My Reader's Profile
Identities
There are four main categories within my Reader’s Profile. These are referred to as my Identities: they include Nature, Positions, Traits, and Associations (Buehl, 2011, p.3).
Nature: I am a White Caucasian American, an adult male, and the oldest of all of my brothers and sisters on both sides of the family.
Positions: I am a intentional follower of Jesus Christ, a Christian, a Pastor, a teacher and a student. I am a Public School Visual Art Educator, college graduate, and a student. I am a male, a husband, a father, and soon to be grandparent. I am an Artist, a designer, and a creator.
Traits: I am a hard worker, a man of integrity who lives out his faith. I am compassionate, a good listener, and always willing to give a helping hand. I see people when others would turn a blind eye. I am a peacemaker and I build others up through my words and actions.
Associations: I am a intentional follower of Jesus Christ, a Christian, a teacher and a student. I am a local pastor, a church member, a child in the family of God. I am a graduate of East Carolina University, and former student of Southern Methodist University and Duke’s Divinity School.
My Reader's Profile
What, When, Where, How, and Why
My reader’s profile is represented by five questions; What, When, Where, How, & Why (Buehl, 2011, p.2).
What Do I Read:
I read a lot of different stuff. I will read my Bible, an article on basketball, the newest archeology dig, the 100 emails that just popped up on my computer, or the papers that need to be graded. However, as I reflect and look through the many books that I have read, those book I have keep, I tend to stay within the Humanities, more specifically in Art and Religion.
What I noticed was that for thirty years, I have been an avid reader on those materials focused on my walk and relationship with Jesus Christ and what it means to live out my faith.
I also read anything that was related to art. I love seeing and reading about what people are creating, what trends are happening, learning new techniques or even books on how to build something. Art inspires me and feeds into my creativity and I love a good story which is probably why I also have lots of comics, and graphic novels.
When Do I Read:
I don’t really have a favorite time. I just love to read. In the morning you can find me reading in my car before work, or during my planning period where I might read a few chapters in a book. You could also find me reading in my lazy boy chair and reading until I get tired enough to go to bed.
Where Do I Read:
I am never really concerned about where I read because I am always reading something. When I was a pastor, my favorite place would be on the steps of the alter. I could just sit, pray, talk to God and read my Bible. I also found taking a few minutes before school, before working through my hundreds of things on my to do list was great time to be focused as it had my undivided attention.
How Do I Read:
I will use my phone, laptop, and IPad to read my emails, texts messages, social media, reviews, and a variety of articles about religion, art, archeology, movies and sports. However, nothing can really replace the feel of a book in my hands. When choosing between something digital or printed, I will always choose print. I have tons of books because there is
just something special about turning a page, the feel and smell, and then actually having this book, this work of art in
my hands.
Why Do I Read:
I love to read. I am a lifelong learner and I want to know all I can so I can be the best I can. It helps me grow, expands my knowledge and flexes my brains. Basically, I believe if I want to be better at something then I have to study it and practice it. I also read for enjoyment it. Our minds have the capability to imagine, create, and dream up almost anything and then we artist try to bring those thoughts, ideas, imagination to life.
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My Reader's Profile
Texts
My reader’s profile is also reflected by two categories of text that I read; Choice Text and Obligated Text. Choice Texts are those that I prefer to read and Obligated Texts are those that I felt that I needed to read or someone told me to read (Buehl, 2011, p.5).
Choice Texts:
My Choice Texts tend to go under the Humanities (Religion and Art).
I seem to read things about my faith and some sort of art related material. For instance, I love reading my Bible and then trying to understand and apply God’s wisdom to my life. What better place to look for guidance than from the one who created me with a purpose. So, in addition to my Bible, I have read many other books that I have used as resources to help me understand what the Bible is saying, what being a follower of Jesus looks like, and how to apply it to my life. I also love to read about an artist or how to paint, draw, design or some sort of inspiration like a comic, graphic novel, hero or an adventure like Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars or even Percy Jackson.
My Obligated Texts (Those I Choose to Read):
When it comes to Obligated Texts and those I felt I had to read, these tend to follow more of my career path.
