Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Chapters 3 and 4

(Page 25) “…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.”
I think as we all read this book, we’re beginning to realize that we read different texts in different ways, and it would be impossible for an English teacher to teach a student how to read all of the texts that are out there. How I read a YA novel is definitely not the same way I read the directions of how to put something together. Reading a word problem requires different skills than reading and interpreting a graph. It’s often forgotten that English teachers have their own content (language and literature), and they’re no more trained to teach reading than any other content area teacher. Every class requires some type of reading; as teachers we have to determine what students need to be able to read to be successful in our classes and how we are going to teach them to read that material.

(Page 40) “I also need to remember what it feels like to read something for the first time.”
We teach in our content areas because we enjoy the content itself; texts related to it are generally enjoyable for us and fairly easy to read. We just need to remind ourselves that our students don’t always have that same ease and can have difficulty when we they first read something. Last night I took a sewing class and completely felt like one of my struggling students. Actually, my first struggle came over the weekend when my mother tried to teach me how to thread and use her sewing machine. She told me to make sure I had the directions out and to just follow them. Sure, that’s easy…as long as you understand the parts of the machine and the vocabulary in the text. Bobbin? I thought that was something you did with apples at Halloween! My mother tried to walk me through it, but I was just so overwhelmed…I knew I had made a mistake signing up for the class. Mom would show me the directions in the book, show me how to do it on the machine then she’d let me try it myself. I was getting so frustrated because it was really difficult for me but so easy for my mom. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to do this again on Tuesday for my class. I told my mom I was slow and that they were going to have to have a remedial class for me. She assured me that after I do it a few times, it will be much easier and I’ll get the hang of it. Of course, I didn’t believe her.

When I got to class last night and it was time to thread my machine, I did what any other struggling student would do—I relied heavily on the teacher’s help. I actually had her do it and just watched…I didn’t want to look stupid in front of everyone else doing it myself. Since every machine is different, the instructor read the directions; but she put the thread on with such ease that it amazed me. As she was threading, I did remember parts of it, and thought my mother is right—if I keep on practicing, I think I will get better. And the same is true of our students reading our content. At first some things are going to be really hard for them; they’re going to want to give up and rely on us as teachers. We need to make sure that we give them the guidance (and time) they need to master the reading, so they can be successful when there’s no one around for assistance. Maybe in a few months I’ll be able to thread the sewing machine as quickly as my mother and the class instructor!

Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Chapters 1 and 2

Tovani makes some awesome points in the first two chapters. I’ll just choose a couple of quotes that really stuck out to me and reflect on them.

(Page 5) “One critical concept embraced by both researchers and literacy specialists is that learning to read doesn’t end in the elementary grades. Reading becomes more complex as students move into middle and high grades, and teachers need to help students understand difficult text.”
It’s so easy to think that since kids were taught the fundamentals of reading in elementary school, they should know how to read by the time they finish fourth grade. After that they just need to learn new vocabulary, right?!? Ugh! It amazes me that I used to think that by the time kids got to high school that as long as they could say the words they would understand what they were reading. It’s so much more complex than that. I should have known from my own experience with trying to read tax documents and car manuals that reading is not always easy…even as an adult. South Carolina has really raised the bar—our kids have to tackle some really tough text to get through our standards. There’s no way that one discipline can possibly teach how to read all the different types of text out there. May I be hokey for a minute?!? (Too bad if you said no!) With apologies to Hilary Clinton…”It takes an entire school to raise a reader.”

(Page 12) “It wasn’t their fault that they were making stupid connections. It was mine, because I hadn’t showed them how a meaningful connection could deepen their understanding of text.”
In response to this one, I’ll have to borrow a quote Allison Norwood, whom many of you know, said a couple of weeks ago: “An activity has no purpose. A strategy has a purpose.” Oftentimes we get caught up in having students do something but don’t stop to think if they’re actually learning from it. I think when Tovani started out with the sticky notes, it was just an activity…it gave the kids something different to do. But when she took it a step further and had them elaborate on it, it became a strategy. The students were then able to deepen their thinking. Maybe we should pause before our next assignment and ask ourselves, “Is this an activity or a strategy?”