Blog 2: The Reading Strand

Good Day Fellow Bloggers!

Introduction: 

Welcome to my second post in EDBE 8P24 for the Brock University Teacher's College Program! Today, the purpose of this blog post is to review the Reading Strand in the Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8 Language [revised] 2006 and provide the reader with the expectations of students within the Reading Strand. This my my second of four blog posts dedicated to each strand of language: Media Studies, Reading, Writing, Oral Communication.

Reading Strand: 

The intent of the Reading Strand in the Ontario Language Curriculum is to guide students to effective reading practices. According to The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8, Language [revised] 2006, "An effective reader is one who not only grasps the ideas communicated in a text but is able to apply them in new contexts by thinking clearly, creatively, and critically about the ideas and information encountered in texts in order to understand, analyze, and absorb them and to recognize their relevance in other contexts." Students are thus expected to apply these practices through reading a multitude of texts in order to widen their range of reading comprehension strategies. Proficient student reading strategies also include reading texts that illustrate the many uses of writing, such as scripts, short stories, etc. Beyond the aspect that with practicing these reading methods that students will know an advanced level of vocabulary, they will also be able to discover what interests them the most, thus allowing students to pursue their own interests.
 

Critical Thinking:

Critical thinking is crucial to the Reading Strand. According to The Ontario Curriculum, "This strand helps students learn to read with understanding, to read critically, to become familiar with various text forms and their characteristic elements, and to recognize the function and effects of various text features and stylistic devices...helping students understand that reading is a process of constructing meaning and equips them with the strategies that good readers use to understand and appreciate what they read." As a future educator, I believe that thinking critically within the classroom has a huge importance, as it is a life skill that allows for reflection and positive thinking. This in turn, I believe, will help students even beyond the reading capacity, but as a reader that students will be appreciative of this skill as they are constructing meaning and ideas in topics that are correlated to their interests.

Developing Skills: 

The Ontario curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge and skills that will enable students to become effective readers. To develop these skills, it is essential for students to have as many opportunities as possible to read. The Ontario Curriculum states that "a well-balanced reading program will provide students with opportunities to read for the pleasure of discovering interesting information as well as for the pleasure of self-discovery, for self-enrichment, and for the sheer fun of it. Reading stimulates ideas, allows students to discover new worlds and creative thinking, and can do so with the student truly loving what they are learning because it is about their various interests. On idea that I saw when reviewing the Reading Strand was the tool Google Earth and Google Lit Trips, (outlined by the picture below), where you can take virtually take your students to these different locations! I though that in the 21st century, this could be a great tool to utilize a more fulfilling reading compression for the students. For students to read about their various interests is one of the best ways to guarantee the developmental skills needed to both grasp communicated ideas within the text, but also to apply them in new contexts.  

Overall Expectations: 

According to The Ontario Curriculum, the Reading Strand has four overall expectations.

Students will:

   1. read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
   2. recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;
   3. use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently;
   4. reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading.

Connecting to Virtual Applications as a Creative Tool 

 To Engage Reading in the 21st Century!

Concluding Thoughts: 

While specific expectations can be made about the reading strand in, students do not have to be limited by the conventions of grade specified expectations. Rather, teachers should adapt their education methods to the needs of their students; enticing student interests and present day ideas for them to help stimulate the reading strand in the classroom setting.