Daniels & Zemelman Chapters 1&2

The first two chapters of Subjects Matter by Daniels and Zemelman continued to emphasize what Wilhelm described, that reading must continue to be taught through middle and high school and that this must be done across all content areas, not just English.  The two situations described at the beginning of chapter one, the fast food unit and the photosynthesis lesson, showed very clear examples of how reading should and should not be incorporated into lessons.  The examples made me think about how I could create units and lessons that are more like the fast food example.  Students will want to read material that means something to them and makes them think about real world situations, instead of just reading facts in a textbook. 

The chapter goes on to discuss school reform, national reading standards, and high stakes testing in America.  It describes that in education, compared with other nations, American students perform at the middle or toward the bottom.  The authors go on to say that this is due to the poverty in America compared to that in higher ranking nations.  Daniels and Zemelman state that “We do not have a ‘mediocre’ school system in this country; we have many centers of true excellence, and we also have some shockingly underserved students and communities. In this light, it now seems entirely appropriate to use words like crisis and tragedy,” (pg. 13).  We discussed this topic in Dr. Brell’s FNED 546 class, and although the blame for low performance cannot be put entirely on America’s schools, teachers can do the best they can to help their students become better learners.  One step to becoming better learners is using reading in more meaningful and effective ways.

In chapter two, I started to think about what I am actually doing and thinking while I am reading.  The cricket, Columbus, and RNA excerpts all provided examples of difficult readings for me that were confusing and did not make sense.  My future students could feel this way about any reading in a science topic that they are unfamiliar with.  I will have to provide enough background information on the topic and guide them through some thinking strategies with their reading.  I will be interested to learn about more of the reading strategies that will be provided in future chapters.