Engaged Learning Reflection

     As I was reading Engaged Learning today, I came across something that caught my eye in the "Modeling Engaged Learning" chapter. In talking about writing, VanDeWeghe quotes Katie Wood Ray, "Either we can be walking, breathing, talking examples of all we advocate for our students, or we can have them sitting around wondering why we are trying to get them into something that we are obviously not into ourselves."
     I already talked to some of you about my co-op's sixth period class. It's a remedial class designed to improve their knowledge/skills of English in order to improve their testing scores on the Keystone exams/PSSA's. There are only four students in the class. On a good day, two of them are actually doing their work. They are argumentative and don't like to do anything except for stare at a book or an article until the class is over. My co-op makes them complete "double-entry journals" where they have to write down a section or quote from the book/article they're currently reading, and then write a response or reflection on their selection.
     In a conversation I had with my co-op last week in the library when the students were conducting research, he told me that he actually HATES to read books; however, he does like to read The Onion (satire), and news articles/current events. However, when these students who feel forced to read are instructed to read for the class period, my co-op sits on a stool at his podium and checks his email. This is not modeling ANYTHING about reading. His sixth period students are left wondering, 'why are we sitting around forced to do something that Mr. Coleman isn't into himself?' He could at least sit and read the newspaper while these students are supposed to be reading themselves.
     It was just interesting that VanDeWeghe clearly stated something that we as teachers don't really do ourselves. While we think about modeling our writing/thinking processes with students, we also need to think about what we're telling our students to do, and what we're actually modeling.