English/Language Arts Department
Philosophy of Reading
A Love of Reading
At the heart of an effective reading program should be the desire to cultivate and nurture a love of reading and appreciation of the written word. When teachers work to empower students to love reading throughout their lives, students can then independently seek out books that will provide them pleasure, ignite their imaginations, and inspire their own ideas. Moreover, when students see reading as a venue for learning more about the world and about themselves, they can better contribute to a culture that values creative and critical thought.
Teaching Reading Strategies
Motivated by this shared desire to encourage the pleasure of reading in their students, Glastonbury’s Language Arts teachers employ different techniques to engage students in the reading process.
First, we teach a variety of reading strategies--for example, questioning, drawing inferences, and making connections; these strategies, which align with state reading standards, help students most effectively construct their own meaning of a text and derive more personal fulfillment from reading.
In addition, by practicing these articulated reading strategies, students should gain a deeper appreciation for the craft of writing (i.e. how authors use language, literary elements, and rhetorical devices to convey meaning and provide insights about the human experience).
At each grade level, teachers hold students to high expectations in terms of their mastery of these strategies and skills as well as serve as models of how effective readers apply them in their own reading.
Diverse Texts and Viewpoints
Glastonbury Language Arts teachers also strive to provide opportunities for students to encounter a wide array of texts and genres (including fiction, nonfiction, and visual media) that will inspire them to explore important concepts and themes about the world in which they live. Teachers will encourage students to value diversity, in terms of not only the authors they read in class but also the range of voices and viewpoints offered by the students in the classroom.
Finding Shared Meaning
The appreciation of diversity, in the context of a common experience, is central to our philosophy: although we share a vision of what defines effective reading, we understand that each reader brings an individualized experience to any text he or she reads.
While gender, age, religious beliefs, race, ethnicity and personal experiences may shape the meaning individuals construct from text, the opportunity for collaborative reading challenges students to build shared meaning about alternative viewpoints, cultural differences, and various historical time periods and perspectives, while engaging the imagination in other worlds.
Personal Reflection
Finally, we believe that a reading program is most effective when it encourages students to interact with the texts on a personal level. Thus, the Glastonbury Language Arts program values not only critical thinking and analytic reflection on the texts but also personal reflection, about the ways the texts can relate to the students' own experiences. In the process, students will hopefully come to better appreciate and understand the academic, professional, and personal benefits of lifelong reading.
