The End

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     When I read the last chapter of the book I was very happy when I saw that they agreed with what I said in my last blog post.  For those of you that didn't read it, I said that as teachers we must understand that there are different types of reading that all need to be taught how to read all of them.  I was happy that there was an emphasis on this concept.
     When this chapter said that students tend to think that reading is a natural gift; either you get reading or you don't, I felt that this was something that I went through as a student.  When I was little my younger brother was a few grade levels ahead in reading, while I was at grade level. This made me self conscious and I didn't really like to read.  I had gotten to a point where I didn't want to read because I knew that I wasn't as good as he was and it seemed hopeless to try.  To this day I don't read much other than what I need to read.  I want to, but I just get frustrated when I see how much slower I read than other people.  I think it would have been helpful if I had been helped to develop better reading skills rather than just being told that reading would help me, I may have been able to gain more motivation to read on my own.  Also, teaching students how to read all the different types of text it important because if a student finds that they enjoy a certain type of writing like academic articles in science, that they wouldn't have encountered in English class.  So that may help them to become a reader on their own.  Therefore, anywhere a student can be taught how to read will open doors for them and their learning potential.

Chapter 11

 

     So reading this chapter was one of those that seemed like it should be common sense, but isn't.  I think that it was at least.  I am a person that may take more time than others to read what we are expected to read, but I am a decent reader.  There was this time in middle school that we had a substitute in our literacy class and three of us were chosen by the regular teach to read the book aloud to the other students in our class.  We would read two pages at a time and then the next person in the rotation would read.  Well I was taking too long in my class mate's  opinion, so she cut me off after I was done with one page.  Well you can imagine how self conscious that made me feel.  So, to me it makes sense that a lot of behavior problems would start with people's difficulty with reading.  This skill is something that we take for granted and when we see when someone slips up, it can be so easy for peers to point it out.  Being able to read is a skills that umbrellas many different subgroups.  The different types of text that we all read is so vast that it can be forgotten that people can be good at reading somethings, and have difficulty with reading other types of text.  Then when we have difficulty with one thing, we don't want to admit it, so to avoid being vulnerable, people act out.

     So we want to avoid those issues, obviously.  So we should be teaching the students how to read the types of material that will be read in our class before expecting a student to read something out loud.  In every subject we focus around knowing that the students should be able to read.  Where, maybe we shouldn't be.  For some we should   breakdown everything for them, and the other students who may not need that lesson, would still benefit from it being taught.  So I think it is important to demonstrate to the students how to read math articles and how to read word problems.  I would think this could be done while demonstrating how to do the problems, in the actual lesson.  I think that teaching the students how to read is something that can be quickly taught, and can make the year much more successful.