Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author and aviator, lost his life in World War II. He wrote "The Little Prince." It is only with the heart that one can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.
There is plenty of talk about explicitly teaching children the skills they need to become readers. I have no problem with teaching skills. However, if all a teacher has is skill lessons, they forget that children need a greater purpose in becoming readers. Honestly, teachers, have little or no say in the curriculums their school selects.
Curriculum, decisions seldom include teachers, parents, or children. State and national mandates, standards, frameworks, and funding for literacy programs come not from teachers. They are heavily influenced by publishers, testing companies, and lobby groups. So, please don't point fingers at teachers over curriculums.
Of course, while we don't have much choice in what we teach, we do have a say in how we teach. Curriculum programs often fail to understand the motivational nuances of how children learn to read. Teachers, make it funny, joyful, interesting, personally and socially meaningful, and occasionally sad. Some researchers point to pedagogies, Critical, Traditional, Systematic, Constructivist, Progressive, Best-Practices, or Science-Based. The literature has many informative studies, books, and peer-reviewed articles about all of the above. They inform my thinking; and helps to guide me in positive directions. Research informs me, and so does the data living and breathing right in front of me. There is no data more informative than the data I see before me.
However, the pedagogy that informs me most; is the Pedagogy of Humanity. This pedagogy has helped me strive for 40 years. It never let me down. It isn't focused on saving all, but one at a time. So, I spend my days looking for ways to invite and engage children in joyful and meaningful reading journeys in diverse books. I am not saying the other pedagogies are not important sources of best practices. The data that informs my pedagogy is not seen on your data walls, or in Power Schools. It can be hard to find in a world of constant data crunching, and struggling with fidelity to those curriculum boxes. It can't be found on any Excel sheet, in a computer program, or uploaded to the cloud. The data that best informs my instruction is seen with the heart. I find it standing right in front of me. I am not much different than the Little Prince.
I see with a different set of data eyes; others look at test scores. errors, and deficits. I see the data in the smiles, laughs, and tears of the child next to me. I hear my data speaking to my heart, I am what Dr. Yetta Goodman called a Kid Watcher. I pay attention to the quantitative data, but I see the data on the face child next to me first and foremost.
I am constantly searching for materials, books, and games that would motivate one child at a time. Policymakers, Ed Reformers, and testing publishers can see one child at a time. I can’t help passing by a bookstore, library, garage sale, or a magazine rack. I am addicted to the things that inspire reading. You can't sell this way of thinking in a box.
On Friday 11/15/24, I took a friend out to lunch at RAWA’s in New Haven CT. They serve Middle Eastern food. While we were eating, I said feel like visiting my favorite bookstore just a few blocks from here? Well, next thing, we were at Possible Futures > https://www.possiblefuturesbooks.com/ < Now my friend must have spent a few hundred dollars there, you tend to do that on your first visit. I keep my eyes, open for books that might inspire our children who come to our CCSU Literacy Center. As sure as sunrise follows the moon they find me.
There are three Muslim Girl Cousins who love reading biographies of famous women. They read everything about famous women in history. Can you imagine the battle over who gets to read “Muslim Girls Rise” this afternoon?
Now, there is the data that counts, and there is the data that really matters. I follow smiles, curious looks, questioning faces, and those informative data words “Dr. Turner, this book rocks”.
For a look at how my data-crunching brain works. Take a trip inside my mind in this link:
In my world, "The Little Prince would be required, reading for all teachers.
See the child, not the data,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner
CCSU Literacy Center Director
