Five unavoidable problems in reading the whole book

Editor's Note: After reading the whole book into the course content, various achievements and experiences are introduced one after another, which can be described as mud and sand. How to judge the trade-off and use it for me? In view of the complicated situation, this paper discusses the time arrangement, goal, design, implementation and evaluation of the whole book, which is thought-provoking. For teachers who want to read the whole book well, it is a good article not to be missed.

Five unavoidable problems in reading the whole book

Text | Li Yuhui

Since the establishment of Chinese subject for a hundred years, articles with short length, easy interpretation and exemplary content have been used as teaching materials. Although famous writers such as Ye Shengtao, Xia Mianzun and li jinxi all advocate reading the whole book, and its importance has been recognized by teachers, reading the whole book has always been in a marginal and auxiliary position in the front-line classroom. In recent years, the state strongly advocates the development of students' core literacy, and people constantly reflect on the fragmentation, superficiality and utilitarianism of reading in the network age. The newly revised Chinese curriculum standard of senior high school by the Ministry of Education follows the trend and formally lists the whole book reading as the curriculum content, which runs through senior high school for three years. High school is the "wind vane" of basic education, and the rise of whole book reading in primary and secondary schools is just around the corner. In this context, "old topics" have attracted new attention, and a large number of "research results" have emerged in just three or two years. While we are happy, we should also see that the curriculum management and learning evaluation in primary and secondary schools lag behind the curriculum reform, which makes it more difficult to read the whole book. Teachers are used to guiding practice with inherent concepts, and lack of research on the characteristics of books and attention to the development of students' literacy, which often leads to half the effort or even out of tune. Based on the real teaching situation, starting from the law of reading and teaching, it is the top priority of the book to grasp the measure and scale of key issues.

First, the book reading time: reading in class or reading after class?

The essence of reading teaching is pluralistic dialogue. Teachers and students communicate each other's historical and cultural context, construct knowledge and form understanding in dialogues with texts, authors and each other. The basis of dialogue is effective participation, and only active preparation can guarantee the teaching effect. Therefore, reading teaching can not be separated from teachers' lesson preparation and students' preview. Only when both sides make preparations in advance can the dialogue process have "* * * the same language", resulting in ideological collision. Traditional text teaching, a text of several thousand words, is relatively easy for teachers and students to prepare, and can basically be completed in fragmented time. The thickness of the book is unparalleled, and the reading process is full of challenges. Not to mention novels like A Dream of Red Mansions, even novellas like The Old Man and the Sea have tens of thousands of words. Faced with a small number of words, it is equivalent to a unit, and more can be compared to a book or even a few textbooks. The primary problem teachers encounter is how to ensure reading time.

This problem can be divided into two aspects, one is how to ensure the teachers' own preview time, and the other is how to ensure the students' preview time. No matter how good a Chinese teacher is, he can't be familiar with all the classic works. Read it by heart, and with rich life experience, it is necessary to reread and read it carefully. It can be said that the objective contribution of reading the whole book to Chinese education is to "force" Chinese teachers who don't study to read and encourage Chinese teachers who love reading to reread. Long-term and in-depth professional reading requires teachers' own efforts, and it also provides protection at the management level. Let's leave it here. It's just that the time for students to read in advance is tricky: reading in class is reluctant to "attend class"; Reading after class, the cycle is too long, and the quality is difficult to guarantee. In order to complete the teaching task, some teachers don't give students enough time before reading, but practice reading by speaking. Some teachers "mix" the whole book teaching with the text teaching in order to ensure the teaching progress. Some teachers are busy urging students to read fast, which ruined their reading appetite.

After all, all kinds of short-term situations come from the worship of efficiency and the complex of seeking perfection and seeking more. Efficiency and knowledge are very important to teaching activities, but ultimately they should serve quality and effect. Reading the whole book needs to update ideas, innovative ideas and innovative methods. First of all, we should move from "class view" to "curriculum view", and dare to create an independent, complete and undisturbed curriculum cycle in daily teaching, so that students can immerse themselves in books in class and after class, concentrate on reading, concentrate on reading and read repeatedly, and use time to ensure the depth of learning. Secondly, in the course cycle, according to students' interests, abilities and teaching purposes, the reading time is planned as a whole. It is necessary to spare time for students to read silently, handle the overall rhythm, decompose the content in a planned way, and ensure classroom participation and dialogue quality. Third, select typical bibliographies, focus on key contents, and ensure teaching time by reducing the number. Not all books need to be included in the teaching field of vision, and not every book needs to be read and taught. Taking the Analects of Confucius, Scream and other classics that can stand the test of history and benefit students for life as examples, teaching them according to their needs can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Second, the goal of reading the whole book: to "read" or "read"

Some teachers think that students neither read nor like reading. Therefore, don't say "read" the whole book, but do everything possible to "coax" students to read it. It should be said that this idea reflects the realistic predicament and embarrassing situation of education in China, and it is also an objective fact that students' reading volume and interest are generally low. However, reading is related to the lifelong development of teenagers. Mother tongue teaching should not stick to the rules, but should have the feelings of climbing high and looking far and the courage to face difficulties. It is far from enough to take "reading" as the teaching goal, but more emphasis should be placed on "reading" and "reading thoroughly".

