Endurance

I probably first learned this word growing up as I watching those competition shows where they had to go through a physical task in order to go to the next level. I remember the show host saying they had to "endure" the challenge in order for them to meet their goal. 

This semester (and this year, really) I've chosen the word endurance. As human beings, we focus so much on starting a new habit, but we don't really focus on keeping that new habit. We don't focus on the endurance it takes to overcome our inner/outer obstacles to keep on going with that new habit. We yearn for change but deny the journey it requires. 

A massive obstacle that is seen in literacy in the secondary world stems off of the pressure of reading in the elementary world. From kinder to second grade, your are focusing on decoding words and sentences with some vocabulary, then come third to fifth grade, we focus on reading comprehension. From third to fifth grade, teachers have (without realizing it) taken our eyes away from phonics. We expect these students to "just read" without acknowledging the fact that reading is not an inherited trait. We don't explicitly teach students what to do whenever they encounter an unfamiliar word. In turn, this causes students to give up and grow bitterness towards reading. 

As the years pass by, the push for state assessments and the focus on reading content has taken away the joy of reading. Students dread anything related to literacy, therefore their focus and endurance to keep reading longer texts is just... not there anymore. 

"It's boring."

 "It has too many words."

 "I don't know how to read that word." 

"I don't care." 

This semester, I want to equip myself with strategies so that I, as an elementary teacher, can prepare my students for the reality that expects them in the secondary world. That way, they can endure reading many pages in secondary and higher education.