Part 2- Reading for and Writing with Evidence

"Does adherence to the shift-reading and writing with evidence, effectively develop stronger readers, writers and thinkers who are more prepared for college and career, as is the aim of Common Core State Standards?"  In my opinion, the answer to this question is a resounding YES!  Anything we as educators can do to make reading relevant to kids from day one is one of the most important things we do.  When we ask them to read with evidence we, "level the playing field for students without strong background knowledge or relevant experience."  Without this method, several things students are asked to read in school have little or no relevance to especially students in the lower socio-economic status. These are notoriously the kids we see who simply "check out" when it comes to reading during tests or even during Teacher Directed Reading.  Unless it is something they CHOOSE to read they are uninterested and oftentimes they have no desire to choose something on their own because they have never understood the value of reading.

Through development of an evidence based classroom, this shift gives students who are generally unmotivated a reason to read and a confidence boost from page one.  All of a sudden, everyone in the classroom, regardless of diverse needs, has the same goal in mind and the same foundation from which to begin.

Two of the lines that resonates with me most is on page 83, "And no matter a person's career path, being an active and engaged member of civic life requires comfort in this "argument culture".  If young people do not develop these critical thinking, speaking, and writing skills, many opportunities will be closed to them."  This is an important thought because we have to remember that no matter the intellect, the future goals, the opportunity afforded a child, they all must be taught to think critically and to find motivation and satisfaction from reading.  I have always believed that all children can be motivated you just have to find the thing that sparks that interest.  With this shift in thinking, the motivated is created as you go.  In my classroom right now, with my EC group of kids, we are whole-class reading The Cay by Theodore Taylor.  Alongside the reading, I have pulled books from the library on World War II, the Holocaust, Hitler, Pearl Harbor and the kids have researched things on their own like the cays, coral reef, blindness, hurricanes, shipwrecks, even how islands are formed.  It has been such a great enhancement to the fiction we are reading and these kids, who are usually uninterested, hang on every word.  At the end of the book they will have an accomplishment, A FINISHED BOOK!  This is something they can build upon throughout the year.  It's all about "selling it" until they can't imagine themselves without it.  

I am loving Transformational Literacy!