As far as the four classic novels are concerned, what is "reading"? "Reading" is the superficial memory of fragmented knowledge. Knowing that Guan Yu is lying on his back, riding a red hare, carrying dragon sword, going through five customs and beheading six generals, etc., is all for knowledge. Born less than Ma Chao, he fought hard with Lu Bu and lost Jingzhou, which led to the defeat of Yiling. Why did later generations call him a warrior? I can't tell you why. "Reading" is a vague experience. The hard rocks on the green ridge peak of the barren hills and cliffs turned into psychic Baoyu and took a trip in the warm and rich countryside-Cao Xueqin's narrative of myth seems to have profound meaning. But what is the relationship between psychic Baoyu and Jia Baoyu, what role is it in the book, and what is the significance to the theme? Then I don't know. "Reading" is a joke after dinner. Tota Heavenly King was called Classical, Lin Chong was nicknamed Leopard Head, Pan Jinlian poisoned Wu Dalang, and Rudi Muay Thai hit the town of Kansai ... The stranger the plot, the heavier the taste and the deeper the memory. I talk to everyone with great interest, as if I were "learned". Why can Lin Chong, who seems timid, bear the title of "Leopard Head"? Why is King Tota not among the highest stars? These questions are too lazy to delve into.

There is nothing wrong with "reading". Reading in leisure is beneficial, and reading is better than not reading at all. In Chinese teaching, "reading" is also the basis of "reading". Without knowledge and experience, how can we have a deep understanding? But "reading" and "reading" are different after all. It is no exaggeration to say that doing a good job in text analysis and achieving the purpose of "reading" is the key to Chinese teaching and the core value of Chinese teachers. Of course, what "reading" means is a mystery in itself. For literary and cultural works, "reading" is even more ambiguous. At present, the general idea in academic circles is that reading is not to obtain some conclusive knowledge and form standardized answers, and it is not to fall into the quagmire of reductionism. It is necessary to examine the author's original creative material and motivation. Whether to "read" or not depends on whether the reader can establish his own "explanatory understanding" of the text and say it with self-consistent logic. Therefore, "reading" is implicit in careful thinking and explicit in fluent words. The whole book teaching with the goal of "reading" is conducive to cultivating the thinking quality by relying on the classic thick soil, and is also conducive to training the language expression ability simultaneously, so that students are rich in knowledge, extraordinary in knowledge and acceptable in words. ?

Third, the design of the whole book reading: micro or macro?

Text teaching pays attention to "micro-design". Teachers focus on the details of the text in order to reach a point of view, and then pass on their cognitive results and cognitive logic to students through lectures, questions, tasks or discussions. The direct result of this design is the well-known "teaching plan". In the teaching plan, the teaching viewpoint tends to be "correct answer", and the teaching process has a strong "manipulation" color. Although teachers can be prepared, the classroom can be orderly and students can be rewarded, it is easy to lead teachers to prepare lessons too much, the classroom order is strict and students are rewarded rigidly. Some teachers apply this practice to the whole book teaching, which hinders free expression and ideological confrontation from beginning to end. Reading a book, the whole class * * * studies a limited number of questions, prepares standard answers to each question, and tries every means to guide students to say it, even knowing the connection. This is called "old wine in new bottles", which turns teaching texts into writing. Some teachers realize that reading the whole book requires a relaxed and open design, and simply give up the presupposition, pick up the book and study everything and encourage all opinions. This kind of "nonsense" and "nonsense" practice, from one extreme to the other, is not worth promoting.

Zhuangzi's "Happy Travel" has a cloud, a little knowledge is not as good as a big one, and a small year is not as good as a big one-there is a difference between small and big. If we see that the "whole book" is bigger than the "chapter" and have the courage to spend a lot of time studying it, our design should also be more "atmospheric", from micro-teaching design to macro-curriculum design, from focusing on teaching plans to focusing on curriculum plans. The formulation of curriculum plan should consider the students' ability level and the characteristics of the books taught. In the same two months, The Analects of Confucius and Ancient Chinese were selected in the body, Historical Records in the classical style and New Stories in the vernacular style, and the design concepts and methods of Thunderstorm by Cao Yu and Hamlet by Shakespeare were inevitably different. An excellent teacher is the seed of reading first, and he knows well the soul and temperament of famous books; At the same time, he must be an expert in education and be able to gain insight into students' cognitive laws. Time, books and students, like three silk threads, are woven into a brilliant blueprint in the hands of teachers, leading the teaching practice to unfold leisurely and easily, which is the realm that the whole book curriculum plan should pursue.

