Rationale for Adolescent Literacy
Overall, this chapter provided a rationale for specific content-area reading strategies. Many teachers have noticed a decrease in the comprehension reading levels of most American students and tried to figure out why this is. Bean, Baldwin and Readence believe, "Diverse and complex issues such as social equity, bilingual education, and formulas for funding public schools combine to make universal literacy one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century." Our world has gone through so many advances, some of which help students learn but others making this process of reading to learn more difficult. "Learning to read is the main focus of primary school education; reading to learn is its logical extension and must be the responsibility of middle and secondary school teachers." This chapter primarily focuses on the difference between these two abilities and offers secondary teachers many suggestions on how to successfully teach their students how to read to learn!
2. What does this chapter tell you about teaching students?
I believe the most important thing this chapter reminded me about teaching students was that, "It is not true that students will automatically modify elementary reading reading skills to suit subject-matter reading demands." Learning to read and reading to learn are most definitely different concepts and even though students gain the ability to learn in elementary schools, teachers have to remember that their students have not been taught how to read to learn and may not truly understand how to read to interpret a textbook. "Good teachers know how to tailor the message, activate prior knowledge, focus students' attention and monitor comprehension by checking to see if students understand important parts of a text presentation." It is our job as secondary teachers to teach our students the skills of reading to learn and if we use these four, crucial suggestions in the classroom, our students will gain this ability and many more!
3. Can this chapter be applied in your content area?
Although this chapter didn't focus specifically on strategies for teachers to use in a mathematics classroom, I believe the suggestions the authors gave for good teachers to have are definitely relevant in my content area. As I am teaching I have to tailor my message by adapting the presentation of my lesson to the needs of all of my students. I was immediately able to claim which of my students were going to need more help and whom learned better visually than verbally, allowing me to adapt the way I presented the material. I definitely also try to activate my students' prior knowledge to remind them that what we learned yesterday can help us gain mastery of what we will learn today, which also helps them focus their attention towards the material. Most importantly it is so crucial to make sure all of my students are on the same page as I am and really understand the material. I never want to move on to the next topic until I know everyone has mastered the current topic, which is why I always ask for their feedback and walk around the room to get a glance at their notes and work to look for any mistakes that should be clarified! All of these techniques will help students read to learn any day!
Jenna,
ReplyDeleteI agree that teaching how to read to learn is something secondary and even post-secondary teachers/professors have to do no matter what your subject area is. I remember reading my first scientific article was a challenge and I found it very useful when our professor actually walked us through the strategies for reading those papers!
I like that you're already using the four suggestions in the chapter during your everyday instruction (not just reading instruction)! Knowing students' learning styles is a good way to tailor messages! Making connections to previous learning and monitoring comprehension are definitely good practices too!