As a Designer, I studied my trade. I followed trends, best practices, and looked at other design work to help me become the best designer I could be. Clients were paying me to do amazing work, so I studied the art of design, which included fonts, graphics, color theory, printing techniques, paper, and production. I also read and studied the programs, the psychology behind advertising, and learned how marketing works. I wanted my clients to succeed which in turn would make the agency succeed as well.
As a Pastor, I read books on scripture, leadership, church practices, small group development, missional focus ministries, counseling, and how to become a better speaker. I wanted to be a great Pastor and even though I felt obligated to read these, I believe these were so important in the position I was in. I was leading God’s people and I needed to have the right wisdom and knowledge to do so. I wanted to help the congregation to grow in their own faith, and I would support them as they became intentional followers of Jesus and not just fans.
As a Teacher, I am currently reading books on how to become a great educator, how to engage students, implementing expectation and managing classroom behavior. Again these are obligated text that I have placed on myself because I want to be the best teacher I can.
My Obligated Texts (Those I Was Told to Read):
The majority of my Obligated Texts, those I have had to read have been those required by my professors while I have been in school.
In College, I was required to read and study lots of different things that prepared me for a career in Design. They expanded my understanding and made me a better artists. I needed that push from my professors. It helped me to become a great artist, a great designer but it also motivated me in doing my best. It taught me that if I want to be great at anything then it takes a lifetime of learning, reading, expanding what I know to become who I want to be.
As a Pastor, I have taken a lot of classes in order to get my license to become a pastor. I have had to read church history, piety, administration, counseling, pastoral care, and lots of books on biblical studies. Now, I wouldn’t say they were bad by any means, these were picked by professors to help me become the best possible pastor. They challenged my thinking, expanded my understanding and these readings were hugely beneficial in developing the wisdom I needed to lead, preach and do ministry. These obligated texts taught me how to do ministry, so I can be the best possible pastor I could be.
Now, as a Teacher, I am in school once again, reading and learning to be the best possible educator.
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My Reader's Profile
Reflection
How Confident am I as a Disciplinary Reader?
Graph of My Competency Level as a Disciplinary Reader (Bruel, 2011, p.16).
Reflection:
My strengths are in the Humanities with my focus being Art and Religion. Here is where I feel the most confident and comfortable as a Disciplinary Reader.
What surprised me was that I also felt pretty confident in Literary Fiction and Health and Fitness. As I think about this, I believe these disciplines overlap. I love a great story but they tend to contain heroes. Sports has heroes and so does the type of literary fiction I enjoy reading and watching. The graph also demonstrates that my weakness tend to be biological science and technical readings. So, I guess I wouldn't be on Star Trek as a scientist or engineer but I would be the one telling the stories and passing these adventures down to others.
Tackling Other Disciplines:
Usually when tackling something I am not very comfortable with, I have to read and reread. This can be very challenging, and very slow process.
When I was taking a class on church history and having to read Confessions by St. Augustine, I kept falling asleep after reading one page. I was struggling reader according to Fisher and Frey (Fisher & Frey, 2018, p.3). I felt ignorant and I questioned myself wondering if I should be in school pursuing my licensed to preach. It was difficult but I continued to push forward and in the end it was worth it and I gained a huge appreciation for church history.
Now, my approach to difficult text is to give it a try. Yes, it might be difficult, it might not be something I prefer, but it has a lot to teach us if we are patient, have a teachable spirit and are willing to try.
I also realize that not everything is going to come easy, because it could be that I haven’t developed the strategies be successful in that discipline. If I just try, then I have just unlocked the door to the possibility of learning something new. In ministry, there is a lot of failure, disappointment, and frustration. What I have learned is that success grows out our failures. Why? Because in failure you learn, grow and change.
From my reading in Improving Adolescent Literacy, it has also shown me that while I thought I wasn’t a very good reader in one area, it doesn’t mean I am not a reader, because we all struggle in certain areas. We just are more comfortable and confident in those areas we have had experience in and we have been taught great strategies in that disciplinary literacy (Fisher & Frey, 2018, p.6). It’s our job to help our students develop those great strategies in our disciplines because we are experts, they are not.
So, I approach any reading with an openness to learn something new.
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My Reader's Profile
Impact in the Classroom
Where Can I Improve?
Knowing that I am reader and my area of expertise is in Art, helps me to re-think how I can become a better Educator.
