Cheryl De Roia
Reading Reflection 6/25
Subjects Matter- Every Teacher’s Guide to Content-Area Reading by Harvey Daniels and Steven Zemelman
Chapter 7-9 (pages 166-215)
Reading
Yesterday when I sat down to read these chapters, I was already exhausted and could not concentrate. I skimmed and thought to myself that since I wouldn’t be able to use a book group (club) in my classroom until later in the room I didn’t need to fully read the chapter. However, after some sleep and some much needed nutrition, I found myself enjoying these chapters and learning just as much as I had from previous chapters.
Chapter 8 is one in which I will use to plan my unit for this class. It is about creating lifelong readers and independent reading workshops. According to the text, lifelong readers engage in reading through personal choice. In other words, “Reading flows from intrinsic motivation (curiosity, wonder, pleasure, etc.), and is not driven by external rewards or punishments” (184). The authors argue that to have these lifelong readers, which many of us in this class are, we need to be giving students independent reading time in every class, everyday. No exceptions. Sure that seems almost impossible given all we have to cover but, as shown in the text, the workshops can range from very short articles to longer ones that would take up a class hr. The strategies given are a must use, and I can’t wait to determine the standard I want to use to pick articles and practice with workshops.
I know it takes time to find many texts at many levels covering the same broad topic but it is worth all of the effort if you keep this quote in mind, “…If it’s just one article, only a few people talk…” (186). There is little that bothers me more than having a socratic seminar where only a few people talk.
Chapter 7 talks about building a community of learners. It begins by quoting research on how test scores improve for students in a classroom with high “social support.” Then it continues to talk about creating a great supportive classroom environment.
Chapter 9 covered book groups, book clubs, and the most important part that came from this chapter is that books should be read as homework; yes, I said homework; and that the reading should be quick. Books should not be drawn out over months but rather only a few weeks.
**Just a side note, even though I was exhausted yesterday and frustrated at the amount of time I feel I will have to spend to complete the work for this class, I feel that I am already becoming a better teacher. That in large part, I owe to such a wonderful book.
Reading strategies
The first strategy I used was to stop reading when I realized I was not actually reading the text. I decided to come back to it another day when I would be able to concentrate.
Today I became frustrated with the pounding above my head and had to re-read sentences many times. I skipped over a chemistry section because never took it and I determined it wasn’t critical to my learning about workshops. I also coded the text to use with my group in our protocol. This I found to be helpful, though I might change around some of the coding. I also wrote myself a “cheat sheet sticky note” with the coding symbols and meaning as a quick reference to what I should be doing with the text. I liked the sticky note and since often, we can’t write in our school books, I think I will create sticky notes (using a word program) that are coded so all the kids have to do is pull off the sticky note with the code they want to use and stick it in the margin.
Group Protocol- Coding
I enjoyed coding, and it made it easy to go back over the text and quickly determine the important parts, either because I learned something knew or because I wasn’t sure of a comment. As far as a group protocol, it worked and was nice because we didn’t have to write anything before coming together as a group to talk. I can see this working better with a smaller text rather and three long chapters.
I really like that you are so reflective on your own reading process. Clearly, that ability helps you in being the incredibly patient and empathetic teacher you are. I wish you would have shared how you could use some of these strategies with your kids, because I really need to learn how to differentiate for lower readers and there is nobody better to learn from than you!
ReplyDeleteI liked your honesty in this section. I think about when we are tired and not focusing on our reading we take a break and come back to it when we are ready. When my kids are tired and not focusing I don't really give them that option. Perhaps because they might never return to the the reading :) but it does make me think from a student's perspective. I wish you had written more about socratic seminar and what you do to promote an active discussion.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you stopped reading when you realized you were not getting anything out of it. So often we push our kids to keep working, get back on task; maybe we need to ask them to take a break, get some water, walk around a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your honesty at the beginning of your post. Rather than give in and only skim the text, you were able to push forward and read the text-and look at what you learned! I think this is a valuable lesson to share with our students.
ReplyDeleteI wish you had included one way you might incorporate independent reading in your classroom.