Trust

I watched my daughter's future teammates play in the NCAA women's basketball tournament this evening. They are a really great team. They play hard, are coached very well, and trust themselves and each other to do their jobs effectively. Tonight they faced an opponent seated much higher than they were. However, true to who they are, these women came out fighting. Bit by bit the other team showed what made them elite. Bit by bit I watched these young women lose their confidence and their their fight. They stopped trusting in their skills and panicked. In the end, it wasn't meant to be for the Lady Hoosiers today. As I watched them second-guess themselves and lose their stride, I was reminded of so many of my students, past and present. Much too often kids stop trusting themselves to do their jobs effectively when they are faced with challenges. They begin to question the strategies that are still not routine in their reading process and fall back on less mature ways of tackling text. It is scary when you feel like you have to climb the whole mountain. My job is to help them realize they can do it, maybe not yet... but soon! Independence is vital for success and the best way to help readers achieve that independence is to show them strategies and set them loose to read. Uninterrupted. Every day.

Sincerely,

Tara Reed