Of course, "grasping the big and letting the small go" emphasizes that teachers should take a long-term view, not just focus on the right and wrong words. Caring about the gains and losses of one city and one pool does not mean denying the preparation before classroom teaching. When preparing lessons from the perspective of the whole book, we should pay attention to the improvement of our own learning and the ability to be flexible. The teacher should read the book thoroughly, understand the students' interests and difficult problems, firmly lock the position of this class in the plan, and know the goals to be achieved by this class, which is enough. As for the teaching process, it can be any starting point, any end point and any path. In this class, teachers seem unprepared, but in fact they are prepared, disorderly, but orderly. Students can find valuable ideas and generate useful knowledge from real conversations, and can enhance their interest in reading and understand the methods and principles of reading and writing in unrestrained discussions. Why do teachers have to "think hard and be a teacher?"

Fourth, the implementation of the whole book reading: by explanation or by activity?

When entering the teaching field, teachers should also deal with the relationship between explanation and activities. Teachers with solid learning and strong expressive ability can never resist the impulse to tell books; Some teachers rely too much on students' activities. There is no difference between the two teaching methods, but from the perspective of literacy development, the combination effect is better.

Teachers should analyze and explain the key points and difficulties of their works in an outline, but they should pay attention to avoid "narcissism" regardless of students' reality. Putting students' speeches ahead, patiently listening to students' opinions, not giving their own answers easily, and attracting students' attention by evaluating students' speeches may be a reference method. Similarly, we might as well expand teaching resources and enrich activities, but we should always adhere to static activities such as text analysis, literature reading, question inquiry and thesis writing. Especially in the middle school stage, under the banner of reading, singing, dancing, watching movies, watching plays, giving speeches, debating, visiting, inspecting, visiting and other energetic activities are carried out without restraint, which is easy to weaken students' thinking and encourage impetuous style of study. It should be emphasized that the teacher's explanation is not only in class, but also in personalized guidance after class. Reading itself has the characteristics of "personalization" and "personalization". Under the class teaching system, teachers must pay attention to the specific problems of each student, make a diagnosis and prescribe a "prescription". Student activities are not only between teachers and students. Teachers should try their best to promote students to share experiences, exchange ideas and solve problems together, so that cooperative learning can really happen.

The teaching process of the whole book is complicated and changeable. When to speak and do activities, what to say properly and what to do effectively depend on teachers' theoretical literacy and intuitive experience, which come from teachers' continuous learning and repeated practice. Some teachers who have just been engaged in teaching the whole book like to ask "what should I do?" They might as well do it first.

Fifth, the evaluation of the whole book reading: result or process?

At present, many schools regard the college entrance examination and the college entrance examination as the only evaluation criteria for reading the whole book, equate reading ability with exam-taking ability, and position the teaching purpose entirely on improving grades. Similar ideas and practices do not meet the requirements of policy documents such as curriculum standards, and also misunderstand the purpose of academic evaluation. Paper-and-pencil test is a final and selective evaluation, which lags behind the learning process and is not designed to improve and promote learning. Relying entirely on examination evaluation will dim the understanding and efforts in the reading process, and the hidden goals such as emotion, attitude and values will be exhausted, which will make students struggle in rote memorization and repeated practice, completely lose the proper meaning of reading the whole book, and increase the burden on teachers and students for no reason. To this end, many teachers strongly advocate process and performance evaluation, such as "reading grows with me" as the purpose, encouraging students to read books of interest extensively, patiently and meticulously recording students' reading and growth, encouraging students to continue reading in a way similar to "fitness punching", and promoting the sharing of experience between teachers and students through regular "reading salons". These practices are worth popularizing because of their educational significance, but they are also difficult to sustain because they do not adapt to the fierce examination competition.

Objectively speaking, the demand for taking the exam is reasonable, and teachers insist on value judgment. It may be more feasible to give consideration to both the process and the result, so that students' grades can be obtained from the development of literacy and the development of students' literacy can meet the challenge of the exam. First, include reading habits in the evaluation. The most important two points are: first, consciously repeat the reading content; Second, read and annotate, and record your reading findings. The former is conducive to mastering knowledge and improving memory and expression ability; The latter is conducive to inspiring and cultivating the ability to find problems. Secondly, pay attention to the evaluation of writing achievement. Appropriately arrange writing tasks such as paper imitation and appreciation, and comment on topics, ideas, structure, materials and language to improve students' writing level. Third, to encourage students to evaluate themselves and each other, we might as well introduce the content of paper-and-pencil test, so that students can set their own questions, test and evaluate each other. The above evaluation focuses on the "intersection" of exam-taking and literacy, and unifies students' short-term needs with the key ability of lifelong reading, which is a "two-pronged" strategy.

(This article is authorized by the author, and the title is added by this number. The original title is "Urgent Affairs: Grasping the Scale of Reading the Whole Book". )

About the author: Li Yuhui, senior Chinese teacher in the Second Affiliated Middle School of Beijing Normal University, Ph.D. in Beijing Normal University, a backbone Chinese teacher in Beijing, a member of the research group on the revision of Chinese Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools, and the leader of the curriculum reform of liberal arts experimental classes in ordinary senior high schools. He is the author of "Practical Exploration of Cultivating High-quality Liberal Arts Talents" and "A Reader of Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture".