Children are NOT Bar Codes

A conversation with a parent about a child's reading often reverts back to the bar code on a leveled book. Teachers are often forced into boxes of leveled book curriculum, and when reporting to parents about reading, they often speak in alphabet language. "Your child is at "G" level, when all the others are at "J" by now"...Grades levels in language arts, have been replaced by more and more leveled readers...reducing the time students can spend on reading as a tool for developing their multi-intelligences and habits of mind... Reading fluency and comprehension at the expense of thinking...It's time to re-think the emphasis on leveled readers. Schools and teachers should design curriculum and publishers should provide resources. For teachers to be more empowered to create curriculum, they need TIME in the day - significant time - ideally 2 hours a day to design and revise their designs based on examinations of how well their designs are implemented in their real classroom contexts. Leveled books may be viewed as "time savors", but I suggest they are "empowerment eaters", that is, they take away a teacher's autonomy and replace children with bar codes on the back of each book that no one has a choice to read. I suspect there are many teachers who instinctively knew the system of leveled books was simply a reinvented system of SRA's ...inching closer to the control (and healthy business revenues) that comes with test prep curriculum...Let's make our eyes wide open and put an end to bar coding our children. They just might enjoy school much more with a STEAM, project-based, Habits of Mind and multi-intelligence focus. Children are not bar codes!