Zen, Reading, and a Culture of Practice - Part 1

​While reading Norman Fischer’s book, When You Greet Me I Bow: Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen, I was struck by the phrase “culture of practice.” Fischer uses it to describe how Zen Buddhist’s go about cultivating enlightenment, reminding the reader that practitioners don’t magically transport themselves to greater compassion, open heartedness and enlightenment. “No,” Fischer says, “The entire culture of practice is necessary… including meditation, study, relationships, ritual, and much more.”

My mind quickly jumped to the world of teaching. Aren’t we engaged in creating a culture of practice in our classroom? And aren’t we, step by step over time, leading students to a form of enlightenment, including an illumination of how reading and writing work,  a comprehension of all types of text, and a deeper insight into the world around them? For me, the answer is yes! 

---

At first blush, it seems like a lot to master. But with repeated practice, good teaching habits take root and grow. And if I focus on activities rather than passive worksheets and lectures, incorporating everything isn’t so daunting. For example, here’s a list of activities that, when used in combination over the course of a week (and a month and the year), help to create fluent readers, writers, and spellers:

• Regular bursts of phonological activities, such as stretching words, “tapping and zapping” words, penny pushing and pulling, and sound swapping.
• Phonology-orthography bridge activities such as a word mapping template that asks students to hear sounds, map sounds with tokens, substitute tokens with letters and letter combinations, write the word, and then read the word.
• Making Words activities that use moveable letter tiles.
• Manipulating cards with printed word “chunks” (phonograms, rimes, roots, and/or affixes) to make words.
• Word ladders, from the basic to advanced.
• Look, Touch, Say routines for word, pattern, and sound recognition, as well as the study of morphology and vocabulary.
• Reading Magic Squares.
• Reading decodable text.
• Practicing writing and reading words with Flip Folders.
• Writing on topics of choice, which fosters engagement and motivation, which in turn leads to writing success.

Reading books of choice, pulled from easily accessible bins and boxes (grouped by genre, author, and/or theme). Like writing on topics you choose, reading a book you choose fosters engagement and motivation.

---

​What about the strategies students use to solve problems and deepen their understanding? It’s another long list but I think we can identify some especially important ones:

• Spelling strategies, including “pull it down from your brain dictionary.” But if the word isn’t stored yet, use the sound it out strategy, spelling the word by using the letters associated with the sound. Other strategies are use a word you know to spell a word you don’t know (spelling by analogy), spelling using conventions and rules, and using spelling tools, like words on walls, writing word books, and yes, a real dictionary!
• Word reading strategies include the very important “look at ALL the letters in word and sound them out,” as well as read by analogy, break the word into chunks and syllables, think about meaning (affixes, roots, the greater context of the passage), and beef up your brain dictionary so you automatically recognize more words on sight.
• To help you understand text, employ metacognition strategies like monitor your understanding, visualize the scene, apply any background knowledge you have, make a prediction and then check it (did it happen?), ask questions as you read and then try to answer those questions, and summarize information on a regular basis (at the end of a page or chapter).
• Last but not least, there are many writing strategies that help students write cohesive paragraphs, such as employ spelling strategies, use craft strategies (such as writing a lead, using a hook, and varying sentence length), keep the genre and purpose of your writing in mind as you write (is your piece narrative or informational, are you writing to entertain or persuade), and plan your writing before you launch into it (draw a picture prior to writing, create a list of events, talk over your writing with someone else).

 
Wow, our lists are getting long! And we still haven’t covered the “entire culture of practice.” What about the rituals and relationships Fischer mentioned?  Stay tuned for Part Two!