I have had the training, the experience, and I have been given the tools to understand Art but my students don’t have those things. While I have a bag to pull from they have never been given any tools. It’s my job to help give them the tools to succeed.
The lens of Art is different from other areas, and is very broad but it’s my job to help my students to become better readers in my discipline. It’s my job to help them become confident and develop the correct strategies that are used in Art. They need to be able to communicate more effectively, develop an increasing vocabulary and become better disciplinary readers.
Using the example by Fisher and Frey, I believe I must develop the learning cycle in the classroom much like I tried to show with My Video. Starting with the background, it allows each student to understand the purpose, and that draws them in through the cycle. You then add visuals that get their attention, and add more information that they need to build a deeper understanding. In the end, the result is to hopefully gain knowledge but also to retain the information & apply it (Fisher & Frey, 2018, p.17).
In the case of my video, I gave the viewer background, and drew them in visually while taking about these large printers. Then I transitioned into some of the work I have created, and then into the things I have read.
At the end, I tied the bow back to my first statement creating the circle.
Now, how can I accomplish this similar learning cycle in the classroom? According to Fisher and Frey, it’s by using the Instructional Routines of Demonstration, Discrepant Events, Visual Displays, and Develop Thought-Provoking Questions (Fisher & Frey, 2018, p.18).
In ministry, they have similar practices that are just named differently. As a youth minister and pastor, we were taught how to engage students. We used hands-on activities, guest speakers, testimonies to reinforce lessons (Demonstrations). We used props, skits, and object lessons to support the message (Discrepant Events). We used graphics and videos to tie imagery to a point or idea (Visual Display). And then we developed small groups and gave leaders questions or handouts with questions to go deeper in their understanding of the message (Thought-Provoking Questions).
I realize they are different disciplines, different terms,
different models but they are very similar.
What I am encouraged and excited about from our reading is that I can use my experience in ministry to help me in the classroom because they are very similar, just titled differently. This means I can improve my class by bringing in some things that I already know how to do well. For example, creating a list of thought-provoking questions helps me to be able to scaffold ideas, thoughts, and lessons and that can be easily implemented.
How Can I Avoid Bias?
I should never assume my student know how to read and write well in art. In fact, I should never assume anything, I must teach them how. They should never be expect to know something they have never been taught. It’s my job as the educator to teach what they need to know. I am the expert, I need to teach them my discipline and show then how it also connects to the other disciplines. I must teach them how to write about art, how understand art, how to read art, and how to communicate art. That’s my job.
What Can I Learn My Reader’s Profile?
Knowing myself, and knowing my struggles in reading in certain areas will help me to have a better understand of how to teach to those that struggle in Art as well. I need to remind myself to constantly reflect and work toward a scaffolding approach to learning.
My Reading Profile helps me to understand that we all have
certain areas we excel at and those that we struggle with.
My Reader’s Profile reinforces my expertise and helps me to see with the correct lens in my own class, and see that my students cannot be expected to know how to do something, that I must teach it. It’s also a reminder that I must develop a system that engages students as we practice the disciplinary literacy of Art together.
How Can I Support Students?
We all have different weakness and strengths in reading and not all students are visual learners. I need to remember to have a variety of strategies when teaching art because no two students learn the same way. My job as an educator is to help them develop those strategies and to be more comfortable in Reading Art as a discipline.
One of the things that I really want to try is the K-W-L Model as an assessment tool (Fisher & Frey, 2018, p.30). This would help me to see what they have learned but also give them encouragement to see progress as they learn about different artists in Art. In fact, this model could be revamped to include anything I want students to learn in Art.
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References
Buehl, D. (2011). Chapter 1/Mentoring Students in Disciplinary Literacy.
In Developing Readers in the Academic Disciplines (pp. 1–30). International
Reading Association.
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2018). Improving Adolescent Literacy: Content Area
Strategies at Work (5th ed.). Pearson.
All sample work used in video was from my personal portfolio. Some imagery was photographed and recorded by Tim Ford. All books used in this work was purchased, read and owned my Tim Ford. Some imagery and music was purchased through Shutterstock.com and has been licensed to be used on website and in video. Video was created and edited in Apple IMovie by Tim Ford. Website was created and designed by Tim Ford. @2024 Tim Ford. All Rights Reserved.