In Who’s Doing the Work: How to Say Less so Students Can Do More (2016) Burkins and Yaris caution us that teachers can give students too much support. When that happens, we rob students of the opportunity to become active word solvers and comprehenders. I often refer to their title in conversations about engagement. Teachers are rightly worried that students are not engaged, and they go to great lengths to engage them; they gamify instruction, play videos of authors reading their books, and allow students to read books online. What I notice is that the teacher is doing all the work of engagement. And the students are not actually engaged. Does this sound familiar?
Recently, I have had the pleasure of working in a number of high quality Pre K classrooms. The classrooms abound with invitations to play and learn, and experiment with being readers and writers:
- Each center is related to the current theme, such as “Feelings” or “Trees,” topics that are relevant to the students.
- Students decide how they want to interact with the center materials.
- Each center includes baskets of related books. The teacher reads these books aloud, so that the students are familiar with them.
- Each center includes clipboards with paper and writing tools. Some students enjoy labeling their block structures. Some students ask teachers to take dictation to explain their block structures.
- Teachers read aloud throughout the day.
In these Pre K classrooms, students decide when they want to move to a different center: blocks, art, writing, dramatic play, water, sand, library. They take their name tag with them when they go to a new area, attach their name tag to the sign-up board in the area, and they can play there for as long as they want. Some students stayed in the block area for an entire hour, building and labeling complex structures. Other students visited multiple centers, moving from the dramatic play area to the easels with paint to the writing center to the cozy corner to have quiet time with a stuffed animal and a book. Teachers observed and lent support as needed, sometimes joining in the play, sometimes asking open ended questions to extend language and offer vocabulary, sometimes taking a child’s dictation to label a block structure, sometimes reading a book in the library area.
Pre K teachers understand that their role is to set up the conditions for engagement. Their work involves setting up relevant centers, teaching students the routines so students can move independently, and offering a variety of responsive teacher support.
The principles of of engagement are the same as the principles of Independent Reading:
- Choice
- Time
- Teacher Support
- Talk
We cannot make students be engaged as readers and writers. Instead, how can we create relevant reading and writing opportunities for them? How can we give choice, time, support and opportunities to talk with classmates as they read and write?
If you find yourself doing jazz hands, spending time searching for the perfect online game or videos, or using glitter glue, pause and ask yourself if you are doing too much work. Then ask yourself:
What can you shift so that you are setting up conditions for engagement that allow the students to do the work? You are not building the block structure; you are providing students with the blocks and supporting them as they build the block structure.
Trusting Readers 