This next chapter’s title is “Why Am I Reading This?” which
basically is a question that students usually ask themselves and teachers when
it comes to their reading assignments. The chapter focuses in the importance of
us as teachers looking for the best methods for teaching of our certain content
areas, having a good communication with our students regarding the purpose of
the reading, and providing them with useful information that will allow them to
comprehend and retain important information.
Tovani recommends teachers to “be selective about what kids
read. If everything in the text isn’t important or well written, don’t assign
it all…” (65), meaning that we need to be aware that sometimes children are
required to do reading that more than likely won’t serve any purpose for the
assignment they have to complete once they finish the reading. For this it is
also very important to inform our students what they should read for (the
purpose of their reading) so that they may have a better focus for their
reading. This partially answers the chapters opening title/question. It is a
motivation mechanism that tends to work for any type of reading. This way,
students feel that they aren’t simply handed something to read just because, or
that they need to memorize every single detail they read. “Clear instructional
purposes often give guidance for how the reader might hold her [/his] thinking…
[it] can greatly improve a reader’s comprehension, because the reader has an
indication of what to read for” (59), and for this to occur, teachers need to
have a well planned lesson for each reading assignment. As teachers we need to know
what it is that we want our students to know, therefore we must let them know
what is expected of them to understand from their readings. Once students know
the purpose for their reading, they can be advised to take notes, write down
questions and seek the answers within the reading, and if the answers can’t be
found they can certainly bring them into discussion with the rest of the class.
For the benefit of teachers and therefore their students,
Tovani suggests what she calls “instructional focus sheets” (55), which are
just a form of helping teachers focus in what it is that they seek to accomplish
in any given lesson and assignments. Even for teachers, it can be hard to stay
on track, there can be moments of concern that they aren’t either quite sure of
the purpose of their lessons, and Tovani demonstrates that it is ok to have
these moments, but it is of great need to have the ability to sit down and put
ourselves right on track. This is the purpose of those sheet; they consist of
the questions:
1)
“What is essential for students to know?”
2)
“What two places may cause students difficulty?”
3)
“What will you model that will help students
negotiate the difficult parts?”
4)
“What do they need to do with the information
they are reading?”
5)
“How will they hold their thinking while they
read?” (55)
the question, "Why am I reading this?" is a sentiment shared by all ages of students. I know with some texts in my pursuit of an advanced degree and manuals used at my work, I ask this very question. All I want to know is how this will serve the lesson or task that needs to be accomplished. This is really good information, since I have been placed in my dept. as the lead for various training. I work with several biologists and all they want are the facts.
ReplyDeleteI loved your questions at the end, especially "What do they need to do with the information they are reading?" My author calls this the "So What?" question. "Ok, so I've read this novel? Who cares? What's so important about it? Why did I need to read it?" Answering these questions is so important, because if a kid finds that there is no purpose behind the reading, the attitude becomes, "What's the point?"
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, I think it's also really important that if texts do contain grammatical/ spelling errors, students should be taught to recognize that this may just be the author's "voice" in the text. Perhaps the errors are made on purpose to establish a tone for the book. Maybe this isn't as relevant for teaching ESL, but one of my favorite English professors always said, "We learn the rules of the English language so that we can creatively break them when we write."
The title of your blog was perfect, students do often wonder that about many of the things they are asked to do in school. You bring up great points and considerations teachers should take when creating lessons. I really like the questions at the end, if we as teachers don't know why we are asking the kids to do something, how can we expect them to be engaged and care?
ReplyDeleteKids need to read, they also need to learn how to differentiate the important information from the not so important information. In order for them to do that, they have to read it all. If we always give them the important information they won't learn how to break it down, which is a skill/tool we need to give them as teachers.
ReplyDeleteI am reading the same book as you. I like to read your posts because it gives me another perspective on what I read. I thought the teacher focus sheets were a good idea, we all need something to keep ourselves on track. Its nice to read about different ideas that may or may not work.
ReplyDeleteI really like this list of questions the author of your book suggests to help the kids to better understand what is being asked of them and why. In reading this list I find myself wondering if most teachers can even answer all of these questions. With each student being a different individual learner, there are multiple ways in which to answer these questions for each reading assignment.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to articulate our purpose of the assignment is key. Both for ourselves as teachers, and for our students. I do like questions posed by Tovani on the instructional focus sheet. I am going to hang onto those for future reference. Glad you shared!
ReplyDelete