(Page 121) “I think most of us became teachers because we love our content so much…We love this content so much, we’ve dedicated the better part of our lives teaching it to others. I don’t see how we can be teachers of this content without spending at least some of our time with students helping them learn how to read about it.”
I think this statement from Tovani pretty much sums up why, if we really love our content area, we need to teach kids to read in our classrooms. Tovani makes it clear that it is impossible for the English teacher to teach students how to read everything…content area teachers are the expert readers in their subject areas. I really enjoyed this book because it is easy to read and has so many practical strategies that are fairly easy to implement.
I’ve really enjoyed reading your comments on this blog. Thank you for your thoughtfulness in your responses. As your write your last post, please give me some feedback on how the book has impacted your classroom or approach to teaching as well as your thoughts on the blog itself. Is this something you’re interested in doing again? What did you like about it? How do you think it could be made better?
I think this statement from Tovani pretty much sums up why, if we really love our content area, we need to teach kids to read in our classrooms. Tovani makes it clear that it is impossible for the English teacher to teach students how to read everything…content area teachers are the expert readers in their subject areas. I really enjoyed this book because it is easy to read and has so many practical strategies that are fairly easy to implement.
I’ve really enjoyed reading your comments on this blog. Thank you for your thoughtfulness in your responses. As your write your last post, please give me some feedback on how the book has impacted your classroom or approach to teaching as well as your thoughts on the blog itself. Is this something you’re interested in doing again? What did you like about it? How do you think it could be made better?
I hope this was a rewarding experience for you!
3 comments:
Wow! What a great book!! The very last chapter had a quote that hit close to home. Page 121 “One wizened veteran told me my first year that if I was going to be a truly great teacher, I would never be satisfied. No matter how confident or experienced I became, I would never be happy. She shook her head as she said, ‘Sadly, the good ones are always searching for better ways to teach children.’ …”
Just recently I thought to myself how much better I could have done this year and how I pray that I can be as good as everyone thinks I am. I am very glad to know that this “self doubt” is normal and, in a way, actually a good thing. Okay, really it was not true self doubt but I definitely thought on more than one occasion that I was not doing as good of a job as I could have done. Maybe I am confusing self doubt for not be satisfied…who knows. Either way, I made it through my first year and next year can only get easier (I hope!).
One thing that I really enjoyed about the book is the great suggestions and strategies Tovani discussed. I actually took a couple of strategies and have used them within my classroom within the last month. I used the Double-Entry, Double Strategy idea. As my classes read a novel they used the “Double-Entry Journal” to keep track of the connections they made as well as to respond to certain quotes were chosen from the book. It worked fairly well; it ended up being something that needed to be modeled then discussed and modeled again. (boy, that concept keeps coming up!!)
Diane, I really appreciate you taking the time to put all of this together. I feel that this opportunity has helped keep us “in the know” by giving us a reason to set aside time to read professional books. We may not set aside an abundance of time to read these books otherwise (sad but true, at least for me. I am still getting used to the whole teaching thing!). I would be more than willing to do this again! Thank you for everything you have done for us fellow “bloggers”.
Chapter 9 - p. 122 - "This book will help you in your teaching only if you trust yourself enough to listen to the voice inside your head that says, 'I do know what's important and worth my time, more than any published program or politician who hasn't been in a high school classroom since the day he graduated.'"
I love the quote, because I can relate to it so easily. I have learned so much in my first year back to high school since 1981. Teaching middle school for thirteen years didn't even begin to prepare me for this experience. I am excited about next year, because I already have a lot of things I want to change. There are so many strategies in this book that I can use with my Academic Support students to help them be more successful in their other classes, and I want to continue to implement these new ideas.
The poem on p. 120, "Did I Miss Anything," is a super poem to use in your classes. I was introduced to this poem a few years ago, and I have read it with a number of classes and used Tovani's strategy of chunking the text with it.
Diane, we should definitely continue with this blog next year. I enjoyed reading a professional book, and I absolutely loved reading the thoughts of other faculty members. I would also like to set up a blog in my classroom next year, so my students can have conversations about the books they are reading. I hope you will help me set one up in August.
Joy Gray used the summary technique last spring in teaching talented and gifted. She gave us articles, asked us to write main points, then look at others cards, come up with a summary. She included vocabulary words so students could look them up in the dictionary. Unfortunately with 32 students in the class, this didn't work.
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