Chapters Three and Four

I can't wait to hear what you all have to say about these two chapters.

"The problem is that if language arts and English teachers are the only ones teaching reading, students aren't going to learn how to read different types of texts." p.25
This is exactly what I kept thinking about when we were looking at the new HSAP release items in the faculty meeting on March 15. All of those test questions were under the ELA portion of the test, yet they are not necessarily the type things I would ever cover in an English class. I'm sure you could tell I was nervous about the bar-code release item.

I do "Mental Modeling" p. 27 with my reading and my writing in my classes. I'll have to be honest, it was hard at first; I felt kind of silly saying my thoughts out loud, but it works. It really helps my students. It helped them see that reading isn't a "mindless" word calling activity. I identified with the girl who was almost finished with Frankenstein but did not have a clue what she had read. I will be interested in seeing how this works other content areas. If you try it, let me know how it works.

The "Real Rigor" section of Chapter 4 certianly made me question myself and what I may be putting some of my poorer readers through.
"...some teachers might be confusing rigor with unrealistic expectations. Is it rigor to assign a tough textbook chapter when no one in the class can understand it?" p. 40
"When students are always given text that is too hard for them to read on their own, they begin to associate school reading with reading that is pointless." p. 41
The state has just recently invested quite a huge amount of money and time developing modules for English I and English II which have texts sets in them. I am involved in the development of the English II curriculum. Come by my room and take a look at some of the cool text sets. I wish we had an unlimited supply of money to develop text sets in social studies and science.

Of course there is plenty more I could comment on in these two chapters, but I prefer to hear what you all have to say.

**If you have a chance, check out the article Emma put a link to in the previous blog. It addresses the problem of secondary and middle school students who are poor readers. The schools took drastic measures. Gee, I wonder what Cris Tovani thinks about their solution...

Chapters One and Two

Tovani makes so much sense.
Here are a few quotes that really resounded with me as a secondary teacher:
“…learning to read doesn’t end in the elementary grades. Reading becomes more complex as students move into middle and high school, and teachers need to help students understand difficult text.”(p.5)
I have heard so many times, “they need to know how to read before they get to high school”, while this is true, isn’t it also true that the older students get, what we ask them to read also becomes more difficult?

I have never thought about what I do as a “good reader”. I know I will be able to use the “fix-up strategies” (p. 6) with my struggling readers.

“It wasn’t their fault that they were making stupid connections. It was mine, because I hadn’t shown them how a meaningful connection could deepen their understanding of the text.” (p. 12)
I see that Tovani is reflective about her teaching. There are many times when I need to just calm down, sit back, and really think about why my students are responding the way they are to my content.
I love the “What Works” questions and “teaching points” on pages 20 and 21.

Welcome to B-C's Cyber Book Club!

I am so glad you decided to join us. I think we will learn a lot together as we read Tovani's book.