Reading takes work and since the work goes "underground," the concept becomes daunting for students who need to work harder than others because it is not a visual process. How do we impress upon all students that reading at any age takes practice and work?
At the point I see them in high school, it is a challenge to have students that dislike or struggle with reading practice it. The best way is to find something they are interested in. While I would like every student to enjoy learning and reading about the French Revolution, that isn't the reality. Every reading you do, if it's not independent selected reading, you will not have something everyone is interested in. It is all about finding a balance and trying to reach every student's interest a few times a year.
-What stood out to you in these chapters?
I like the idea of responsible and responsive reading. I think most students are better at responsible reading than responsive reading. Responsive reading allows for more critical thinking and uses higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy. Responsive reading is associated with higher levels of analysis essential for higher grades on the enduring issue essay.
I agree with this book about the problems associated with teaching to a test. How I teach government and economics is completely different from how I teach global history. We do a lot of reading in government that allows students to work on skills mentioned in Figure 3.1. Global reading skills mainly focus on making connections, inferences, drawing conclusions, identifying cause-and-effect relationships, and showcasing similarities and differences. Teaching to the test only allows for a little skill development regarding reading. While I would like to go with this textbook and not focus on the test, as many other textbooks and articles agree with, the reality of New York State is that the regents are critical and impact how a teacher is viewed.
To work on these skills, I have them use analysis in smaller assignments before asking them to do it within a full enduring issue essay. For example, giving them a few choices to compose an analytical paragraph on their similarities and differences.
I need to figure out a way to teach students how to make connections when reading a document to be used as outside information. My struggling readers, usually struggling writers, could be doing better with the outside information. Outside information changes a two on the essay to a 3.
-How does the Science of Reading impact your instruction? (regardless of content area)
It tells teachers they must focus more than on decoding and oral language comprehension. Multiple factors impact someone's reading ability. We need them to understand "why" they are doing something regarding reading comprehension. You can also relate that to speaking and writing as well.
-What skills are essential to be able to read?
Figure 3.1 compares skilled versus less skilled readers—some of the essential reading skills are associated with critical thinking. Identify relationships and analysis, and create deeper questions from the text. Readers in my global history class typically need help explaining how a point of view affects the texts, connecting events to other texts or events, and making inferences or drawing conclusions from the text. My readers need these skills for the primary and secondary sources on the enduring issue essay. Not having analysis and outside information makes the highest grade a 2 out of 5.
In high school, I struggled intending to read comprehension and create meaning from reading. Completing reading for me in high school was getting it done by "reading" the pages as fast as I could. In college, this shifted because I was enjoying my assigned readings, unlike in high school. I believe in becoming more skilled in reading; someone must enjoy reading first. I use a variety of texts in my social studies courses that, hopefully, students will find some connection or interest with.
I do like how this author connects it to their student, George. I think we all can relate to a student like that.