Photography and Reading

Our first major reading unit is underway.  We have a brand new edition to Deer Hill School's literacy repertoire, Scott Foresman's Reading Street.  

Take a photograph for example.  Think of the emotional response a stunning photograph elicits.  Some strike you right off the bat, some take on a new power with an understanding of the backstory.

For a photograph to make you pause, the confluence of subject matter, color, lighting, angles, etc. is a delicate balance that must be just right..  Bear in mind that no two people react the same way to the same picture.

Now, let's take a second to glimpse into photography.  This time, into what it takes to capture that photo.

The complexity; the number of systems that work together to capture that composition is nothing short of modern magic.  The engineering of the battery alone is more sophisticated than I could hope to understand. Then, there's all of the internal systems.  The shutter control, the computer that reads the light levels, the memory storage system, etc.

The reading experience is equally as complicated.  You have a series of complex processes that need to be enacted at just the right time in order to capture a snap shot of the story.  Sometimes it's character that you're keying into, other times it's the way the author's dropped a little clue that you'll want to store for the resolution of the story.  To effectively understand all that, there must be an implicit understanding of grammar and of grammatical patterns.  "Like, I would do that!" is a much different idea than, "Like I would do that?"

Good photographers are masters of their craft.  Sure, you can set some templates; the rule of thirds, keep the sun to your back, etc.  But a photographer who creates lasting images is one who picks just the right subject at just the right time at just the right angle.  Both reading and photography are like shooting at moving target.  If we expect our students to be life-long readers, they must appreciate the artistic beauty of the written word.  In order to access that beauty, they must be versatile with a wide variety of skill sets.  Building those complex skill sets comes down to relying on learned strategies.

This year our reading program affords us the ability to draw awareness to a specific skill, teach a strategy that will assist students in acquiring the skills, and guide them through a text that enables them to use the focus skill and strategy.

But, it's also essential for students to utilize those skills in texts they feel emotionally connected to.  If we can see our students using the skills and strategies in a book that they love; then, and only then, can we say we've done our job!