extrinsic motivation is. I have seen grades and prizes entice students to read, but what happens when you take that incentive away? Will students still read if there isn’t a grade or prize attached anymore? Daniel Pink would probably say no. In Drive, he cites a study by Edward Deci in 1969 to explain why. In the study, Deci had students solve a block puzzle and then timed how long they continued to play after he gave them a break and left the room. One group of students was paid for puzzle completion on day two but not paid on the first or third day. The other group was not paid any of the days. On day three, the non-paid group played with the puzzle during the free time significantly longer than the paid group did. Deci found that when people are engaged in complex tasks, external rewards like money or grades actually decrease intrinsic motivation and performance in the long run. Pink writes that Deci found:
“…rewards could deliver a short-term boost- just as a jolt of caffeine can keep you cranking for a few more hours. But the effect wears off – and, worse, can reduce a person’s longer-term motivation to continue the project.” (2009, 8)
If this is applied to reading for grades, students will read during school when it is assigned, but will not continue after the grades are taken away. I want students to be motivated to read and learn for life, not for the short term that Deci suggests. So, how can educators build students’ intrinsic motivation and create a drive to learn? More specifically, how can reading become intrinsically motivated? Educators must create reading opportunities that are guided by the same three essential elements listed above: we must provide autonomy, pursue mastery, and be purposeful.
Autonomous reading: Allowing opportunities for voice and choice
Autonomous reading would mean that students have some control over task, time, technique, and team (Pink, 2009). If a student needs to research the civil right’s movement, for example, autonomous reading might mean students choose which and how many websites or books they would read, how long to spend on their search, how to search, how to demonstrate their learning and who to work with. In a traditional history classroom a teacher might give students the information through a lecture and offer them little choice in the learning process. In contrast, a classroom devoted to autonomous learning would be focused on structures that support student voice and higher levels of critical thinking.
Reading for mastery: Building engagement and desire to become a better reader
According to Pink, personal desire and engagement are required to produce mastery (2009). This implies that to reach mastery in reading, students have to want to get better and have to be engaged. This lends itself to a “rich get richer, poor get poorer” argument. Students who are already highly skilled readers often want to read and are already engaged. Readers who struggle most likely don’t want to read and are not engaged. How can we provide opportunities for engaged reading and build a desire to read in all students?
One way to encourage students to build a personal desire for mastery is to help them cultivate a growth mindset. In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck explains that individuals who have a growth mindset believe they can get better at something with practice. Their intelligence is not a fixed quantity. Those with a fixed mindset believe their qualities are carved in stone. Great teachers, according to Dweck, create an atmosphere of challenge, love, and trust, not judgment. They set high standards and, most importantly, teach students how to reach those standards (2006). By holding everyone to high expectations, such as using complex text, but at the same time, offering tools and structures to support all needs, I could begin to cultivate a growth mindset in reading.
Another similar theory is the study of Grit, by Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews and Kelly (2007). They found that the largest indicator of future success in life is grit, a mix of perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Gritty students are those who keep working hard toward challenges, despite failure, boredom, or disappointment (2007). If our curriculum is built on inquiry and students are using critical thinking to find potential answers, problems and failures are bound to happen. Showing that failure is learning and helping students navigate through these challenges will build grit and help cultivate a growth mindset. This, in turn, can lead to students who are intrinsically motivated to become better readers.
Reading for Authentic Purposes
What does purposeful reading look like? If you subscribe to Daniel Pink’s definition in Drive, a student would read, not for a grade or to prove to the teacher what they know, but “in the service of something larger than ourselves” (2009, 204). This implies that students might read fiction to see patterns in human nature or might read to get the necessary information to then help others. The challenge as teachers is to either help students see the purpose in their reading or allow students the space to find texts that fit their own purpose. Instead of thinking of reading as an isolated skill, reading should be seen as a vehicle for allowing students to reach a higher purpose in their work. Students shouldn’t just read, they should read to use the information in some way that is larger than themselves.
Authors Hall, Burns and Edwards point to a deeper purpose for reading in the book Empowering Struggling Readers (2011). They believe that we should read to make meaning of human nature, to understand how society works and to build a respect for diversity. If this is our purpose, how do we interact with texts in order to build these understandings? In a traditional classroom the class would read together or independently and then discuss. But then what? Students may leave with a better understanding of the world, but they aren’t interacting with it in any way. Projects may be the vehicle to allow a real world connection outside of the classroom. By doing something with the knowledge gained, students will achieve deeper learning experiences. This way, reading becomes a tool needed to create new ideas or products.
Collaborative structures to support 21st century learning and reading
If reading is to become a tool for students to complete projects with a larger, more authentic purpose, collaborative structures need to be in place to allow all students to succeed. Working together allows students to come to deeper understandings of the literature by discussing in structured and unstructured ways. Protocols – structured, timed and focused small group conversations – offer an equitable way for students to discuss books. By allowing all voices to be heard in a safe environment, the groups can come to an even deeper understanding of themes than students would have individually.
Teachers can help build supportive relationships for all readers by implementing group projects. Groupwork, as defined by Elizabeth Cohen in Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom is:
“students working together in a group small enough so that everyone can participate on a task that has been clearly assigned. Moreover, students are expected to carry out their task without direct and immediate supervision of the teacher” (1994, 1-2).
Besides support, Cohen also cites increases in problem solving, higher order thinking and pride at producing something that is more than what any single member could create. When a project is designed well, it needs all members of the group, therefore building authentic purpose and opportunities for mastery. The challenge for teachers, however, is to create tasks rigorous enough to truly require every member. Each group member should be invited to contribute and thus, share in the learning rewards mentioned above.
Opportunities for students to have the freedom to choose who to work with or even to switch around are also important. Choice in team leads to intrinsic motivation, as mentioned earlier, but also to more creativity and innovation. By allowing students to move around freely and collaborate as needed, students who don’t normally work together may end up having a chance encounter that leads to new ideas. In Groupthink: The brainstorming myth, Lehrer describes physical workspaces such as Pixar and an M.I.T. building that proved to be creative breeding grounds as people were thrown together in unpredictable ways (2012). Critiquing, or helping each other revise work, in groups such as this can also lead to deeper thinking and a more creative end product. Protocols designed specifically for critique should include a mix of students who have different talents and interests in order to push each other’s thinking.
If projects involving reading are designed with these types of dynamic and equitable collaborations in mind, all students will be using the 21st century skills that Tony Wagner, Daniel Pink, and business and college leaders across the country are calling for. Students will be thinking and communicating. If the tasks given are challenging and connected to the world outside the classroom, my hope is that students will be intrinsically motivated to read and will be thinking at higher levels.