The final chapter of Subjects
Matter provides ten conclusions from research on reading in the classroom.
Many of these were discussed throughout the book and then reiterated in this
final chapter. D&Z again discuss
that teachers must be reading models for their students. Something that stuck out to me was that the
research shows that there is a gap in traditional instruction in that it has
failed to show students how proficient readers think. Traditionally, teachers had never regularly
and intentionally demonstrated their own thinking as they read. This is something that I can very much relate
to in my experience as a high school student.
I cannot recall a teacher ever really modeling or explaining what I
should be doing and thinking while I read.
From what I remember, teachers just assigned chapters or articles and
left us to it to figure out what was in the text. I could usually get through whatever text a
teacher had given, but with some guidance and modeling reading would have
probably been a much easier task. When I
got to college, in my upper level science classes I was assigned to read some
in-depth scientific research papers which I had to figure out how to get
through on my own. However, if I had
more assistance and was actually taught some strategies on how to get through a
difficult text in high school, reading these research papers would have
probably been much easier in college.
Throughout the book, I have constantly been thinking about
how I will incorporate all the strategies provided into my future
classroom. Now, reading this final
chapter I thought about how I can use what I have learned from Daniel and
Zemelman in the lessons I will be planning and implementing at Central Falls High
School. With my cooperating teacher I
have come up with a specific content and he has given me some advice on how I
can incorporate literacy into my lesson on this. I will be looking for some interesting
articles and looking back into Subjects Matter for some specific strategies to
help the students understand the text that I provide for them. This book will be a resource to me not just
right now in creating my lesson plans for CFHS, but in the future when I am
creating lesson plans for my own classroom.
Subjects Matter is definitely
a resource I will hold onto and look back on for advice and strategies to use.
I know exactly where you are coming from when you say that reading was not modeled for you in high school. I was never really shown "how" to read. It was the same kind of thing: go home read the story and we'll talk about it next class. I feel like if there was a discussion on strategies and not just on content, then those college papers would have been a lot easier to read. I know with me getting through research papers was always a trial and error experience. Keep reading them in different ways until one works and you actually understand it.
ReplyDeleteGemma,
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate when you said that teachers rarely model their own reading strategies. I never had a teacher in high school who would model their thinking processes while reading, and after reading this chapter, we all know that modeling good reading produces good readers. I wonder why teachers don't take the extra step to do this simple thing. One thing I am going to make sure I do is to model good reading.